Mr Praline
Encyclopedia
Mr Eric Praline is a fictional character from the television show Monty Python's Flying Circus
, played by comedian John Cleese
.
/Gilliam
' nude organist, Michael Palin
's "It's" man, the Gumbys and Graham Chapman
's Colonel
, Mr Praline was one of the few deemed popular and useful enough for multiple appearances. Praline's initial appearance was in a first series episode during a vox pop
segment, to announce that he would be appearing later in the show. This he did as a Police Inspector, following up on the case of Whizzo's Chocolates (Hence his name, praline
being a kind of hazelnut
chocolate), which produced such gems as Cockroach Cluster, Anthrax Ripple, and the titular Crunchy Frog
.
Praline's defining moment came in three episodes later, when he attempted to return his recently purchased dead parrot
to the pet shop from which he had bought it. This segment has been called the comedy team's single best-known sketch, and it led to Praline's appearance in the team's first theatrical release, And Now for Something Completely Different
(1971) which included a remake of the sketch.
In a second series episode Praline had more pet trouble, this time trying to buy a fish licence
for his pet halibut
, Eric. In this sketch, he mentions that he also has a cat and a dog named Eric among others and has acquired a (fraudulent) licence for the cat. This final sketch led to Praline singing the song "Eric The Half-A-Bee
" on the Monty Python's Previous Record
album.
Cleese eventually got so fed up with "doing the one with the parrot", that he vowed never again to perform the sketch; conversely, the Eric the Half-A-Bee segment is one of Cleese's personal favourites. It includes the revelation that Praline's first name is also Eric.
In episode 18, "Live from the Grill-o-mat", Praline appears with his flatmate Brooky (Eric Idle
) as the host of a new chat show. However, the show in the sketch is cancelled and they later appear in the "The Seven Brides For Seven Brothers Sketch".
A Variety
photo shoot during the filming of Monty Python's Life of Brian
in Tunisia
resulted in the character's post-TV-series appearance. The comedy team was photographed in costume against mosques and palm trees; Michael Palin noted in his diary: "Nostalgia time. John was dressed in his Pacamac as Praline, complete with dead parrot."
air of oppressed madness". Literature Through Film: Realism, Magic, and the Art of Adaptation (2004) holds Praline up as an example of a "Sancho
-like realist
". The 2006 book The Best British Stand-Up and Comedy Routines describes the disgruntled Mr Praline as "all plastered down hair and plastic raincoat".
Edward Slowik writes that in the "Fish Licence
" sketch, Praline provides an example of Jean-Paul Sartre
's existentialist
concept of
"bad faith"
. In this concept, a denial of individual freedom can result when a person fails to accept that past choices and behavior determine one's character. By declaring "I am not a loony!" when his actions have shown he is clearly insane, Praline exhibits Sartean "bad faith".
Monty Python's Flying Circus
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...
, played by comedian John Cleese
John Cleese
John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...
.
Appearances
The Monty Python team consciously decided to avoid recurring characters. Along with Terry JonesTerry Jones
Terence Graham Parry Jones is a Welsh comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator, and TV documentary host. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team....
/Gilliam
Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...
' nude organist, Michael Palin
Michael Palin
Michael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....
's "It's" man, the Gumbys and Graham Chapman
Graham Chapman
Graham Arthur Chapman was a British comedian, physician, writer, actor, and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe.-Early life and education:...
's Colonel
The Colonel (Monty Python)
The Colonel is a recurring fictional character from the British television show Monty Python's Flying Circus, played by Graham Chapman.-Character:...
, Mr Praline was one of the few deemed popular and useful enough for multiple appearances. Praline's initial appearance was in a first series episode during a vox pop
Vox populi
Vox populi , a Latin phrase that literally means voice of the people, is a term often used in broadcasting for interviews with members of the "general public".-Vox pop, the man on the street:...
segment, to announce that he would be appearing later in the show. This he did as a Police Inspector, following up on the case of Whizzo's Chocolates (Hence his name, praline
Praline
Praline is a family of confections made from nuts and sugar syrup.-Europe:As originally inspired in France at the Château of Vaux-le-Vicomte by the cook of the 17th-century sugar industrialist Marshal du Plessis-Praslin , early pralines were whole almonds individually coated in caramelized sugar,...
being a kind of hazelnut
Hazelnut
A hazelnut is the nut of the hazel and is also known as a cob nut or filbert nut according to species. A cob is roughly spherical to oval, about 15–25 mm long and 10–15 mm in diameter, with an outer fibrous husk surrounding a smooth shell. A filbert is more elongated, being about twice...
chocolate), which produced such gems as Cockroach Cluster, Anthrax Ripple, and the titular Crunchy Frog
Crunchy Frog
"Crunchy Frog" is a fictional sketch originating from a Monty Python sketch titled "Trade Description Act", inspired by the British law Trade Descriptions Act 1968.- The sketch :In this sketch, Mr...
.
Praline's defining moment came in three episodes later, when he attempted to return his recently purchased dead parrot
Dead Parrot
The "Dead Parrot Sketch", alternatively and originally known as the "Pet Shop Sketch" or "Parrot Sketch", is a popular sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus, and one of the most famous in the history of British television comedy...
to the pet shop from which he had bought it. This segment has been called the comedy team's single best-known sketch, and it led to Praline's appearance in the team's first theatrical release, And Now for Something Completely Different
And Now For Something Completely Different
And Now for Something Completely Different is a film spin-off from the television comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus featuring favorite sketches from the first two seasons. The title was used as a catchphrase in the television show....
(1971) which included a remake of the sketch.
In a second series episode Praline had more pet trouble, this time trying to buy a fish licence
Fish Licence
The Fish Licence is part one of a two-part segment of the popular British television series, Monty Python's Flying Circus. Eric Praline, played by John Cleese, takes on the role of the put-upon customer who, when seeking to obtain a licence for his pet halibut, Eric, has difficulty explaining to...
for his pet halibut
Halibut
Halibut is a flatfish, genus Hippoglossus, from the family of the right-eye flounders . Other flatfish are also called halibut. The name is derived from haly and butt , for its popularity on Catholic holy days...
, Eric. In this sketch, he mentions that he also has a cat and a dog named Eric among others and has acquired a (fraudulent) licence for the cat. This final sketch led to Praline singing the song "Eric The Half-A-Bee
Eric the Half-a-Bee
"Eric the Half-a-Bee" is a song by the British comedy troupe Monty Python. It first appeared on the LP Monty Python's Previous Record but is also on Monty Python Sings and The Final Rip Off 2-CD set...
" on the Monty Python's Previous Record
Monty Python's Previous Record
Monty Python's Previous Record was the third album by Monty Python, released in 1972. When packaged in 1994's The Instant Monty Python CD Collection the order of some of the sketches was changed...
album.
Cleese eventually got so fed up with "doing the one with the parrot", that he vowed never again to perform the sketch; conversely, the Eric the Half-A-Bee segment is one of Cleese's personal favourites. It includes the revelation that Praline's first name is also Eric.
In episode 18, "Live from the Grill-o-mat", Praline appears with his flatmate Brooky (Eric Idle
Eric Idle
Eric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....
) as the host of a new chat show. However, the show in the sketch is cancelled and they later appear in the "The Seven Brides For Seven Brothers Sketch".
A Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
photo shoot during the filming of Monty Python's Life of Brian
Monty Python's Life of Brian
Monty Python's Life of Brian, also known as Life of Brian, is a 1979 British comedy film written, directed and largely performed by the Monty Python comedy team...
in Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
resulted in the character's post-TV-series appearance. The comedy team was photographed in costume against mosques and palm trees; Michael Palin noted in his diary: "Nostalgia time. John was dressed in his Pacamac as Praline, complete with dead parrot."
Character
Robert Ross' Monty Python Encyclopedia notes that Mr Praline has become a beloved figure within the Python canon. He has been discussed in Python-related literature as well as works not specifically dealing with the comedy team. Praline has an incredulous tone and exaggerated, somewhat high-pitched English accent with Scottish elements. Ross describes Praline's character as "slightly creepy", with a "BritishBritishness
Britishness is the state or quality of being British, or of embodying British characteristics, and is used to refer to that which binds and distinguishes the British people and forms the basis of their unity and identity, or else to explain expressions of British culture—such as habits, behaviours...
air of oppressed madness". Literature Through Film: Realism, Magic, and the Art of Adaptation (2004) holds Praline up as an example of a "Sancho
Sancho Panza
Sancho Panza is a fictional character in the novel Don Quixote written by Spanish author Don Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra in 1605. Sancho acts as squire to Don Quixote, and provides comments throughout the novel, known as sanchismos, that are a combination of broad humour, ironic Spanish proverbs,...
-like realist
Realism (arts)
Realism in the visual arts and literature refers to the general attempt to depict subjects "in accordance with secular, empirical rules", as they are considered to exist in third person objective reality, without embellishment or interpretation...
". The 2006 book The Best British Stand-Up and Comedy Routines describes the disgruntled Mr Praline as "all plastered down hair and plastic raincoat".
Edward Slowik writes that in the "Fish Licence
Fish Licence
The Fish Licence is part one of a two-part segment of the popular British television series, Monty Python's Flying Circus. Eric Praline, played by John Cleese, takes on the role of the put-upon customer who, when seeking to obtain a licence for his pet halibut, Eric, has difficulty explaining to...
" sketch, Praline provides an example of Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Sartre
Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, political activist, biographer, and literary critic. He was one of the leading figures in 20th century French philosophy, particularly Marxism, and was one of the key figures in literary...
's existentialist
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
concept of
"bad faith"
Bad faith (existentialism)
Bad faith is a philosophical concept used by existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre to describe the phenomenon where a human being under pressure from societal forces adopts false values and disowns their innate freedom to act authentically...
. In this concept, a denial of individual freedom can result when a person fails to accept that past choices and behavior determine one's character. By declaring "I am not a loony!" when his actions have shown he is clearly insane, Praline exhibits Sartean "bad faith".