Johann Gambolputty
Johann Gambolputty is the short name of a fictional composer who plays a leading role in the sketch It's the Arts / Johann Gambolputty… by Hautkopf of Ulm by the British comedian group Monty Python . The sketch comes from the sixth episode of the first season of the television series Monty Python's Flying Circus , was filmed on November 5, 1969 and first broadcast on November 23 of that year.
The sketch draws its humor largely from the naming of Gambolputty's grotesquely long full surname.
content
As part of the TV program It's the Arts , the presenter Arthur Figgis (played by Graham Chapman ) introduces a composer who, along with names like Beethoven , Mozart , Chopin and Liszt, may have been forgotten, but who is counted among the greatest artists of German baroque music . His full name is Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern-Schplenden-Schlitter-Crasscrembon-Fried-Digger-Dingel-Dangel-Dongel-Dungel-Burstein von Knacker-Trasher-Apple-Banger-Horowitz-Ticolensic-Grander-Knotty-Spelltinkel-Grandlich- Grumbelmeyer-Spelterwasser-Kurstlich-Himbeleisen-Bahnwagen-Gutenabend-Please-Ein-Nürnberger-Bratwurscht'l-Gespurtn-Mitz-Weimache-Luber-Hundsfut-Gumberaber-Schönendanker-Kalbsfleisch-Mittler-Aucher from Hautkopf of Ulm . Figgis goes on to say that Gambolputty must be right, and announces an interview with Gambolputty's last living relative, Karl Gambolputty […] Hautkopf of Ulm , giving his full surname.
Karl Gambolputty ( Terry Jones ) is an old man and is interviewed by a reporter ( John Cleese ) while sitting in a park . Karl begins to tell that when he first met Gambolputty, he was in the presence of his wife Sarah Gambolputty [...] from Hautkopf of Ulm (Karl again mentions the full, long surname). Shortly afterwards, Karl dies during the interview, completely exhausted from having to repeat the long names of his ancestors all the time. The reporter is surprised to see the death of his counterpart and begins to dig a grave in front of the cameras.
With that, Figgis closes the show and comments that this was a tribute to Gambolputty. The last time the full surname is mentioned, individual parts of the surname are spoken by other recurring characters from the Flying Circus (a Viking, a man, a knight) and animated characters (including the Mona Lisa and the Arnolfini wedding ), which ends the sketch.
Others
The sketch is an indirect continuation of a sketch from the first episode of the series; a television program called It's the Arts was already shown there.
Web links
Individual evidence
- Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin: Monty Python's Flying Circus: Just the Words , Vol 1, Methuen, London 1989. German translation v. Episode 6: Arnd Kösling.