Your Comedy Moment

For today's "Your Comedy Moment," I've chosen a sketch that I know will be divisive to my viewing audience.  Known as the "Argument Clinic" this bit from Monty Python's Flying Circus is as unique as it is hilarious.

It's hard to decide where to start when watching this clip but it's both utterly insane and completely self-aware all at once.  


The conceit that there is not only a place to provide the service of arguing for a fee but that this building also contains verbal and physical abuse offices as well as an office where you will be complained to is so absurd that it's hard not to laugh right from the start.  The fact that our protagonist enters the incorrect office to be immediately barraged by the verbal abuse only adds to the humor.


Then we get to the actual argument itself...or maybe it's not an argument at all.  The genius in the clip is that as they "argue" Palin realizes that Cleese isn't truly engaging in an argument but merely contradicting every statement Palin makes.  Cleese of course deadpans that he must maintain a contrary position if he's arguing and then the time is up... but Palin wont have it and tries to worm his way into free arguing.  Not having any of it, Cleese gets him to pony up some more money before denying he ever received any.  The assertion that Cleese may be arguing in his "spare time" elicits a killer laugh from both the studio audience and myself.  They could have ended the clip at that moment, and I would still consider it an all-time classic, but what transpires after Palin leaves takes it to another level.


First, he stumbles across Eric Idle complaining aimlessly about any and everything. Realizing this is not the right complaint room, Palin takes off only to walk into yet another absurd room - "Being Hit on the Head Lessons."  After acknowledging that it's "such a stupid concept," Graham Chapman blows the fourth wall down and identifies how ridiculous the proceeding sketch has been AND THEN Idle comes back in under a new guise to further highlight how ridiculous the proceedings have gotten. Of course, the moment of self-realization hits all of them... right before Cleese comes in as another law enforcement official (with the hand of ANOTHER official on his shoulder) before the scene goes to black.


Wow. Completely absurd on all levels but maintaining an intellectual layer that is equally hilarious.  The "Argument Clinic" is classic Python and thus half of you watching it will hate it.  Still, I hope you can at least see what the goal of the sketch was and appreciate it for that.