Comments on: Eric Idle Accuses Shrek The Third of Stealing Monty Python Joke

By: David Thomas

David Thomas — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 13:21:08 +0000

Lee is correct, I have a copy of this episode and it is very clear to the audience. I was a lad in the 50’s when The Goon Show was first broadcast and even back then we would have known that coconuts were used to make the sound of galloping horses.

By: Lee Inskip

Lee Inskip — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 23:22:21 +0000

@Peter To go one step further, the original Goon Show scene is actually more advanced then the python rip off as it implies the character is literally riding the coconut shells, which is a rather surreal concept, and so adds another level to the basic joke of pointing out that they are using coconut shells rather than a real horse.

By: Lee Inskip

Lee Inskip — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 23:10:03 +0000

@Peter Please read the above extract again, you have not understood it. The audience are told the joke!!!! In the original sequence, one of the characters says “Look. Here comes a man riding a pair of coconut shells.” This breaks the fourth wall of the performance, letting the audience in on the trick and highlights the superficial nature of the scene. This is EXACTLY the same as the python joke – the pythons just did it visually, rather than in sound.

By: Peter

Peter — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 02:36:41 +0000

@Lee Inskip:

You’re right, that was used on the goon show. However, the audience probably didn’t know those were coconut shells as it was a radio show- not visual (so what was being used to create certain effects wouldn’t matter). Python upped the joke by using the sound effect to *replace* horses (although they were being seen), thus creating a totally different joke on its own.

By: Lee Inskip

Lee Inskip — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 22:03:36 +0000

I would just like to point out that the coconut gag that Idle is so angry about was itself stolen from the old British radio show ‘The Goon Show’.

This is a show that the Pythons themselves admit was an influence on their own humor. The forementioned coconut gag was originally performed around 20 years before Monty Python in a Goon Show episode entitled ‘The Lost Year’ (1955), the script goes:

FX:
Coconut shells advancing, getting louder.

SEAGOON:
Wait. Listen. Look. Here comes a man riding a pair of coconut shells.

FX:
Coconut shells slowing down.

MORIARTY:
Woah, woah back.

FX:
Coconut shells to a stop.

Although slightly different in format, it still gets the same gag from the fact that the horse is actually just coconut shells.

PYTHON STOLE THE COCONUT GAG IN THE FIRST PLACE!

The end.

By: Henrik

Henrik — Wed, 23 May 2007 16:36:31 +0000

I haven’t seen the movie so it’s hard to decide, but I think there is an inherent question of definition here. If they are copying the scene I think it’s an homage to a scene in a movie. If they are copying the joke I think it’s theft.

I mean movie scenes get re-used, tributed and stolen all the time, but comedy in and off itself is pretty personal, and certainly comedians are very protective of their material.