Monty Python Accountant

As an accountant myself I can say that this video seems less like a comedy and more like a documentary.

this makes me glad I avoided the repetitive, tediously dull career of accountancy, by becoming a software engineer

Sadly, few make the leap from accountancy to lion taming.

Palin is straight up killing it here. His unbridled enthusiasm bouncing off of Cleese's reserved skepticism is pure comedy genius.

Man, I laughed when he started rattling off the tax concessions he could get for the lion taming hat...

When this sketch originally aired, recruitment to the profession of Accountancy suddenly took a serious dive. Almost nobody wanted to be an accountant anymore. The resultant staff shortage was quite long lasting, and dogged the professional body to the point where symposiums were held, such as ... "How to counter the "Python Slur."" The Financial Times reported that the damage to the profession was still noticeable 40 years on.

The way Michael Palin's accountant raves, boggle-eyed, about lion taming is sensational acting. He is almost leaping at you out the screen. Utterly compelling. You can smell his insanity!

As an anteater tamer, I can say there is something interestingly disturbing with this sketch.

I'm not used to seeing this without hearing a laugh track. It must be a rare version. I love it.

Please note that the Companies Act of 2006 has withdrawn Paragraph 335

I spoke with a company accountant in the mid-80s, he was saying that this sketch shocked the profession by its portrayal of the public's perception of accountancy. Now my son is training to be an accountant, he thought it was going to be all brilliant people peforming amazing tricks of arithmetic, like besuited versions of Rachel Riley. He's just spent two weeks checking receipts in a buillder's offices...

"An appallingly dull fellow, unimaginative, timid, spineless, easily dominated, tedious company, and irrepressibly drab and awful" 🤪😏😂

I was an Accountant for twenty years but kept changing employers. I believe this sketch alone helped by putting off many that it resulted in a shortage of Accountants and higher income.

"I can say without fear of contradiction that the ideal job for you is accountancy." "But I already am an accountant!" "Jolly good, well back to the office with you!" End sketch.

I like how he just projects a clip of a lion into his mind's eye.

"what do you want to be?" I was waiting for him to say a Lumberjack! Wrong sketch.

50 years ago I thought Monty Python was "just too silly". As I grew older; their absolute brilliance became profoundly clear, pure genius. They take their audience on an intellectual / social / historical journey that would be impossible by any other means than their biting humor. There's a great deal to be said for an Oxford education. Kings, serfs, accountants, psychiatrists, soldiers, emperors, lunatics, village idiots, even Jesus Christ all played to rip roaring brilliance, and viciously biting social criticism. Don't miss the other masterpieces like (Faulty Towers). Perfect. 50 years of happy laughter, and weirdness.

Michael Palin's facial expressions while Cleese is talking at 2:36 are absolutely genius, he reacts to almost every word Cleese says! He adds so much expression to the character and the scene without even speaking

As a retired CPA I can testify (without any fear of contradiction, I might add) that accountancy is the second dullest profession in the world, surpassed only by Actuarial Science.

This sketch inspired me to become a chartered accountant.