Original Broadcast Date: Nov. 3, 1970
Attempted Synopsis: A game-show host explains the show's syndication royalties; John Cleese ironically announces that he cannot announce this week's show; faux awards presentors; a movie director cribs famous directors' movie ideas; many talking heads get dumped into a pond; a fancy party is interrupted by a delivery of dung; a facile celebrity fails to comfort his widowed friend; a very silly man is refused an interview; a marriage registrar does an Abbott & Costello-type routine; election results for Silly Party candidates.
Review: Not a loser in the bunch. Every sketch is brought to full fruition by fine writing and/or acting. The only debit is a "Johann Gambolputty+etc."-type routine about elongated names that, like its predecessor, grows more wearying the longer it goes. Otherwise, a great episode.
Trivia: One of Python's first censorship hassles occurred here. In Terry Gilliam's animated fairy-tale send-up, the prince's cause of death had been scripted as cancer, but the BBC demanded the insert of a very blatant voice-over that announced the prince's demise from gangrene. Gilliam still howls over that one.
Priceless Gag: Who knew there was a 30-second silent version of Hitchcock's Rear Window?
Our rating: 
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