The Ministry of Silly Walks

A satire on bureaucratic inefficiency, the sketch involves John Cleese as a bowler-hatted civil servant in a fictitious British government ministry responsible for developing silly walks through grants.

Ben Beaumont-Thomas in The Guardian writes, "Cleese is utterly deadpan as he takes the stereotypical bowler-hatted political drone and ruthlessly skewers him.

In the hallway, he passes other employees all exhibiting their own silly walks before arriving at his office (the Hollywood Bowl performance omits this preamble).

Once there, he finds Mr Putey (Michael Palin) waiting for him and apologizes for the delay, explaining that his walk has become particularly silly of late and it takes longer for him to reach his destination.

(The segment is a parody of early 20th-century cinema, with Michael Palin dressed up as Little Tich; this film is also shown as part of the Hollywood Bowl performance of the sketch.)

After tossing the projector offstage, Teabag offers Putey a grant that will allow him to work on the Anglo-French Silly Walk, La Marche Futile (a parody of Concorde's Anglo-French development), which is then demonstrated by a man (Terry Jones) dressed in a mixture of stereotypical English and French outfits, with a sped-up version of "La Marseillaise" playing.

In the Hollywood Bowl version, Carol Cleveland plays Mrs. Two-Lumps, and spills some of the coffee on Cleese during the sketch.