" In his book Graham Crackers, Chapman said that this took place just before Cleese left the show, and he wondered what the woman thought about his disappearance after getting Idle's response.

" to which Cleese said " I thought you'd never ask!

Dealing with a postal clerk ( Michael Palin ) who thought it absurd to give all of one's pets the same name, Praline ( John Cleese ) countered that there wasn't anything wrong with it, citing Mustafa Kemal Atatürk as an example.

And in the Python's ( 2004 ) autobiography, Cleese cites a conversation between himself and Terry Jones: " We both happened to watch Spike Milligan's Q5, and one or the other of us phoned up and said kind of jokingly but also rather anxiously, ' I thought that's what we were supposed to be doing?

" When Cleese eventually stopped laughing, he couldn't remember where they were in the sketch.

Possibly unbeknown to Cleese and Chapman at the time they wrote the sketch, there are in fact two species of parrot that live in the alpine regions of South Island in New Zealand-an area known as " Fiordland " for the many fjords it contains.

Upon seeing a chemist's shop, Cleese pondered whether the shop would sell cheese, to which Chapman responded that if they did it would be medicinal cheese and that Cleese would need a prescription to buy some.

The first involves a woman in labour who is ignored by doctors ( Cleese and Chapman ), nurses, and eventually the hospital's administrator ( Palin ) as they drag in more and more elaborate equipment, including their pride and joy, " the machine that goes PING !".

In a subsequent class, they watch in boredom as their teacher ( Cleese ) gives a sex education lesson, by physically demonstrating techniques with his wife ( Patricia Quinn ).

Having nothing to talk about, they order a conversation from the waiter ( Cleese with an American accent ) about the " meaning of life ".

* In the twenty-fifth-anniversary reunion episode of I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, John Cleese consents to appear on the show on condition that he be allowed to do the Silly Walk ; the other cast members are dubious about the comedic impact of doing the Walk on radio, but they ultimately give in after Cleese puts on a show of hurt feelings.

They were invited by David Frost to appear in his new show, The Frost Report, with John Cleese, but the pair's big break came when they filled-in for a few minutes during a technical hitch at an awards ceremony in 1970.

# People Falling Out of High Buildings: An office worker ( Idle ) sees people falling past the window, but his co-worker ( Cleese ) is uninterested, until they realize there is a board meeting occurring up stairs and wager whether Parkinson will be next.

In particular, " The Wedding Party " features an exceptionally long tirade by Cleese as Basil Fawlty, during which several other actors and actresses can be seen breaking character as they laugh.

* John Cleese has stated that the idea for the " wake the neighbour " part was inspired by an apartment he once rented that was near a bar whose patrons kept him awake at night when they slammed the doors to their cars.

John Cleese described him as one of Cook's range of " men, particularly English men, so trapped by their culture that they never knew how to live ".

Cleese, who attended a lengthy course of group therapy at the institute in the mid seventies, was so impressed by what he experienced that, motivated by a desire to spread what lay behind the therapy to a wider audience, proposed to Skynner that they write a book summarising and outlining the principles involved.

Peter Burton and Desmond Llewelyn both received the role when they were in their forties, while Desmond Llewelyn and John Cleese played the role into their eighties and sixties, respectively.

Hall had made a very strong friendship with John Cleese when they appeared in " Fawlty Towers.

During the drive back, Graham Chapman said that Cleese should eat something and asked him whether he fancied anything ; Cleese replied that he fancied a piece of cheese.

Cleese admitted that this was slightly unfair – when the Pythons voted on which sketches should appear in a show, “ he only got one vote ”, but says that Idle was an independent person and worked best on his own.

Lewis proposed to Cleese that in addition to the comedy performances the show should feature some contemporary rock musicians.

" The counsellor ( Cleese ) suggests that Anchovy should instead work his way up to lion taming, via banking, an idea which Herbert initially rejects, until he is informed that the animal he thinks is a lion, is in fact an anteater, and that mere stock footage of a lion scares the life out of him.

In a 2002 interview with Michael Parkinson, John Cleese said that when he and Palin were performing the sketch on Drury Lane, Palin made him laugh by saying, when asked if his slug could talk, " It mutters a bit " instead of " Not really.

As the show was originally scheduled to air after Fawlty Towers, John Cleese was to have introduced the first episode in a sketch referring to a technicians ' strike then in progress, explaining ( in character as Basil Fawlty ) that there was no show that week so a " tatty revue " would be broadcast instead.

In the final scene John Cleese also " accidentally " calls Jamie Lee Curtis ' character " Wanda " instead of Willa.

Booth and Cleese went on to write and co-star in Fawlty Towers ( 1975, 1979 ).

In 1969, Chapman and Cleese joined the other Pythons including Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin for their sketch comedy show Flying Circus.

In the Dead Parrot sketch, written mostly by Cleese, the frustrated customer was initially trying to return a faulty toaster to a shop.

In a Not the Nine O ' Clock News sketch, a bishop who has made a scandalous film called The Life of Christ is hauled over the coals by a representative of the " Church of Python ", claiming that the film is an attack on " Our Lord, John Cleese " and on the members of Python, who, in the sketch, are the objects of Britain's true religious faith.

The sketch portrays a conflict between disgruntled customer Mr Praline ( played by Cleese ) and a shopkeeper ( Michael Palin ), who hold contradictory positions on the vital state of a " Norwegian Blue " parrot.

Over the years, Cleese and Palin have done many versions of the " Dead Parrot " sketch for various television shows, record albums, and live performances.

During this performance something occurs on stage that does not translate into audio, but causes the audience to break into hysterics upon Cleese's follow-up line " Now that's what I call a dead parrot "; since it occurs after the part of the sketch where Cleese bashes the dead bird on the counter, it's possible a part of the prop broke off.

In a 1997 Saturday Night Live performance of the sketch, Cleese added a line to the rant: " Its metabolic processes are a matter of interest only to historians!

To end the sketch, Palin asked Cleese " do you want to come back to my place?

At Graham Chapman's memorial service, John Cleese began his eulogy by reprising euphemisms from the sketch, stating that Graham Chapman was no more, that he had ceased to be, that bereft of life he rests in peace, that he had expired and gone to meet his maker, and so on, finally calling him an ex-Chapman.

Michael Palin ( left ) and John Cleese ( right ) of Monty Python performing the Cheese Shop sketch. The Cheese Shop is a well-known sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus.

The idea for the sketch came after a day of shooting in Folkestone Harbour, where John Cleese became seasick and threw up repeatedly while trying to deliver a line.

Chapman then wrote the sketch with Cleese, who did not initially find it humorous.

A slow crescendo of bouzouki music plays in the background ( for which Cleese initially expresses appreciation, being "... one who delights in all manifestations of the Terpsichorean Muse "), but as the sketch progresses it mirrors Cleese's growing frustration until he loudly demands the music cease.

* The Monty Python sketch " Dr. E. Henry Thripshaw's Disease " involves a man ( Michael Palin ) whose discussion of the symptoms with his doctor ( John Cleese ) is in somewhat garbled sequence, a common symptom of the condition.

In one sketch on 1 March 1967, Feldman's character harassed a patient shop assistant ( played by Cleese ) for a series of fictitious books, achieving success with Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity Surveying.

Feldman was co-author, along with Cleese, Chapman and Brooke-Taylor of the " Four Yorkshiremen " sketch, which was also written for At Last the 1948 Show.

He co-wrote the much-repeated Class sketch with John Law, in which Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett faced the audience, with their descending order of height suggesting their relative social status as upper class ( Cleese ), middle class ( Barker ) and working class ( Corbett ).

I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue developed from the long-running radio sketch show I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again, the writers of which were John Cleese, Jo Kendall, David Hatch, Bill Oddie, Tim Brooke-Taylor and especially Graeme Garden who suggested the idea of an unscripted show which, it was decided, would take the form of a parody panel game.