"The Spanish Inquisition" is a series of sketches in Monty Python's Flying Circus, Series 2 Episode 2, first broadcast 22 September 1970, parodying the real-life Spanish Inquisition. This episode is itself entitled "The Spanish Inquisition". The sketches are notable for their principal catchphrase, "NO-body expects the Spanish Inquisition!" The end of the sketch uses music from the composition Devil's Galop by Charles Williams.
Video The Spanish Inquisition (Monty Python)
Plot synopsis
This is a recurring sketch always predicated on an unrelated sketch in which one character mentions that they "didn't expect a Spanish Inquisition!", often in irritation at being questioned by another. The first appearance of the Spanish Inquisition occurs in a drawing room set in "Jarrow, 1912". A mill worker (Graham Chapman) enters the room and tells a woman sitting on a couch knitting (Carol Cleveland) that "one of the cross beams has gone out askew on the treadle". When she says she doesn't know what he's talking about, the mill worker gets defensive and says, "I didn't expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition!" Then the Inquisition -- consisting of Cardinal Ximénez (Michael Palin) and his assistants, Cardinal Biggles (Terry Jones) (who resembles his namesake Biggles wearing a leather aviator's helmet and goggles) and Cardinal Fang (Terry Gilliam) -- burst into the room to the sound of a jarring musical sting. Ximénez shouts, with a particular and high-pitched emphasis on the first word: "NO-body expects the Spanish Inquisition!"
After entering, Ximénez begins listing their weapons ("fear, surprise, ruthless efficiency"), but interrupts himself as he keeps forgetting to mention additional weapons and has to begin his list over again. After several attempts, Ximénez states that he will come in again, and herds the Inquisition back off the set. The straight man mill worker repeats the cue line, the Inquisition bursts back in (complete with jarring chord), and the introduction is tried anew. But Ximénez fails again and tries to get Cardinal Biggles to do the introduction, but Biggles is also unsuccessful.
Ximénez decides to forget the introduction and has Cardinal Fang read out charges of heresy against the woman. The woman pleads innocent, and the cardinals respond with laughter (as an on-screen caption reads "DIABOLICAL LAUGHTER") and threats (as the on-screen caption changes to "DIABOLICAL ACTING"). Ximénez intends to torture the woman with "the rack", but Cardinal Biggles instead produces a dish-drying rack. This rack is tied to the woman as Biggles pretends to turn a lever, but it has no effect whatsoever.
The Inquisition returns in a later sketch as an older woman (Marjorie Wilde) shares photographs with another woman (Cleveland), who rips them up as they are handed to her. When the older woman presents a photo of the Spanish Inquisition hiding behind the coal shed, the other woman says, "I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!" The three cardinals then reappear and take the older woman away to a dungeon.
Biggles tries to torture the woman by poking her repeatedly with soft cushions. When this fails, Ximénez orders Fang to get "the comfy chair", which is brought out and the woman placed in it. Ximénez states that she must stay in the chair "until lunch time with only a cup of coffee at 11", and begins to shout at her to confess - only to have Biggles break down and confess. This frustrates Ximénez, but he cannot complain about it since he is distracted by a cartoon character from the next scene.
At the end of the show, in the "Court Charades" sketch, a judge (Jones) who is also a defendant in an obscenity trial at the Old Bailey is casually sentenced by another judge (Chapman) to be burned at the stake. The convicted judge responds, "Blimey, I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!" The whole court rises and looks expectantly at the witness entrance door. As the closing credits of the episode begin, the Inquisitors race out of a house and hop on a double-decker bus to the Old Bailey, all to the tune of "Devil's Galop". As the Inquisitors ride in the bus, they comment worriedly that they are running out of credits (which are seen on screen) and are panicked that the sketch will soon end. The bus reaches the courthouse and the cardinals charge up the steps of the Old Bailey. They finally burst into the now empty courtroom, only for Ximénez to shout, "NO-body expects the Span-oh, bugger.", as the words "THE END" appear on-screen.
In the Monty Python Live (Mostly) stage show the sketch ends when Ximénez orders Biggles to "torture" the victim (who is sitting in the comfy chair) by giving her a glass of cold milk from the fridge. When Biggles opens the door, the Man in the Fridge (Eric Idle) emerges and begins singing the "Galaxy Song" to the victim, while the Inquisition exit through the fridge.
Maps The Spanish Inquisition (Monty Python)
Related sketches
Cardinal Ximénez briefly appears two episodes later ("The Buzz Aldrin Show") in a vox pop, again displaying difficulty counting (in this instance, the kinds of aftershave he uses). Later in that episode during the "Police Constable Pan Am Sketch", the policeman tells a chemist "one more peep out of you and I'll do you for heresy", with the chemist (played by Palin) responding that he "didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition"; except that instead of the Spanish Inquisition arriving, PC Pan Am (played by Graham Chapman) simply tells the chemist to shut up.
In popular culture
The popularity of Monty Python's sketch led to numerous references to it in other popular media. The first such instance was in Issue #3 (January 1976, shortly after Monty Python began being broadcast in the U.S.) of the comic book title Batman Family [featuring the joint exploits of Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) and Robin (Dick Grayson)], where the story "Isle of a Thousand Thrills" borrowed the scenario of a land where anything anybody thinks of is quickly brought to life. In response to visitors' anxious questions before the nature of their situation is understood, Batgirl replies, "Calm down, everyone! We haven't had time to wonder about all those questions! I didn't expect some kind of Spanish Inquisition...". Immediately six Inquisitors appear, one of whom cries, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition...because our chief weapon is surprise!"
In the video game Sid Meier's Civilization V beating the game as Spain, one can obtain an achievement through Steam called "Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition". In Civilization VI an achievement also called "Nobody expects..." can be won through using a religious unit in the game called an inquisitor to eliminate a religion from your city. In "Inquisition" - the third video game in the "Dragon Age" series a player may encounter soldiers of the titular Inquisition talking about the prime weapons of the Inquisition referencing the dialogue from the sketch.
In Episode 3 of Season 20 of motoring show Top Gear, the presenters set up a street racing circuit in an abandoned housing project in Madrid, which includes a "nobody-expects-a-spanish-speed-bump."
The phrase "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" has also become a popular Internet meme.
References
External links
- Transcript of the sketch
Source of article : Wikipedia
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