The Fish-Slapping Dance

The Fish-Slapping Dance is a popular Monty Python sketch that appears in Monty Python's Flying Circus. It was shot on location, on film.

The sketch stars John Cleese and Michael Palin in safari outfits at the side of a canal lock (Teddington Lock in west London). At first both are facing each other and standing perfectly still. Light-hearted music then begins to play and Palin performs a simple merry dance which consists of dancing towards Cleese, lightly slapping him in the face with one or two small fish, and returning to his starting spot. After Palin does this four times he returns to attention, at which point the music stops, Cleese gets out his fish - a much, much larger one - and clobbers Palin around the head with it, causing Palin to fall several feet into the water.

The sketch is less than half a minute long, but its fast-paced non sequitur nature has been enough to endear it to fans. Due to its nature it has not been reproduced for live shows, etc., and therefore does not always receive the same recognition as other popular Python sketches.