The Ministry of Silly Walks'The Ministry of Silly Walks' is a sketch from Monty Python's Flying Circus, episode 14 entitled "Face the Press", first aired in 1970.  | | Chris pulled a muscle - it was painful! |
The sketch involves John Cleese as civil servant in a fictitious British government agency responsible for developing Silly Walks through grants. BBC Radio Leicester's Chris Baxter walked away from his breakfast show, joined by sports reporter John Sinclair, and brought their own silly walk to BBC Leicester's Open Centre. They meet a few silly walkers along the way...were you one of them? Thanks to the students from Brooksby Melton College and Hind Leys Community College - let's hope their silly walk doesn't stay with them. Slapping Party'Slapping Party' is a sketch from 'The Two Ronnies', a comedy show that aired on BBC One from 1971 to 1987. Ronnie Barker plays an eccentric man at a party who hits Ronnie Corbett every time he tries to speak to him. The original sketch is about five minutes long, but BBC Leicester's comes in at around one minute as poor Matt had been hit plenty of times already by then! Thanks to Matt Doyle and Stephen Bell-Young from Hind Leys Community College. The Fish-Slapping DanceThe Fish-Slapping Dance is a popular Monty Python sketch that appears in 'Monty Pythons Flying Circus'. It involved John Cleese and Michael Palin dressed in safari outfits standing on the side of a canal lock and hitting each other with fish. BBC Leicester went to Leicester market where some friendly fishmongers stepped into the spotlight to bring a whole new meaning to 'happy slapping'… Thanks to the Leicester market fishmongers - their performance was off the scale! Delboy falling through the bar | | Not so cool anymore |
The scene from 'Only Fools and Horses' where David Jason's character, Delboy, tries to look cool to impress a girl but ends up falling through the door in the bar has been voted one of the funniest moments in British comedy. BBC Leicester went to the Orange Tree pub on High Street where the bar staff were literally falling over themselves to help out… (there is 10 seconds of black at the start of this video) Thanks to Andy and Chris at the Orange Tree pub who played 'Delboy' and the barman, Laura Elahi who played the smiling girl, and Keranjit Poonia who played the gorilla. Do you think you're funny? | | "Can I hit you with this?" |
So you've watched the sketches, but would you be willing to take part in them? We asked people shopping in Leicester market and they seemed very keen to get into the Comedy Festival spirit, but what about being hit around the head with a fish..? Do you think you're funny? The BBC Leicester website wants to give you the chance to make people laugh, so if you if you've got a short (one minute or under) comedy sketch that you'd like to feature on the site please send it (in wav or rm format) to leicester@bbc.co.uk | 
