Lavatorial Humour is a sketch that appears in "The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Goes to the Bathroom," the eleventh episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Synopsis[]
A man (Michael Palin) knocks on a bathroom door and asks the individual inside if they had finished the bathroom yet. From inside, Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto is played, annoying him.
A letter from Ken Voyeur (John Cleese) complains about the 'obvious lavatorial turn' the show has taken. Cut to footage of Mary Bignall's long jump in the 1964 Summer Olympics.
Another letter from a man (Eric Idle) complains about 'the athletic turn' the show has taken. He asks to see more about the human body, claiming there is nothing, sans the intestines and bits of the bottom, embarrassing or nasty about the body.
The final letter from William Knickers (Palin) complains about the letters shown on the programme, and that they are clearly written for cheap laughs.
A cut to the orchestra playing the final note of a piece, then a toilet flush is heard, with an animation of audience members flooding out of the Royal Albert Hall making disgusted remarks.
Trivia[]
- The stock film of the orchestra finishing the final note before the toilet flush sound effect is from a 1966 performance of Igor Stravinsky's Le Sacre Du Printemps (The Rite of Spring) by the London Symphony Orchestra at Fairfield Hall, Croydon. Leonard Bernstein of West Side Story fame conducted the performance.