Stake Your Claim is a sketch from Episode 1 of Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus.
Synopsis[]
In a cowboy town, Albrecht Dürer (Eric Idle) exits a saloon. The documentary narrator describes him as the "Nuremberg cowpuncher and deputy sheriff of Dodge City". The man behind the desk (John Cleese) sternly explains that he's already abandoned doing any more attempts at the Dürer documentary. He introduces "some proper entertainment, like a panel game".
In the cowboy town, a presenter at a desk (Cleese) introduces "Stake Your Claim". The man behind the desk asks to excuse them from the cowboy town. A stagehand tells the presenter to do the piece in the studio as the sign behind them ("Sex Shop") is wrong. Finally in the studio, the presenter reintroduces the programme. The music stops as the stagehand comes on and rewinds the music tape.
The presenter finally properly introduces the show and introduces their first guest Franz Schultz (Michael Palin) who claims he wrote all of Shakespeare's works. Schultz also claims that his wife and him wrote the sonnets. The presenter points out the plays were performed 300 years before Schultz was born. Schultz notices and politely leaves.
The next guest is Mr. Hase (Terry Jones) who claims to have built the Taj Mahal. Hase believes not. When the presenter appears to be confused, Hase claims he did but he can see that he won't last very long with the presenter.
The next guest is Mrs. Mund (Graham Chapman) who claims to have the ability to burrow through an elephant. The presenter believes she has changed her claim as the crew don't have an elephant. Mund tries to fool the presenter but he isn't fooled as her letter states her claim is that she could be thrown off Schwangau Castle and be buried. The presenter and Mund start arguing. Eventually, the presenter decides he doesn't want Mund bickering and throws her out of a window to forcibly prove her former claim. As Mund's coffin is lowered into the ground, the presenter asks for applause.
Later, after the programme's finished, Schultz comes back and has a new claim that he's Catherine the Great. He then tries to announce other claims including him being able to kill bats with an egg whisk and him writing Act 1 of Hamlet and not the rest. After he is told to leave, he says that he didn't want to be on the programme and instead wanted to be a lumberjack.