The Mouse Problem is a sketch that appears in "Sex and Violence," the second episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Synopsis[]
On The World Around Us, Arthur Jackson (John Cleese) is interviewed about his wish to be a mouse and his activities with fellow people who feel this way, throwing parties where they eat cheese and squeak.
A consultant psychiatrist, Kargol (Graham Chapman) and his assistant, Janet (Carol Cleveland) present findings that 8 percent of the population are mice and admits that he, too, has felt attracted to mice. He states that this is normal. It is then presented that Julius Caesar, Napoleon, and Hilaire Belloc were also mice.
People on the street are then interviewed on how they would react to people who are known to be mice and a film of a mouse party is shown, narrated by Arthur Jackson.
Before the linkman (Michael Palin) can examine the mice-men further, he realises their 30 minutes are up and ends the programme (but not before shooting a flying sheep).
Over the credits, it is announced that God exists by two falls to a submission.
Music[]
- "Allegro con fuoco", performed by the Leningrad State Philharmonic Society Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kurt Sanderling, from the 1964 LP Rachmaninoff Symphony No 1 in D Minor Op 13.
Trivia[]
- This sketch was written by Graham Chapman and John Cleese in 1968 for Peter Sellers' The Magic Christian. However, Peter went off it the next day when his milkman didn't like it.
- Mr. A's original name and address was "George Jacks, 32A Milton Avenue, Hounslow, Middx. Tel: 01-754-5688". This was changed on the night of recording.
- The shots of Caesar and Napoleon were filmed at Studland Beach near Bournemouth, on July 11th 1969.
- The mouse party and select vox pops comments were filmed on Ullswater Road, Barnes, on July 16th 1969. The same day, at Barnes Police Station on Lonsdale Road, the scenes with the mouse-man being arrested and the vicar were filmed.
- The window cleaner was to have been Michael, while the porter was to have been Graham.
- The interview with the milkman was filmed at a shopping precinct in Walton-on-Thames, July 17th 1969.
- In original airings of the episode, Arthur Jackson's phone number is included alongside his real name and address. The number ("01-584 5313") was that of David Frost, a TV presenter and former colleague of the Pythons (more specifically, the phone number of his production company Paradine Productions). Frost ended up receiving persistent phone calls from those who had watched the episode and eventually complained to the BBC. The episode was soon re-edited on August 13th 1970 and all further airings cut out the phone number from Cleese's voice-over and feature a new text overlay. The original text overlay and voice-over was soon found and re-instated as part of Network's restoration of Monty Python's Flying Circus on Blu-ray in 2019.
- "Vocational Guidance Counsellor" also featured David Frost's address, although this was edited before transmission.