The Batley Townswomen's Guild Performing a Dramatic Rendition of the Battle of Pearl Harbor

Monty Python's Flying Circus - "Reenactment of Pearl Harbor" - 1969

Monty Python’s Flying Circus is perhaps the most influential comedy group to exist besides possibly the Three Stooges – certainly the most important British group. Monty Python uses a lot of violence in their sketches, usually parodying the historical violence they depict. In their Spanish Inquisition sketch, the objects of ridicule are the inquisitors who use various soft cushions to “torture” their victims. In this case, the comedians minimize the violence in order to make fun of the perpetrators. The “Pearl Harbor” sketch is very different. Instead of parodying the actual historical act by casting Japanese and American planes and navy or something of that sort, they use a too mundane, very British women’s guild to offset the violence.

This is a representation of a representation, and that removed step contributes to the absurdity of the sketch – how on earth could this be the battle of Pearl Harbor? The sketch starts with a telecaster (Graham Chapman) introducing the sketch and the concept. His tone is overly serious and the camera accompanies the weight of his tone with a slow zoom, cueing the audience in to the content and the exaggeration of his act. Because of the tone of voice, the ridiculousness of his words – “Such is the battle of Pearl Harbor, reenacted for us today by the women of the Batley Townswomen’s Guild” – both stands out in juxtaposition but also evokes an evening news telecaster talking about some serious event. The quick cut to Eric Idle in prim and proper drag after Chapman’s introduction is the audience’s first hint that the exaggeration will be realized in a different way. And what would be British comedy without someone in drag?

The brief interview with Idle highlights the absurdity of a reenactment by a provincial women’s group of an extreme act of violence, and this is before the nature of the reenactment is realized. This sketch is built around expectations and questions of what the sketch is. At any given point during this short minute-and-a-half sketch, the audience is left wondering what will come next and whether it will be a continuation of the previous portion or whether it will build on and add to the earlier content with a new bit.

In this sketch, Monty Python uses the tragedy of Pearl Harbor as a vehicle for the punch line – about ten men in provincial-looking drag mudwrestling in a field and calling it a dramatic reenactment – instead of the substantial content of the comedy. In a sketch like “Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition,” the Spanish Inquisition provides the content of the comedy, but in this sketch, Pearl Harbor has no actual representation on screen. The absurdity comes from the idea that these women, who are so removed from a historic and tragic act of violence like Pearl Harbor, could come up with and execute their reenactment. They are play-acting demure, village women with matching dresses, purses, and hats, portraying “Nazi war atrocities” and “the battle of Pearl Harbor” by rolling around in the mud.

We must ask ourselves the repercussions of reducing acts of violence like this into animalistic, absurdly grotesque comedy on screen. The comedy derives from the preposterous idea and its actual implementation and the seriousness with which Chapman’s character talks about the Batley Townswomen’s Guild, but the actual act of violence of Pearl Harbor is hardly discussed. The comedy also comes from this idea that the specificity of the act of violence is not important. There is no history in this reenactment, only men in drag beating each other up with their purses in the mud.

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