"The Ministry of Silly Walks" is a sketch from the Monty Python comedy troupe's television showMonty Python's Flying Circus, season 2, episode 1, which is entitled "Face the Press". The episode first aired on 15 September 1970. A shortened version of the sketch was performed for Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. A satire on bureaucratic inefficiency, the sketch involves John Cleese as a bowler-hattedcivil servant in a fictitious Britishgovernment ministry responsible for developing silly walks through grants. Cleese, throughout the sketch, walks in a variety of silly ways. It is these various silly walks, more than the dialogue, that have earned the sketch its popularity. Cleese has cited the physical comedy of Max Wall, probably in character as Professor Wallofski, as important to its conception. Ben Beaumont-Thomas in The Guardian writes, "Cleese is utterly deadpan as he takes the stereotypical bowler-hatted political drone and ruthlessly skewers him. All the self-importance, bureaucratic inefficiency and laughable circuitousness of Whitehall is summed up in one balletic extension of his slender leg."
Sketch
The sketch as originally depicted in the series begins with John Cleese playing Mr. Teabag, a civil servant who, after purchasing The Times from the newsagent in the previous sketch, walks through the streets of London in a very peculiar manner. He eventually arrives at his place of business: The Ministry of Silly Walks, on the northern end of Whitehall. In the hallway, he passes other employees all exhibiting their own silly walks before arriving at his office. Once there, he finds Mr Putey waiting for him and apologizes for the delay, explaining that his walk has become particularly silly of late and it takes longer for him to reach his destination. Putey explains that he has a silly walk he wishes to develop with grant money. He demonstrates his walk which, to Teabag, isn't particularly silly. He tells Putey that he does not believe the ministry can help him, as Putey's walk is not silly enough and funding is short. The government, he explains, is supposed to give equally to Defence, Social Security, Health, Housing, Education, and Silly Walks, but recently spent less on Silly Walks than on national defence. After a visit by his secretary Mrs. Two-Lumps, Mr. Teabag shows Mr Putey a film on silly walks. After tossing the projector offstage, Teabag offers Putey a grant that will allow him to work on the Anglo-French Silly Walk, La Marche Futile, which is then demonstrated by a man dressed in a mixture of stereotypical English and French outfits, with a sped-up version of "La Marseillaise" playing. Mrs. Two-Lumps, presumably the minister's secretary, makes a brief appearance, bringing in coffee with full silly walk. As she enters, the cups fall all over the tray, completely spilling their contents. The minister looks at the tray, says "Thank you, lovely" and she exits again, taking the tray with her, complete with upended cups. In the Hollywood Bowl version, Carol Cleveland plays Mrs. Two-Lumps, and spills some of the coffee on Cleese during the sketch. As the years went by amid repeated requests to do the sketch, Cleese found it increasingly difficult to perform these walks. He would say, when told about a new Python tour, "I'm not doing silly walks." Accordingly, the sketch was not performed during Monty Python Live, the troupe's 2014 reunion show. It was replaced by "The Silly Walks Song", which was performed by a group of dancers who mimicked Cleese's original walks while wearing bowler hats and carrying briefcases.
In 2014, an official video game adaption of the sketch was released for Android and iOS. It features Cleese, as the minister of silly walks, leaving his office and walking through London. It takes the form of an endless runner game, except with an appropriately absurd walking animation. The game includes voice acting from John Cleese.
COVID-19 Pandemic
Unofficial signs stating that certain sidewalks are under the jurisdiction of The Ministry of Silly Walks have been placed along sidewalks worldwide, including the United States, Canada, and England as a way to allow pedestrians to laugh in a stressful time. In April 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in England, a family in Yorkshire put up signs, which designated the sidewalk in front of their house as "The Jurisdiction of The Ministry of Silly Walks" and encouraged people to do a silly walk. Silly walks were recorded via their doorbell cam, and posted to the Instagram account yorkshire.silly.walks. Inspired by the signs in Yorkshire, on 8 May 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic in British Columbia, a resident of North Vancouver placed signs along Jones Avenue which stated, "You have now entered the jurisdiction of Ministry of Silly Walks. Commence silly walking immediately." The resident, a Monty Python fan stated, “It's just a stretch of 50 feet where you can just kind of be silly and let loose. I think we’re all under quite a bit more stress these days and just to have a split second or a moment to have a chuckle, I think could turn some people’s day around.” The signs were not popular among the entire community and removed by municipal workers on 15 May 2020, but replaced shortly after. Videos of residents walking silly are posted to the Instagram account jonesave.sillywalks.
