Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook
Encyclopedia
Plot
The sketch is set in BritainUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. A Hungarian enters a tobacconist
Tobacconist
A tobacconist is an expert dealer in tobacco in various forms and the related accoutrements .Such accoutrements include pipes, lighters, matches, pipe cleaners, pipe tampers, ashtrays, humidification devices, hygrometers, humidors, cigar cutters, and more. Books and magazines, especially ones...
's shop carrying a phrasebook and begins a dialogue with the tobacconist; he wants to buy some cigarettes but his phrasebook is poorly written and the translations of his desired phrases do not resemble in the slightest what he wants to say. Many of them are plainly bizarre and some of them are mildly sexual in nature (for example: "do you want to go to my place -- bouncy-bouncy
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
?"). After the customer has conveyed his desire in gestures, the tobacconist looks in the phrasebook to find a Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
translation for "six and six" (i.e. six shilling
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
s and sixpence); he reads out the (fake) Hungarian sentence Yandelavasa grldenwi stravenka, which provokes the Hungarian to punch him in the face. A policeman, hearing the punch from a considerable distance, runs to the shop and arrests the Hungarian, who protests absurdly: "My nipples explode with delight!"
The Hungarian is apparently released, and instead the publisher of the phrasebook is taken to court, where he pleads "not guilty" of actions tending to provoke a breach of the peace
Breach of the peace
Breach of the peace is a legal term used in constitutional law in English-speaking countries, and in a wider public order sense in Britain.-Constitutional law:...
. After the prosecutor reads some samples from the book, the publisher changes his plea to "incompetent."
Cast
- John CleeseJohn CleeseJohn Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...
as the Hungarian (and a barrister) - Terry JonesTerry JonesTerence Graham Parry Jones is a Welsh comedian, screenwriter, actor, film director, children's author, popular historian, political commentator, and TV documentary host. He is best known as a member of the Monty Python comedy team....
as the tobacconist (and the judge) - Graham ChapmanGraham ChapmanGraham Arthur Chapman was a British comedian, physician, writer, actor, and one of the six members of the Monty Python comedy troupe.-Early life and education:...
as the policeman - Michael PalinMichael PalinMichael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....
as the publisher - Eric IdleEric IdleEric Idle is an English comedian, actor, author, singer, writer, and comedic composer. He was as a member of the British comedy group Monty Python, a member of the The Rutles on Saturday Night Live and author of the play, Spamalot....
as the prosecutor
In other Python works
In the TV episode, the Hungarian character reappeared in the "SpamSpam (Monty Python)
"Spam" is a popular Monty Python sketch, first televised in 1970. In the sketch, two customers are in a greasy spoon café trying to order a breakfast from a menu that includes the processed meat product in almost every dish. The term spam is derived from this sketch...
" sketch. This sketch also appeared in And Now for Something Completely Different
And Now For Something Completely Different
And Now for Something Completely Different is a film spin-off from the television comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus featuring favorite sketches from the first two seasons. The title was used as a catchphrase in the television show....
, where, at the end of the sketch, another Hungarian tells someone on the street "Please fondle my buttocks". The man then gives him directions.
In other media
The phrase "my hovercraftHovercraft
A hovercraft is a craft capable of traveling over surfaces while supported by a cushion of slow moving, high-pressure air which is ejected against the surface below and contained within a "skirt." Although supported by air, a hovercraft is not considered an aircraft.Hovercraft are used throughout...
is full of eels" is often mentioned in relation to any translation system, in particular ones which translate poorly. In 1998, The Atlantic noted that two commercial translation programs could translate the phrase "into French and back and into Italian and back without a glitch." The phrase is also used as a cliche that takes the form of a character thinking they can speak a language, but whatever they try to say in that language ends up sounding nonsensical or outright rude to native speakers of the language in question. It appeared in some versions of the OpenVMS
OpenVMS
OpenVMS , previously known as VAX-11/VMS, VAX/VMS or VMS, is a computer server operating system that runs on VAX, Alpha and Itanium-based families of computers. Contrary to what its name suggests, OpenVMS is not open source software; however, the source listings are available for purchase...
operating system as an easter egg
Easter egg (media)
Image:Carl Oswald Rostosky - Zwei Kaninchen und ein Igel 1861.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Example of Easter egg hidden within imagerect 467 383 539 434 desc none...
error message.
The phrase "Drop your panties, Sir William; I cannot wait until lunchtime!" was spoofed in the Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS
The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...
game Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations, as an outburst by a supporting character in the game's second case.
Notable quotations
- "I will not buy this record; it is scratched."
- "I will not buy this tobacconist's; it is scratched."
- "My hovercraft is full of eels."
- "Do you want to come back to my place, bouncy bouncy?"
- "You great poof."
- "If I said you have a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?" (a line made famous by Groucho MarxGroucho MarxJulius Henry "Groucho" Marx was an American comedian and film star famed as a master of wit. His rapid-fire delivery of innuendo-laden patter earned him many admirers. He made 13 feature films with his siblings the Marx Brothers, of whom he was the third-born...
) - "I am no longer infected."
- "You have beautiful thighs" (said to the policeman).
- "Drop your panties, Sir William; I cannot wait until lunchtime!"
- "The Hungarian phrase meaning 'Can you direct me to the station?' is here translated by the English phrase, 'Please fondle my bum.'"
- "My nipples explode with delight!"
See also
- My postillion has been struck by lightningMy postillion has been struck by lightning"My postillion has been struck by lightning", "Our postillion has been struck by lightning", and other variations on the same pattern, are often given as examples of the ridiculous phrases supposed to have been found in phrase books or language instruction in the nineteenth and twentieth century...
, a phrase reportedly found in a real Hungarian-English phrasebook - English As She Is SpokeEnglish As She Is SpokeEnglish as She Is Spoke is the common name of a 19th century book falsely credited to José da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino, which was intended as a Portuguese-English conversational guide or phrase book, but is regarded as a classic source of unintentional humour, as the given English translations...