OH NO IT’S NOT!
Argument Clinic
Palin pays for a five-minute argument with Cleese. No he doesn’t, yes he does, etc, etc ‘Is this the right room for an argument?’ So begins one of the most prized Python dialogues of all in a sketch that has been played out in virtually every Python live show (they even performed it in a cabaret show in February 1972, before it had been broadcast on TV).
A Cleese/Chapman creation, the sketch bears their trademark elements of contrary, sometimes abusive dialogue and what has been described (usually by Jones and Palin) as ‘thesaurus writing’ – or using a list of similar statements with each expressed slightly differently. Indeed a line spoken by Cleese’s character – ‘An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition’ – was taken almost word for word from the Oxford English Dictionary.
The sketch develops with meticulous logic from the absurd premise that someone might be willing to pay to be abused, insulted or have an argument, and Palin admits it’s something he and Jones could never have written. ‘John works things out to their logical progression, whereas Terry and I would have drifted onto something else very quickly.’
It is also a favourite of academics and cultural commentators who discuss the logic of the dialogue, the role of argument in seeking the truth, the nature of conflict and why we all like a good row every now and then.