Undertakers sketch

The Undertakers sketch (written by Graham Chapman and John Cleese) is a comedy sketch from the 26th episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, entitled "Royal Episode 13". It was the final sketch of the thirteenth and final episode of the second series, and was perhaps the most notorious of the Python team's television sketches.

Plot

The sketch begins when a quietly spoken man (Cleese) takes his dead mother to an undertakers' office. The tactless undertaker (Chapman) suggests they can "burn 'er, bury 'er, or dump 'er in the Thames", but rules out the last option after Cleese confirms that he liked his mother. Of the other two, the undertaker says both are "nasty" and describes the sordid details. When the son shows the undertaker his mother's body, which is in a sack, he sees that the dead woman "looks quite young". He tells his assistant, Fred (Eric Idle) that he thinks they've "got an eater", to which Fred responds that he'll get the oven warm. The grieving son is shocked by the idea of eating his mother's corpse, but eventually succumbs to "feeling a bit peckish". He still feels uneasy, but when the undertaker suggests digging a grave for him to throw up into (in case he feels "a bit guilty afterwards"), he agrees. Midway through the sketch, the audience begins to jeer at the cast (alongside people laughing), and by the end, a number of audience members storm the stage as the camera pans to a machine displaying the ending credits.