Thursday 24 March 2011

Agatha Christie Sketch: sentence order

A really really funny Monty Python sketch. Apart from the absurd, there are some interesting language features in this little piece. I suggest trying to decipher inspector Tiger's crazy variations of the first sentence. Can you transcribe some of them?

Enjoy! By the way: Who do you think is the murderer?




Answers, as usual, in the comments.


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6 comments:

  1. ENCARNA27 March 2011 at 22:36

    I like the absurb, sometimes it tells us more than "some people's" phrases.....

    He began "This house is surrounded.

    I'm afraid I must not ask anyone to leave the room.
    No, I must ask_____
    No, I must ask everybody to.., I must not ask to anyone to leave the room.
    No one must be asked by me to leave the room.
    No one mus asked the room to leave, are I asked the room shall??my someone be left, not, ask nobody the room somebody leave shall are
    Shall I leave the room?
    Everyone must leave the room as it is with a ???

    Bye and see you tomorrow!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Irene27 March 2011 at 23:16

    I agree with Encarga, the absurd is amazing… apart from that you´ve commented, I love the tongue twister with “the body” (min 1:57) and also when the inspector introduces himself
    - I´m the Inspector Tiger
    -Tiger?!
    - Where? Where?
    And the same when the other polices introduce themselves: Inspector Look out (look out of the yard!!!), Fire… heheh hilarious… And what about the pile of murdered polices at the end of the sketch? Crazy!
    See you
    Irene

    ReplyDelete
  3. Shall I compare thee...28 March 2011 at 21:14

    Thank you for commenting!

    There are a couple of things in Encarna's transcription that can be completed. I'll wait for you to give your transcriptions!

    I'm glad you enjoyed this absurd humour!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Eduardohmc8 April 2011 at 23:59

    Let´s try...

    "I´m afraid I´d not ask anyone to leave the room. Now I must ask an_________ . No, I must ask everybody to...No one must be asked by me to leave the room. No, no one must ask the room to leave I. I ask the room shall by someone be left...Ask nobody the room somebody leave shall I...Shall I leave the room?. Everyone must leave the room as it is with a ______ ".

    Extremely fun and hilarious!

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  5. Shall I compare thee...9 April 2011 at 12:34

    It really is hilarious, isn't it?

    I think we should take that sentence to class to analyse it!! You can learn all different sentence structures with it!

    Shall I wait to give you the transcript? No, the transcript shall, by me, we waited... No, no transcript shall wait to give... No...

    Thank you for commenting and for enjoying the video!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Shall I compare thee...28 April 2011 at 01:01

    OK, so the time has come to give you the transcription of this sentence. Pay attention to the end particularly, as it contains some weak words that were hard for you to catch:

    Inspector Tiger:

    This house is surrounded. I'm afraid I must not ask anyone to leave the room. No, I must ask nobody ... no, I must ask everybody to... I must not ask anyone to leave the room. No one must be asked by me to leave the room. No, no one must ask the room to leave. I ... I ... ask the room shall by someone be left. Not. Ask nobody the room somebody leave shall I. Shall I leave the room? Everyone must leave the room... as it is... with them in it. Phew. Understand?

    Man: You don’t want anybody to leave the room.

    Comedy genius, really!

    ReplyDelete

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