@farmerman,
can't remember the lead up, but it ended with a scotsman playing tennis against a giant blancmange at wimbledon
7. You're No Fun Anymore
(episode 7; aired 30 November 1969; recorded 10 October 1969)
* Camel Spotting
* You're No Fun Any More
* The Audit
* Science Fiction Sketch
o Man Turns Into Scotsman
o Police station
o Blancmanges Playing Tennis
Details
* Although listed individually in books and other media, Man Turns into Scotsman, Police Station and Blancmange Playing Tennis are all part of the Science Fiction Sketch.
* Extragalactic Blancmange puddings feature prominently. The story reverses the usual relationship of people eating food, into food eating people.
* A table-size sentient Blancmange from planet Skyron of the Andromeda Galaxy turns the tables by eating people, especially now-historic players of tennis. Alien Blancmange(s) also have the power to instantly turn 48 million English citizens into northward-marching Scots. Chief Scientist Charles, his mistreated bimbo girlfriend, and a police detective eventually deduce that this bizarre cultural conversion and player consumption is an effort to depopulate England and win the Wimbledon tennis championships. The core theory here is that if everyone in England is turned into Scotspeople, they are sure to lose the tennis match, since (according to the characters) Scots are terrible at tennis. What the Blancmanges stand to gain by winning at Wimbledon is never brought up.
* The Blancmange(s) from space eat 1970s tennis stars. Then, a single tennis-playing Blancmange is thwarted when it is chased and eaten by a couple armed with forks, spoons, and napkins. The couple, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Brainsample (Eric Idle and Graham Chapman), were snubbed as boring in the first scene, but they too just happen to be from the Blancmange(s)' home planet of Skyron. With all the famous players and the Blancmange eaten, the only remaining tennis player is kilt salesman Angus Podgorny (Michael Palin). Podgorny seems strangely cheerful for having watched his wife (Terry Jones) being eaten a few scenes earlier. The wrapup sports announcer (John Cleese) narrates the unlikely TV spectacle of a Scotsman winning Wimbledon after playing against himself " hopping back and forth across the net " for 15 years, we are told.
* Multiple Blancmange sightings are mentioned, but only one is seen and eaten in the final sketch. The Monty Python Blancmange looks more like a round coffee table in a white fabric tent than a gelatinous pudding.
