a garden of varied delights

Feb 16 2008

John Cleese delivers the eulogy at the funeral of fellow Monty Python member, Graham Chapman

If you don’t feel like watching the video, here is a description from Wikipedia:

A memorial service was held for Graham Chapman on the evening of December 6 1989 in the Great Hall at St Bartholomew’s Hospital. Cleese delivered the eulogy; after his initial remarks, he said of his former colleague “…good riddance to him, the freeloading bastard, I hope he fries!”, and then pointed out that Chapman would have been disappointed if Cleese passed on the opportunity to scandalise the audience.
He explained that Chapman would have been offended had Cleese, the first person to say “shit” on British television, not used Chapman’s own funeral as an opportunity to also become the first person at a British memorial service to use the word “fuck”.
Afterward, Cleese joined Gilliam, Jones, and Palin along with Chapman’s other friends as Idle led them in a rendition of “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from the film Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
See also this video for more Graham Chapman.
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