Crunchy Frog
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"Crunchy Frog" is the common name for a Monty Python sketch officially titled "Trade Description Act" (sometimes also known as the "Whizzo Chocolate Company" sketch),[1] inspired by the Trade Descriptions Act 1968 in British law. It features two health inspectors interrogating the owner of a sweet shop about the increasingly bizarre ingredients in his confections, including the titular crunchy frog. Written by John Cleese and Graham Chapman, it originally appeared in episode 6 of the first series of Monty Python's Flying Circus, and later appeared in several Monty Python stage shows. In the original sketch, Cleese and Chapman play the inspectors, while Terry Jones plays the sweet shop owner. In later versions, the second inspector is played by Terry Gilliam or left out of the sketch entirely.
The sketch
Mr. Milton, the owner of the Whizzo Chocolate Company (
Other questionable items include the "Cherry Fondue", which is "extremely nasty", but not worthy of prosecution, "Ram's Bladder Cup" (made from "fresh Cornish ram's bladder, emptied, steamed, flavoured with sesame seeds whipped into a fondant and garnished with lark's vomit"), "Cockroach Cluster", "Anthrax Ripple", and "Spring Surprise" (chocolate wrapped around two stainless steel bolts that "spring out and plunge straight through both [of the victim's] cheeks").[2] At the end of the scene Milton is arrested, and the Superintendent, who has been vomiting during the entire conversation (having sampled the Crunchy Frog and some of the others), faces the camera and warns the public to "take more care when buying its sweeties".[2]
A later sketch in the same episode features a
Stage and film
The film
The
Other appearances
- In Monty Python's Big Red Book there is a page designed as a chocolate box insert, with descriptions of all the sweets in the Whizzo Quality Assortment.
- In J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, two kinds of sweets seen eaten by the characters are Chocolate Frogs and Cockroach Clusters.[4]
- In , a travelling carnival.
- The name of the sketch was the inspiration for the name of the Danish indie record label Crunchy Frog Records.[5]
References
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 5 March 2021.
- ^ ISBN 0-679-72647-0.
- ^ All the Words, Volume One. p. 75.
- ^ "Food & drink: Sweets". Wizarding World. The Harry Potter Lexicon. 27 March 2006.
- ^ "Billboard". 25 January 2003.