8. The Four Yorkshiremen

Originally written for the 1967 'At Last The 1948 Show', this has become an honorary Python sketch by virtue of the performance at the Hollywood Bowl in 1982.

It's a brilliantly observed, over-quoted take on four chippy Northerners comparing notes on the harshness of their respective childhoods.

It succeeds because, despite the escalating absurdity, it's utterly recognisable - we’ve all seen old folks trying to outdo each other by recounting the miseries of their youth.

Though, as the young of today, we don’t believe 'em...

Quote: “A cardboard box? You were lucky! We lived for three months in a rolled-up newspaper in a septic tank!”

7. The Spanish Inquisition

It’s true: nobody expected them. Three not-very-scary, scarlet-clad Inquisitors led by Palin’s ridiculously-accented Cardinal with a Biggles-goggled Jones at his side (for no reason we can determine) and a hilariously gurning Gilliam stealing the scene in the background.

It’s the burst of dramatic music that accompanies their every entrance that slays us, though ('JARRING CHORD!' in the script book). Now, where’s that comfy chair?

Quote: “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!”

6. The Ministry Of Silly Walks

It’s not so much the idea of an official Ministry of Silly Walks that makes it a classic. And the script, with Palin asking Cleese’s bureaucrat for a government grant to make his own walk sillier, is only mildly amusing.

What kicks here is Cleese's performance - a tall, bowler-hatted, straight-faced and stiff-upper-lipped civil servant striding through the streets with his legs twisting and flailing, all without the faintest whiff of self-awareness or embarrassment.

Gotta love the impractically silly-walking secretary, too.

Quote: “I’m sorry to have kept you waiting, but I’m afraid my walk has become rather sillier recently.”

5. The Upper Class Twit Of The Year

Again, the Pythons take an ordinary event – the Horse Of The Year Show – and warp it with a simple but absurd twist... Thoroughbreds replaced with in-breds.

It's a beautifully structured round of sustained slapstick, with plenty of old-school pratfalling from the Pythons – resplendent in goofy teeth and bowler hats - all tied together by another supreme performance from Cleese as the frantic narrator.

Quote: “And Oliver has run himself over! What a brave twit!”

Next: Lumberjack Song, Dead Parrot