
The Electric Penguin
The Electric Penguin is, as the name suggests, a giant electric penguin (that is about a foot tall) and features in the Monty Python sketch Scott of the Sahara.
Biography[]
Midway through the sketch, the voiceover narration tells the viewer to "See Ensign Oates' frank, adult death struggle with the spine-chilling giant electric penguin". The camera then pans to a shot of an electric penguin slowly swivelling round to face the camera. A time-lapse of Oates undressing then follows, before the fight begins. A shot shows that the penguin is only a foot tall, before Oates (who has finished undressing) places a stone in his underpants and uses them as a slingshot, catapulting the stone towards the penguin and knocking it over.
Trivia[]
- In order to make the penguin look bigger, it was placed directly in front of the camera when it first appeared, thus adding to the hilarity when its true size was revealed.
- As the entire sketch is merely a film being shot, it can be assumed that they added the penguin during the previous sketch, Scott of the Antarctic, before someone noticed that the contract stated that Scott had to, at one point, fight a Crazed Desert Lion.