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"Crunchy Frog" is the common name for aMonty Python sketch officially titled "Trade Description Act" (sometimes also known as the "Whizzo Chocolate Company" sketch),[1] inspired by theTrade Descriptions Act 1968 in British law. It features two health inspectors interrogating the owner of asweet shop about the increasingly bizarre ingredients in his confections, including the titular crunchy frog. Written byJohn Cleese andGraham Chapman, it originally appeared in episode 6 of the first series ofMonty Python's Flying Circus, and later appeared in several Monty Python stage shows. In the original sketch, Cleese and Chapman play the inspectors, whileTerry Jones plays the sweet shop owner. In later versions, the second inspector is played byTerry Gilliam or left out of the sketch entirely.
Mr. Milton, the owner of the Whizzo Chocolate Company (Terry Jones) is approached by two members of the Hygiene Squad,Inspector Praline (John Cleese) and Superintendent Parrot (Graham Chapman). The officers confront him about the odd flavours that are used in the "Whizzo Quality Assortment", and cite inadequate descriptions of his products as a violation of the Trade Descriptions Act. They ask him to explain the confection labelled "Crunchy Frog". Milton describes it as an entirefrog that has been coated withchocolate, using only "the finest baby frogs, dew picked and flown fromIraq, cleansed in finest quality spring water, lightly killed, and then sealed in a succulentSwiss quintuple smooth treble cream milk chocolate envelope and lovingly frosted withglucose."[2]Circular logic is used to explain why the bones aren't taken out: "If we took the bones out, it wouldn't be crunchy, would it?"[2] (A baby frog is atadpole, which hascartilage rather than bones.)
Other questionable items include the "Cherry Fondue", which is "extremely nasty", but not worthy of prosecution, "Ram's Bladder Cup" (made from "freshCornishram's bladder, emptied, steamed, flavoured withsesame seeds whipped into a fondant and garnished withlark'svomit"), "Cockroach Cluster", "AnthraxRipple", and "Spring Surprise" (chocolate wrapped around twostainless 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 aNorth American Indian, played in stereotypical fashion byEric Idle, eating a Crunchy Frog and indicating approval.[3]
The filmMonty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl also contains a performance of this sketch, with Chapman as the Inspector andTerry Gilliam as his assistant. The assistant is now called Constable Parrot, and while he too periodically leaves the room to fight off his nausea, he remains onstage during his last attack of sickness and vomits into his helmet—which his superior then orders him to put back on his head. (Gilliam filled his mouth with coldbeef stew when he ran off stage during the scene.)
TheMonty Python Live (Mostly) stage show featured a similar performance, with some small changes to the dialogue — e.g., the Ram's Bladder Cup sweet is now described as having been garnished with mouse faeces rather than lark's vomit - and with Cleese as the Inspector. Jones, who was then in the early stages offrontal lobe dementia, read some of his dialogue from the insert cards in the chocolate box. The televised 20 July 2014 performance includes some fluffs andcorpsing, and a moment in which Cleese takes a card from Jones and reads his line for him before announcing "This is me now" and continuing with his own line.
