"Candid Photography", better known as "Nudge Nudge", is asketch from the thirdMonty Python's Flying Circus episode, "How to Recognise Different Types of Trees From Quite a Long Way Away" (series 1, ep. 3) featuringEric Idle (author of the sketch) andTerry Jones as two strangers who meet in apub.
Idle (playing a character sometimes referred to as "Arthur Nudge") sits too close to an unassuming pub patron played by Terry Jones. Idle asks Jones a series of questions about his romantic relationships that seem odd and cryptic, but that are eventually revealed to be complexdouble entendres. Jones becomes irritated by the line of questioning and asks Idle, directly, what he is implying. Idle forwardly admits that he really wants to know whether Jones has ever "slept with a lady." When Jones directly answers "Yes," Idle curiously asks him, "What's it like?" This conclusion makes it one of the few Monty Python sketches to end on a clearpunch line.
The sketch appears in the 1971 spin-off feature film,And Now for Something Completely Different and the 1982 concert filmMonty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. It was also performed when the Pythons appeared onThe Midnight Special and was recorded for the 1976 concert albumMonty Python Live at City Center.
In its original airing onMonty Python's Flying Circus, the sketch was preceded by a short link in which Idle,Terry Jones andMichael Palin portray schoolboys being interviewed for television byJohn Cleese. During the interview, Palin and Jones say they would like to see the sketch that Idle has written.
InAnd Now for Something Completely Different, the sketch is followed by a cut to a scene in a gym, where Terry Gilliam dressed as a nun on anergometer replies (dubbed by a female voice), "I think it's overrated." Then, the "Self-Defence Against Fresh Fruit" sketch is played in the setting.
Idle's character in the pub makes several cameo appearances in later episodes, referred to as "Arthur Name".
InMonty Python Live (Mostly), the sketch segues from "Albatross". In the background, a piano version of "Never Be Rude to an Arab" is heard. Eventually the sketch segues into a new opening title song forBlackmail which incorporates samples of Idle'sNudge, Nudge dialogue.
Originally written by Eric Idle forRonnie Barker in another comedy show,[1] the sketch was then rejected as a script.[2] Eric Idle openly admits the script is confusing, the joke being mostly in the delivery.[citation needed]
The phrases,"nudge nudge" and"wink wink", are part of the English lexicon asidiomatic phrases implying sexualinnuendo.[3][4]
Idle says he learned thatElvis Presley was a fan of the sketch,[5] and would call his friends "squire" in reference to it.[6]
Idle reprised the sketch in TV advertisements for theBreakaway chocolate bar.[7] A reference to this is clearly heard onMonty Python Live at Drury Lane, where Idle mentions the product. Idle and Cleese also both advertised the Cadbury Nudge chocolate bar in Australia from 1976.[7]
