Mr Creosote

Mr. Creosote
Mr. Creosote (Terry Jones), with the maître d' (John Cleese, right) and second waiter (Eric Idle, left)
First appearance Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983)
Portrayed by Terry Jones
Information
Gender Male

Mr. Creosote is a fictional character who appears in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. He is a monstrously obese restaurant patron who is served a vast amount of food whilst vomiting repeatedly. After being persuaded to eat an after-dinner mint, he explodes in a very graphic way. The sketch opens the film's segment titled "Part VI: The Autumn Years".

The character is played by Terry Jones, who directed the film.[1]

Synopsis

In the sketch, Mr. Creosote dines at a French restaurant. The entrance of this morbidly obese middle-aged man is accompanied by ominous music. One of the fish in the aquarium exclaims "Oh shit—it's Mr. Creosote!" as he passes, causing all the fish to swim for cover. The scene opens with a short dialogue between Mr. Creosote and the maître d', played by John Cleese:

  • Maître d': "Ah, good afternoon, sir; and how are we today?"
  • Mr. Creosote: "Better."
  • Maître d': "Better?"
  • Mr. Creosote: "Better get a bucket, I'm gonna throw up."

Creosote is then led to his table, and once seated starts projectile-vomiting, failing to hit the bucket he had requested a moment before. The floor quickly becomes covered in vomitus, and so do the cleaning woman and the maître d's trousers. Creosote listens patiently while highlights of the evening's menu are recited to him; after vomiting on the menu held open in front of him by the maître d', he orders all of the dishes listed by the maitre d'. As a result, he is served moules marinières, pâté de foie gras, beluga caviar, Eggs Benedict, a leek tart, frogs' legs amandine and quail's eggs with puréed mushrooms all mixed in a bucket with the quail eggs on top and a double helping of pâté. The appetizers are followed by the main course of jugged hare, with a sauce of truffles, bacon, Grand Marnier, anchovies and cream. For drinks, Mr. Creosote has six bottles of Château Latour 1945, a Methuselah (Double Jeroboam/6 litres) of champagne, and half a dozen crates of brown ale (144 bottles)—considerably less than his usual fare.

  • Maitre D: Bon, and the usual brown ales ...?
  • Mr. Creosote: Yeah… No wait a minute ... I think I can only manage six crates today.

He finishes the feast, and several other courses, vomiting profusely all over himself, his table, and the restaurant's staff throughout his meal, causing other diners to lose their appetite, and in some cases, throw up as well. Finally, after being persuaded by the smooth maître d' to eat a single "wafer-thin mint", his stomach begins to rapidly expand until it explodes: covering the restaurant and diners with viscera and partially digested food—even starting a "vomit-wave" among the other diners, who leave in disgust.

When the explosion clears, Creosote is amazingly still alive, but his chest cavity and abdomen are now blasted open, revealing his spread ribs and intact, still-beating heart, and viscera. As he looks around, seemingly confused by what has just happened, the maître d' calmly walks up to him and presents, "the cheque, monsieur."

Production

In the documentary The Meaning of Making 'The Meaning of Life' (2003), John Cleese said that the sketch, originally written by Jones and Michael Palin, was initially rejected. Cleese said the sketch suffered from a flawed construction and rewrote it with Graham Chapman. At the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival — Tribute to Monty Python it was claimed Cleese was taken with the unflappable maître d' character. Jones thought Creosote should be played by fellow Python Terry Gilliam, before Gilliam persuaded Jones to play the role instead.[2]

Jones was transformed into Mr. Creosote by British prosthetic make-up artist Christopher Tucker, who also created the prosthetic effects for the American film drama The Elephant Man (1980).[3]

The vomitus was portrayed using large amounts of condensed minestrone soup. This made a considerable mess of the filming location, the Seymour Leisure Centre in Paddington.[4]

Reception

When asked about his proclivity toward gruesome film violence, director Quentin Tarantino said that the "Mr. Creosote" scene was the only time he had been disturbed by a graphic or gruesome film sequence.[5]

In his 2015 Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin described Mr. Creosote as having "an unforgettable scene, like it or not".[6]

References

  1. ↑ Hind, John (20 May 2012), "Lunch with Terry Jones", The Guardian, London, England: Guardian media Group, retrieved 5 April 2018
  2. ↑ "The Yorkshire Post video interview: Python Terry Jones". The Yorkshire Post. Leeds, England: Johnston Press. 3 April 2009. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  3. ↑ Sanger, Jonathan (2016). Making The Elephant Man: A Producer’s Memoir. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Co. p. 72. ISBN 978-1476666624. Retrieved 18 October 2017.
  4. ↑ Michael, Chris (30 September 2013). "How we made Monty Python's The Meaning of Life". The Guardian. London, England: Guardian Media Group. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
  5. ↑ "Quentin Tarantino on Kill Bill Vol. 2". Channel 4. Retrieved 23 September 2013.
  6. ↑ Maltin, Leonard (2014). Leonard Maltin's 2015 Movie Guide. London, England: Penguin Books. ISBN 0698183614.

Bibliography

  • Carroll, Noël (2006). "What Mr. Creosote Knows About Laughter". In Hardcastle, Gary L.; Reisch, George A. Monty Python and Philosophy: Nudge Nudge, Think Think!. Chicago, Illinois: Open Court Publishing. pp. 25–36. ISBN 0-8126-9593-3.
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