Mr Creosote
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Mr Creosote is a fictional character in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, played by Terry Jones. In the sketch, Mr Creosote dines at a French restaurant. The entrance of this morbidly obese middle-aged man is followed by a short dialogue with 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 going to throw up. |
Creosote is then led to his table, and once seated starts vomiting, failing to hit the bucket he had requested a moment before. The floor quickly becomes covered in vomit, and so do the cleaning woman and the maître d's trousers. He listens patiently while highlights of the evening's menu are recited to him; after vomiting on the menu held open right in front of him by the maître d', he orders them all served in a bucket with Eggs Benedict on top, and for apéritifs he has six bottles of Château Latour 1945, a double jeroboam of champagne, and half a dozen crates of brown ale (half his usual allowance). He finishes the lot, vomiting profusely all over himself, his table, and the other diners throughout the duration. Finally, after being persuaded by the smooth (and possibly vengeful) maître d' to eat a "wafer-thin mint", he explodes in a huge torrent of innards and partially digested food.
It has been suggested that the scene is one of the most repulsive in twentieth-century cinema. Director Quentin Tarantino has confessed to being nauseated by this scene, but critics with stronger stomachs have praised its dark humour. (Leonard Maltin noted it as "an unforgettable scene, like it or not.") It was filmed in the Porchester Centre, a public building owned by the City of Westminster on Porchester Road, London W2.
It was revealed at the "U.S. Comedy Arts Festival - Tribute to Monty Python" that the scene, penned by Jones, was initially not going to be in the film, but Cleese was taken with the unflappable maître d' character. Jones at first thought Creosote should be played by fellow Python Terry Gilliam, but Gilliam convinced Jones to play it himself. [1]
[edit] In popular culture
- In an episode of Gilmore Girls an over-due Sookie worries that her baby will just get bigger and bigger until it explodes à la Mr Creosote.
- In another episode of Gilmore Girls a hung-over Paris warns Loreli and Rory to stop using the word "vomiting" unless they want a "Mr Creosote situation here."
- In the comic strip FoxTrot, Paige wakes up with a hugely distorted head, and complains that she shouldn't have crammed for school finals after watching "that Monty Python film". Her brother Jason torments her by waving some notes at her and saying "It's only a wafer-thin math formula!"
- The band Doctor and the Crippens recorded a song titled "Mr Creosote".
- In Stranger than Fiction, Harold Crick is seen watching the Mr Creosote scene in a movie theater.
- The U.S. commercial of Yoshi's Island for the SNES was a parody to the Mr. Creosote sketch although the man actually exploded from eating whipped cream from a jello.
- A picture of Mr. Creosote replaced with Michael Moore's head has been circled widely in the internet, mainly by and among American conservatives and Republicans.
