Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook

"Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook" is a Monty Python sketch that first aired in 1970.

Plot

The sketch is set in Britain. A Hungarian enters a tobacconist's shop carrying a phrasebook and begins a dialogue with the tobacconist; he wants to buy some cigarettes but his phrasebook is poorly written and the translations of his desired phrases do not resemble in the slightest what he wants to say. Many of them are plainly bizarre and some of them are mildly sexual in nature (for example: "do you want to go to my place -- bouncy-bouncy?"). After the customer has conveyed his desire in gestures, the tobacconist looks in the phrasebook to find a Hungarian translation for "six and six" (i.e. six shillings and sixpence); he reads out the (fake) Hungarian sentence Yandelavasa grldenwi stravenka, which provokes the Hungarian to punch him in the face. A policeman, hearing the punch from a considerable distance, runs to the shop and arrests the Hungarian, who protests absurdly: "My nipples explode with delight!"

The Hungarian is apparently released, and instead the publisher of the phrasebook is taken to court, where he pleads "not guilty" of actions tending to provoke a breach of the peace. After the prosecutor reads some samples from the book, the publisher changes his plea to "incompetent."

Cast

• John Cleese as the Hungarian (and a barrister)
• Terry Jones as the tobacconist (and the judge)
• Graham Chapman as the policeman
• Michael Palin as the publisher
• Eric Idle as the prosecutor

In other Python works

In the TV episode, the Hungarian character reappeared in the "Spam" sketch. This sketch also appeared in And Now for Something Completely Different, where, at the end of the sketch, another Hungarian tells someone on the street "Please fondle my buttocks". The man then gives him directions.

In other media

The phrase "my hovercraft is full of eels" is often mentioned^[1] in relation to any translation system, in particular ones which translate poorly. In 1998, The Atlantic noted that two commercial translation programs could translate the phrase "into French and back and into Italian and back without a glitch."^[2] The phrase is also used as a cliche that takes the form of a character thinking they can speak a language, but whatever they try to say in that language ends up sounding nonsensical or outright rude to native speakers of the language in question. It appeared in some versions of the OpenVMS operating system as an easter egg error message. ^[3]

The phrase "Drop your panties, Sir William; I cannot wait until lunchtime!" was spoofed in the Nintendo DS game Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations, as an outburst by a supporting character in the game's second case.

Notable quotations^[4]

• "I will not buy this record; it is scratched."
• "I will not buy this tobacconist's; it is scratched."
• "My hovercraft is full of eels."
• "Do you want to come back to my place, bouncy bouncy?"
• "You great poof."
• "If I said you have a beautiful body, would you hold it against me?" (a line made famous by Groucho Marx)
• "I am no longer infected."
• "You have beautiful thighs" (said to the policeman).
• "Drop your panties, Sir William; I cannot wait until lunchtime!"
• "The Hungarian phrase meaning 'Can you direct me to the station?' is here translated by the English phrase, 'Please fondle my bum.'"
• "My nipples explode with delight!"

See also

• My postillion has been struck by lightning, a phrase reportedly found in a real Hungarian-English phrasebook
• English As She Is Spoke

References

1. ^ Dr. Dobb's | Your Passport to Proper Internationalization | May 1, 2000
2. ^ Stephen Budiansky (12 1998). "Lost in Translation". The Atlantic. http://www.theatlantic.com/past/docs/issues/98dec/computer.htm. Retrieved 2010-03-05. 
3. ^ http://www.eeggs.com/items/44492.html
4. ^ The Hungarian Phrasebook Script

External links

• Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook
• Translations of "My Hovercraft is full of eels" in many languages