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Spam (Monty Python sketch)
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<p>"Spam" is a <a href="/facts/Monty_Python/tNPcRLty">Monty Python</a> <a href="/facts/Sketch_comedy/o2lkGS6z">sketch</a>, first televised in 1970 (series 2, episode 12, "Spam") and written by <a href="/facts/Terry_Jones/WzUj6Gyu">Terry Jones</a> and <a href="/facts/Michael_Palin/fWgDKcc0">Michael Palin</a>. In the sketch, two customers are lowered by wires into a <a href="/facts/Cafe_(British)/P0ekwmSc">greasy spoon café</a> and try to order a <a href="/facts/Breakfast/7v3ogyrU">breakfast</a> from a <a href="/facts/Menu/FIneof8q">menu</a> that includes <a href="/facts/Spam_(food)/KMXc67pN">Spam</a> in almost every dish, much to the consternation of one of the customers. As the waitress recites the Spam-filled menu, a group of <a href="/facts/Viking/d0WFeQ6f">Viking</a> patrons drown out all conversations with a song, repeating "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam… Lovely Spam! Wonderful Spam!". </p><p>The excessive amount of Spam was probably a reference to the ubiquity of it and other imported <a href="/facts/Potted_meat/86Kn7xLk">canned meat products</a> in the <a href="/facts/United_Kingdom/kuPAILt2">United Kingdom</a> after <a href="/facts/World_War_II/2efV5L1U">World War II</a> (a <a href="/facts/Rationing_in_the_United_Kingdom/WcyfUWUf">period of rationing in the UK</a>) as the country struggled to rebuild its agricultural base. Thanks to its wartime ubiquity, the British public had grown tired of it. </p><p>The televised sketch and several subsequent performances feature <a href="/facts/Terry_Jones/WzUj6Gyu">Terry Jones</a> as the waitress, <a href="/facts/Eric_Idle/8zfXrh4j">Eric Idle</a> as Mr. Bun and <a href="/facts/Graham_Chapman/bchpDSuv">Graham Chapman</a> as Mrs. Bun, who does not like Spam. The original sketch also featured <a href="/facts/John_Cleese/ULkFcKVC">John Cleese</a> as <a href="/facts/Dirty_Hungarian_Phrasebook/dufUhVsE">The Hungarian</a> and Palin as a historian, but this part was left out of the audio version of the sketch recorded for the team's second album <i><a href="/facts/Another_Monty_Python_Record/P1o7mXbq">Another Monty Python Record</a></i> (1971). A year later this track was released as the Pythons' first <a href="/facts/Single_(music)/xkeLPy2P">7" single</a>. </p><p>The use of the term <i><a href="/facts/Spamming/Qc9IL60W">spam</a></i> for unsolicited <a href="/facts/Electronic_communications/vxoj1cxR">electronic communications</a> is derived from this sketch. </p>