Mr Creosote

Mr. Creosote (Terry Jones), with the maître d' (John Cleese, right) and second waiter (Eric Idle, left)

Mr. Creosote is a fictional character who appears in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. Creosote is a monstrously obese restaurant patron who is served a vast amount of food while vomiting repeatedly. After being persuaded to eat one more mint, he explodes in a very graphic way. The sketch is the first part of "Part VI: The Autumn Years" of the film.

The character is played by Terry Jones (who is also the director of the film).

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 and 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 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 vomit, 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 marinieres, pate de foie gras, beluga caviar, eggs benedict, a leek tart, frogs' legs amandine and quail's eggs on a bed of mushrooms all mixed together in a bucket with the quail eggs on top and a double helping of pate. The appetizers are followed by the main course of Jugged Hare, with a sauce of truffles, bacon, Grand Marnier, anchovies and cream. For apéritifs, Mr. Creosote has six bottles of Château Latour 1945, a double jeroboam of champagne, and half a dozen crates of brown ale – considerably less than his usual allowance.^[1]

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 (in some cases, even throwing up themselves). Finally, after being persuaded by the smooth maître d' to eat a "wafer-thin mint", he explodes, covering the restaurant and diners with innards and partially digested food – even starting a "vomit-wave" among the other diners, who leave in disgust.

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

Deleted Footage

Scripted, but omitted from the final cut of the movie, was introductory footage of Creosote going for a morning stroll; because of his humungous girth, he must use a wheelbarrow the way paraplegics use a wheelchair. The stroll is set to Creosote's theme music: "I love my fat, my fat loves me; when we're together, we're as big as three..."

Reception

Despite his own proclivity toward gruesome or "wet" film violence, director Quentin Tarantino has confessed to being nauseated by this scene,^[2] although critics with stronger stomachs have praised its dark humour (Leonard Maltin declared it "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.

The copious amounts of simulated vomit were created by blending a mixture of ground potatoes with water and other coarse vegetable materials.

It was revealed by John Cleese in a documentary The Meaning of Making 'The Meaning of Life (2003) accompanying the DVD of the film that the sketch, originally written by Jones and Palin,^[3] was initially rejected, but Cleese eventually decided that the sketch suffered only 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 at first thought Creosote should be played by fellow Python Terry Gilliam, but Gilliam persuaded Jones to play it himself.

References

1. ^ Maitre D: Bon, and the usual brown ales...?
   Mr Creosote: Yeah... No wait a minute... I think I can only manage six crates today.
   
2. ^ Saxon Bullock for Channel 4 Film. "Quentin Tarantino on Kill Bill Vol.". p. 3. http://www.channel4.com/film/reviews/feature.jsp?id=130330&page=1. Retrieved 1 September 2009. 
3. ^ "The Yorkshire Post video interview: Python Terry Jones". The Yorkshire Post. 3 April 2009. http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/features/the_yorkshire_post_video_interview_python_terry_jones_1_2341143. Retrieved 13 April 2011. 

Bibliography

• Carroll, Noël (2006). "What Mr. Creosote Knows About Laughter". In Hardcastle, Gary L. and Reisch, George A.. Monty Python and Philosophy: Nudge Nudge, Think Think!. Open Court Publishing. pp. 25–36. ISBN 0812695933. 

External links

• Part of the transcript of the Aspen documentary, with Terry Jones talking about the character