Monty Python’s famous fish-slapping dance ended up saving Sir Michael Palin from gun-toting Venezuelan paramilitaries, the comedian has revealed.
Palin, 82, had been shooting his Channel 5 documentary in the troubled South American country when he found himself in hot water.
Armed soldiers stopped the crew from filming before taking Palin captive and holding him at gunpoint.
In a desperate attempt to save himself, Palin told the paramilitaries he was an English comedian, The Times reported.
A quick search on YouTube led the gunmen to the fish-slapping dance from Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
‘Then they realised that we were not a threat in any shape or form and they let us on our way,’ Palin said.
Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, the Python star revealed it was the second time the ‘very silly’ sketch had helped him escape trouble in a totalitarian state.
Palin, who was discussing his new Venezuelan travel book, said he and his crew had travelled to Sabaneta – the birthplace of the late president Hugo Chávez – where a statue of the Socialist leader stands as a gift to the nation from Vladimir Putin.
Monty Python’s famous fish-slapping dance ended up saving Sir Michael Palin from gun-toting Venezuelan paramilitaries, the comedian has revealed
Palin, 82, had been shooting his Channel 5 documentary in the troubled South American country when he found himself in hot water
Armed soldiers stopped the crew from filming before taking Palin captive and holding him at gunpoint. Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival, the Python star revealed it was the second time the ‘very silly’ sketch had helped him escape trouble in a totalitarian state. Pictured: Sir Michael Palin
They were stopped from filming and soon confronted by an armed squad of paramilitaries, who rifled through their belongings and took them prisoner.
Eventually, Palin and his team persuaded their captors to let them go to a nearby restaurant after complaining of hunger.
The paramilitaries, rifles in hand, sat at one table, while Palin and his crew sat nervously at another.
It was there that the gunmen looked up Palin’s name on YouTube after being told he was a comedian.
The first clip they found was an old interview with John Cleese, Malcolm Muggeridge, the Bishop of Southwark, and Palin.
‘They looked at this and said ‘he’s not funny’,’ Palin recalled. ‘It was one of the first times I’d been really serious on television, so that didn’t do me any good.’
He then slipped them a note suggesting they search for ‘Monty Python’ – and everything changed.
‘They got the fish-slapping dance, which is a very silly thing, and they realised that we were not a threat,’ he explained.
The author and travel presenter said the same sketch had also ‘saved’ him years earlier, when he was stuck for hours at an airport in North Korea while filming his first Channel 5 documentary.
Under constant watch by a female guide and interpreter, Palin said the pair had little to talk about and were growing bored – until he showed her the fish-slapping dance.
‘She ended up roaring with laughter,’ he said.
Palin told the festival he welcomed the news that Venezuelan opposition politician María Corina Machado had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her dogged fight to rescue her country from authoritarian rule.
Machado, 58, has been in hiding in Venezuela for the past year following elections that authoritarian leftist President Nicolás Maduro is accused of stealing.
