Monty Python and the origins of "spam"

It seems Kari's spam-catcher has been working overtime lately, gobbling up perfectly good comments and digesting them before Kari even has a chance to rescue them. What's a blogger to do with a spam-catcher like that? Well, if you're Kari...you NAME him. Heh heh. She's twisted I tell ya. I like that in a blogger.

But the fun doesn't stop there. Kari's a good sport and wants us to join in! She's having a contest! With a prize! To name her spam-catcher! I am SO gonna enter.

Now, if you are a fan of Monty Python, then my name suggestion will need no explanation. But if (like me, I confess) you are not familiar with the work of this famous British comedy troupe, read on!

It seems that during World War II, Spam was one of the only meats (and I use that term loosely) that wasn't rationed, and so was one of the few meats that was readily available. By the end of the war and after years of eating Spam, Spam and more Spam in every conceivable way, the Brits were understandably weary of it. Then in the '70's, Monty Python did a now famous sketch called "SPAM" that is a take off on the ubiquitous canned meat.

In the sketch, a married couple, Mr. and Mrs. Bun, are in a little restaurant, trying to order something for breakfast. And at The Green Midget Café, just about everything on the menu comes with spam:

• Egg and bacon
• Egg, sausage and bacon
• Egg and spam
• Egg, bacon and spam
• Egg, bacon, sausage and spam
• Spam, bacon, sausage and spam
• Spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon and spam
• Spam, spam, spam, egg, and spam
• Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam and spam
• Lobster thermidor aux crevettes with a Mornay sauce garnished with truffle paté, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam
• Spam, sausage, spam, spam, spam, bacon, spam, tomato and spam
  

Despite a choir of Vikings (don't ask me) extolling the virtues of "spam, lovely spam", Mrs. Bun doesn't want to have a breakfast of spam, but she's the only one. Vikings sing, the waitresses argue, hilarity ensues.

Over the years "SPAM" has become one of Monty Python's best known skits and apparently the term "spam", as it refers to electronic junk mail, is derived from this skit about the abundant, but unpopular canned meat.

So, I just couldn't resist; as an homage to the only character in the skit who doesn't like spam, I am suggesting that Kari name her spam-catcher...Mrs. Bun.