Patient Abuse

Patient Abuse is a sketch from the final episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, "Party Political Broadcast". The sketch is notable for being one of the few not written by a Monty Python member, and for its considerable amount of black humour. It was written by future Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy creator Douglas Adams, who was a friend of Python Graham Chapman, who co-wrote the sketch. Using mind-boggling bureaucracy for comic effect is one ... more

Patient Abuse is a sketch from the final episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, "Party Political Broadcast". The sketch is notable for being one of the few not written by a Monty Python member, and for its considerable amount of black humour. It was written by future Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy creator Douglas Adams, who was a friend of Python Graham Chapman, who co-wrote the sketch. Using mind-boggling bureaucracy for comic effect is one of the recurring themes of Adams' work. The sketch is set in a doctor's office. A man (Terry Jones) rushes in, blood gushing from his stomach. The doctor (Graham Chapman), barely reacting to the blood, blandly asks what the problem is, to which the man responds, staggeringly, that the nurse stabbed him. The doctor tells the man that he has to fill out paperwork before he can do anything. With his blood still spilling to the floor, the man attempts to fill out the paperwork, while the doctor complains about the difficulties of paperwork and... less