Every Sperm is Sacred

[pokerfan]

Since the Republicans seem determined to make reproductive rights a campaign issue, I felt this needed reposting. This is the complete sketch, including the hysterical denouement with Graham Chapman and Eric Idle as the Protestant couple who can have sex anytime they want, but don't.

Despite the attempts of Protestants to promote the idea of sex for pleasure, children continued to multiply everywhere.

The song is a satire of Catholic teachings on reproduction that forbid masturbation and contraception by artificial means. The sketch is about a Catholic Yorkshire man (Dad, played by Michael Palin), his wife (Mum, played by Terry Jones) and their sixty-three children, who are about to be sold for medical experimentation purposes because their parents can no longer afford to care for such a large family with the local mill being closed. When their children ask why they don't use contraception or sterilization, such as why the father doesn't perform self-castration, Dad explains that this is against God's wishes, and breaks into song, the chorus of which is:

Every sperm is sacred,
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.

The production in The Meaning of Life is quite visually elaborate, filmed in Halifax, West Yorkshire and choreographed by Arlene Phillips to a storyboard by director Terry Jones. The hearty and cheerful nature of the musical number is counterpointed as the children are marched off to their fate as the song ends, singing a dour rendition of the chorus as their middle-aged Protestant neighbors (played by Graham Chapman and Eric Idle) comment on the teachings of the Catholic Church, to which they ironically add that they have two children, which is the exact number of times they have had sex in their marriage, a joke on the stereotype that Protestants control their reproduction by barely having any sex at all. The song is a parody of the song "Consider Yourself", from the musical Oliver! by Lionel Bart.

[erinlough]

1. Thanks for posting this! What a great sketch. nt

[pokerfan]

2. Probably my favorite Python sketch

Runners up:

Bruces
Hungarian Phrasebook
Argument Clinic
Upper Class Twit of the Year
Dead Parrot

[cantbeserious]

3. 50 Years And I Did Not Know - No One Said I Was Supopsed To Save The Little Buggers

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