Story by Jon Stalnaker AKA The Studebaker Dude
I’ve been talking with my sons this week and I wanted to reminisce about some of the foolishness and fun that we had when we were all younger. It’s sad for me that we live so far away, now that we moved to Oklahoma, so it is always a joy to my heart to talk to them. My oldest son Jon is the one that visited us last November. That was a great treat for Carlene and me and we would love to get visits from the others too. Reality tells us that it is not as easy for them with young children, jobs and life requirements of their own. We can still dream and leave the door open for them. They are always in my prayers. This story was originally written almost ten years ago now. I am updating it where necessary.
My son, Jon, posted something on Facebook from back in the 90s showing a picture of a can of Spam. When my children were young, we used to listen to silly stuff and watch silly movies and TV shows all the time. We were big fans of Weird Al Yankovic and we watched a lot of Monty Python on TV. There were three of their skits that were particular favorites, The Dead Parrot, The Argument, and of course, the Spam skit. I had the brilliant idea to write down the words so we could each do a part and perform the whole skit. This was before everyone was on the internet, so we had to listen to a recording, stop it long enough to write down the words, start it up again to get the next bit and so on until we got it all. If we didn’t get a segment, we would have to run the recording back and then continue on. It was difficult to do and sometimes we couldn’t quite figure out what they were saying. I think we managed to get these three skits down on paper; but they were not exact.
It was a fun thing to do, but today all you have to do is google it and you can get the entire script in less than a minute. I like that much better because we use quotes from favorite movies and television in our quirky conversations. Such was the case with Jon’s Spam post. My response was simply “bloody Vikings”. If you are familiar with the bit, you understand that and I knew Jon would get it immediately, which he did. He responded with “Spam, Egg, Sausage and Spam, that’s not got much spam in it”. (or close to that) I knew what he was saying and I wanted to reply with my favorite line in the whole thing, but it’s long and one of the lines that I don’t think we ever got right when we were copying the words back in the 90s. Then I thought, I’ll just google it and get the words right because I didn’t want to mess up the best line in the whole skit.
The line goes; “or lobster thermidor au crevette with a mornay sauce served in a Provençale manner with shallots and auberges garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and spam”. Jon thought that was hilarious, but I didn’t fool him for a moment. His reply was “There is no way you just remembered that. You had to look that one up. ”Yes Jon, I not only didn’t remember the whole line, but I also don’t think I ever got it right in the first place.
I printed a copy of the Spam skit and the Argument skit, so I have all the proper words now. If we could ever get together, it would be fun to do the skits as a family. But I’m not holding my breath for that to happen. Besides, it’s never going to be as funny as watching the brilliant comedians of Monty Python perform them. Their timing and brilliant voice characterizations are far beyond our skills and abilities. But in a private setting, we could have some fun with it.
If you have never seen these skits, I would highly recommend you google them. They are hilarious, at least in my mind. I’ve passed my sick sense of humor down to my children, so they enjoy Monty Python as well. Just thinking about this makes me feel so much better. I’m missing them a lot today.
Spam Skit Spam, Egg, Sausage, and Spam (with bacon)
My Three Sons – Andrew, Jon Jr. and Stephen – da da da daaaa, da da da daaaa…
