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Ethel the Aardvark, anybody? Trivia Quiz

For the hundreds of thousands of people that can quote 'The Dead Parrot' word for word at you, I offer 'The Bookshop Skit', originally broadcast on 'At Last the 1948 Show' in 1967.

A multiple-choice quiz by Quiz_Beagle. Estimated time: 5 mins.

Author
Quiz_Beagle

Time
5 mins

Type
Multiple Choice

Quiz #
276,582

Updated
Jul 23 22

# Qns
10

Difficulty
Average

Avg Score
6 / 10

Plays
718

Awards
Top 20% Quiz

One at a Time - Single Page

Question 1 of 10

1. Which future Python played the bookshop assistant to Marty Feldman's eccentric customer? Hint

Eric Idle

John Cleese

Michael Palin

Graham Chapman

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Question 2 of 10

2. What was the first title asked for? Hint

'Proceedings of the Second International Workshop on Nude Mice'

'Attractive and Affectionate Grave Design'

'Thirty Days In the Samarkand Desert with a Spoon'

'Procrastination and Task Avoidance: Theory, Research and Treatment'

3. The next book requested was 'A Hundred and One Ways to Start a Monsoon' by 'an Indian gentleman' whose name escaped the customer. Imagine the assistant's relief to be asked for 'David Copperfield' (he thinks!) next - but who did the customer claim was the author? Hint

Charles Dickens

Charles Schultz

Leo Tolstoy

Edmund Wells

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Question 4 of 10

4. The next volume requested by the customer is 'Rarnaby Budge', written by whom? Hint

Chick Darlins

Charles Dickens

Charles Dikkens

Darles Chickens

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Question 5 of 10

5. Who sent the customer to the bookshop? Hint

The chemist

Another bookshop

The library

The doctor

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Question 6 of 10

6. After the customer asks for 'The Amazing Adventures of Captain Gladys Stoat-Pamphlet and her Intrepid Spaniel Stig among the Giant Pygmies of Corsica', Volume Two' the assistant decides to shut up shop for lunch, when the customer spots a book he wants on the shelves - 'Olsen's Standard Book of British Birds'. After the assistant suspiciously checks the spelling, both of Olsen and birds, he thinks he's made a sale. But no, the customer wants the expurgated version. Why? Hint

He doesn't like gannets

The expurgated version is more thorough

The original has bad language

The expurgated book has a prettier cover

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Question 7 of 10

7. The next book the customer asks for sounds like one in a series. If I tell you that some genuine titles in the series were '_______ of the Camel Squadron', '_______ Defies the Swastika', '_______ and the Leopards of Zinn' and '_______ Buries a Hatchet', perhaps the customers request for '_______ Combs his Hair' isn't too outlandish. Who is the eponymous hero?

Answer: (One Word. Written by Captain W.E. Johns.)

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Question 8 of 10

8. After asking for 'The Gospel According to Charlie Drake', the customer at last asks for a book the assistant has got - 'Ethel the Aardvark Goes Quantity-Surveying'. But if you've got this far - you know there's a snag. What is it this time? Hint

Ethel should have been spelt 'Ethyl'

The customer wanted the paperback

The customer wanted the book in Finnish

The customer hasn't got enough money

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Question 9 of 10

9. Why won't the customer write a cheque for the book? Hint

He doesn't have a bank account

He wants to pay by credit card

He thinks the book is too expensive

He's going to borrow the book from the library

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Question 10 of 10

10. So, the customer has the book. Surely he now goes home and reads it. Does he?

Yes

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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Which future Python played the bookshop assistant to Marty Feldman's eccentric customer?

Answer: John Cleese

John Cleese was born in Weston-Super-Mare. His father had changed the family name from Cheese in World War I. Nowadays, younger quizzers will know him primarily as 'Nearly-Headless Nick' in the Harry Potter series, but he is one of the finest actors around. 'Fawlty Towers', written by John Cleese and his then wife, Connie Booth ('Polly' the maid), is regularly voted the UK's favourite comedy series.

2. What was the first title asked for?

Answer: 'Thirty Days In the Samarkand Desert with a Spoon'

By A.E.J. Elliott, apparently - and, surprisingly, they haven't got it in stock. All the wrong answers were winners or shortlisted by 'The Bookseller', the British book-trade magazine, in its competition to find the oddest book title of the year. Apparently 'Male Genitalia of Butterflies of the Balkan Peninsula' had been barred as the judges suspected that the title had been made odd on purpose.

Answer: Edmund Wells

This book is spelled with one p - 'David Coperfield' by Edmund Wells. The indefatigable customer goes on to request 'Grate Expectations', 'Knickerless Nickleby' and 'Quristmas Quarol' - all by Edmund Wells (his 'David Coperfield' was, bafflingly, 'more thorough than the Dickens'). Just to confuse matters further, Edmund Wells' 'David Coperfield' also had two ps until he ran into copyright problems.

The assistant is definite that all their 'David Copperfield' volumes have two ps and are by Charles Dickens.

4. The next volume requested by the customer is 'Rarnaby Budge', written by whom?

Answer: Charles Dikkens

'That's Dikkens with two 'k's, the well-known Dutch author' - and no, they haven't. No, that's not a typo - Charles Dickens wrote 'Barnaby Rudge', we learn in the skit that Charles Dikkens wrote 'Rarnaby Budge'. Do keep up!

5. Who sent the customer to the bookshop?

Answer: The chemist

Tried beyong endurance (if you don't know the skit, just picture John Cleese in full rant mode) the assistant explains in a shriek that 'to save time I should add right away that we don't have 'Carnaby Fudge' by Daries Tikkens, nor 'Stickwick Stapers' by Miles Pikkens with four Ms and a silent Q, why don't you try the chemist?', which is when the customer explains 'I did.

They sent me here'.

Answer: He doesn't like gannets

The customer thinks that gannets have 'got long nasty beaks! And they wet their nests'. At the end of his tether, the assistant rips out the gannets, and, after finding out that the customer isn't too keen on robins either, also removes that page. Of course the customer can't buy, as he points out, a torn book. The gannet is also known as the solan goose.

Answer: Biggles

A series of rattling good yarns written for boys, these books enjoyed immense popularity, but they are very dated now. Captain W.E. Johns also had a female heroine, immortalised as 'Worrals of the WAAF'. Some people made up silly titles for the series, such as 'Biggles Flies Back to Front'.

Answer: The customer hasn't got enough money

The assistant offers to take a deposit, whereupon the customer reveals he hasn't actually got any money at all!

9. Why won't the customer write a cheque for the book?

Answer: He doesn't have a bank account

He hasn't got a cheque book and he can't even write a blank cheque because he hasn't got a bank account. Hardly the ideal customer! The assistant, goaded beyond endurance, not only buys the book for the customer, but also gives him the change for a taxi home!

10. So, the customer has the book. Surely he now goes home and reads it. Does he?

Answer: No

You should have guessed - he can't even read! The skit ends with Marty Feldman, wide-eyed (difficult for him to have been anything else!), sitting on John Cleese's knee as he reads the deathless prose - 'Ethel the Aardvark was trotting down the lane one lovely summer day, trottety-trottety-trot, when she saw a nice Quantity-Surveyor..' Unfortunately, we lost Marty Feldman in 1982, far too young.

His performance in 'Young Frankenstein' was hilarious. I hope you enjoyed this quiz - I certainly enjoyed writing it and reliving this marvellous sketch.

Source: Author Quiz_Beagle

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor JuniorTheJaws before going online.
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