Monty Python Turned Spam Into A Pop Culture Legend

For many people, Hormel's classic cubed Spam is little more than another tinned mystery meat to look past on grocery store shelves. However, the peculiar pork product has a rich and important history. Spam first emerged in the late 1930s but exploded in popularity during World War II, where its shelf stability proved invaluable to soldiers on the front lines.

While its wartime status has since waned, Spam is still wildly popular in certain places. During World War II, Hawaii was occupied for naval use by the Allied forces. The Allies received Spam as a part of their rations, and native Hawaiians developed a taste for spiced pork. The Hormel staple is so beloved on the island chain that black market Spam has been a serious problem. It is popular in South Korea for similar reasons.

On another island, Spam also ascended to the heights of popular culture, which can be attributed in full to a single wacky skit. British comedy collective Monty Python's absurdist Spam sketch is uproariously funny and transformed Hormel's oft-ignored tin of meat into a veritable supermarket legend.

If anyone could be credited for how wacky and wonderful Monty Python's Flying Circus is, it's the late, great Terry Jones. His crazy comedy mind was on full display when he wrote the Spam sketch.

In the famous skit, which you can watch on Dailymotion, Jones plays a waitress at a diner delivering the establishment's menu to a husband and wife. As the waitress winds on, the audience realizes the joke – every single dish on this diner's menu contains Spam. If you think such a simple joke would get grating throughout a two-sketch, you'd be correct, but that's precisely the point. Just when it seems like Spam has been said as many times as is physically possible, a gaggle of literal Vikings — horned helmets, beards, braids, and all — begins singing an operatic Spam chorus.

Many of you may have spent your lives shying away from Spam. The slurp sounds made as the unnaturally shaped meat slides from its tin can be unsettling if you haven't heard it before. However, as Josephine Cariño explains for VIDA, an aversion to Spam is actually a privileged position, given the canned meat's popularity within specific unprivileged communities so it's probably time for you to stop worrying and give Spam a chance.

However, there is another Spam out there that is considerably more difficult to defend. Email spam is among the most annoying phenomena worldwide, as are all other forms of aggressive electronic mass marketing. Many people believe the tradition of referring to junk mail as spam came from the Monthy Python sketch. Much like the droning waitress and bellowing Vikings screaming Spam, electronic spam doesn't stop assaulting your inbox.

Furthermore, the Spam sketch could be partially responsible for bringing into existence the smash success musical Spamalot, a raucous and raunchy telling of King Arthur's tale that was the recipient of 14 Tony Awards and a Grammy.