Spiny Norman

Spiny Norman

"Piranha Brothers" is a Monty Python sketch that was first seen in the first episode (titled "Face the Press") of the second series of Monty Python's Flying Circus. Originally broadcast on television on 15 September 1970, the premise is a BBC current affairs documentary programme, inexplicably titled Ethel the Frog, retrospectively covering the exploits of the brothers Doug and Dinsdale Piranha. The sociopathic criminals employed a combination of "violence and sarcasm" to intimidate the London underworld and bring the city to its knees. Dinsdale is also described as being afraid of "Spiny Norman", a gigantic imaginary hedgehog whose reported size varied based on Dinsdale's mood. The threat of Norman affected Dinsdale so severely that it led him to launch a nuclear weapon attack on an airplane hangar (where Norman was thought to have resided according to Dinsdale) at Luton International Airport (then Luton Airfield) on 22 February 1966. During the end of the sketch, which also ends the episode, the creature is apparently revealed as real and appearing (in the form of a Terry Gilliam animation bellowing "Dinsdale!") beside various English landmarks as the credits roll.

Update this biography »
Complete biography of Spiny Norman »