9) Buy British (or: "The Restaurant Sketch")
W: Waiter/waitress
C: Customer (upperclass/posh voice) GF:
Girlfriend (slightly stupid)
W: Bon soir, madame!
GF: Oh,
how do you do, I’m sure.
W: Bon soir, monsieur!
C: Good
evening.
W: Monsieur,
madame, welcome to the Bon Gourmet! You would like a table a deux?
C: Adieu?
My dear good fellow, we’ve only just arrived. Kindly get us a table for two.
W: For
two, monsieur, if you would kindly come this way, please.
C: Yes,
and do stop putting on that ridiculous regional accent, it cuts no ice with me,
you know.
W: Oh,
I’m sorry monsieur, but I’m French.
C: I
am sorry, too, but I didn’t come here to listen to your problems. Kindly get
us a menu.
W: A menu, tout de suite,
monsieur.
C: Menu, did you notice the revolting way he pronounced it ? These wretched
foreigners, they come over here, create unemployment and then muck about with the
English language. (to his girlfriend) If I had known it was going to be
that kind of place, I would never have brought you here my dear … (starts
kissing girlfriend) Naughty, naughty …. sweety-peety
… lovely girl … Yes, thank you. Now what would you like my dear?
GF: Oh,
I don’t know, really.
C: Oh,
I’m not surprised all this rubbish, all in French! I can’t make head or tail
of it, I’m glad to say. Oh, don’t just mill about like that, man translate! What does all
this rubbish mean?
W: Well,
perhaps, monsieur, you would like to start with the hors d’oevres.
C: Yesterday’s
leftovers and garlic? No, thank you! A good solid soup would be more like it.
W: Well,
we have a very good minestrone, monsieur.
C: You
mean that Italian slop?
W: It
is Italian, monsieur.
C: I’ll
have none of that. I lot of gigolos and wops all mincing about with olive oil on
their hair. Yes, we can see what kind of soup they’d make, can’t we? Haven’t you
any decent Brown Windsor, the soup of kings?
W: No,
monsieur, but we have this delicious bouillabaisse au congre.
C: What
the devil’s that?
W: It
is made from eels, monsieur, very popular in my country.
C: (absolutely
disgusted) Eels, obscene French filth. Eels, it makes you sick
to think of it. Doesn’t it, my dear? Trust the French to turn to eels. Well, forget the
soup.
What else have you got?
W: Well,
perhaps monsieur, you would like our speciality: Torcinos del Cielo?
C: What
are they and where do they come from?
W: They
are sheep’s eyes in aspic.
C: Sounds
good.
W: We
serve it, monsieur, with a special sauce made from the blood of unborn goats.
C: That
sounds delicious, we’ll have some of that, shall we my dear?
W: A
very wise choice, monsieur. They are the finest sheep’s eyes in the world,
animals that have grazed on the highest pastures in the Sierra Nevada.
C: Spanish
muck is it? Dirty Spanish muck. Nothing but beggars and archbishops trying to
lay their greedy hands on Gibraltar. I refuse to subsidize bullfighting.
Now then, what’s this spaarg stuff
here, sparaag?
W: That’s
very good, monsieur, Spargel and Hofrats Gemüse (sic). That’s
asparagus, monsieur, cooked in butter and blended with delicate spices – delicious!
C: Yes,
where does that come from?
W: We
have it specially flown over by British Airways.
C: …lovely
airline …
W: …
all the way from Berlin.
C: Bloody
boche asparagus is it? I might have known! As soon as you stop bombing them,
they start selling you their second-hand vegetable. Now, you pull yourself
together, man! Have you nothing decent to eat?
W: Monsieur,
perhaps I could recommend our Chicken Maryland?
C: After
what the Americans did at Boston? I don’t forget that easily, sir! Have you
now British food?
W: I’m
afraid not, monsieur.
C: We
are being colonized, that’s what it is, overrun. If we can’t have anything
to eat, let’s have something to drink.
W: To
drink, certainly, monsieur. Now what would you like? We have an excellent
Sauternes.
C: French
muck!
W: Or
some good Riesling.
C: Dirty
German muck.
W: Some
Spanish Rioja.
C: Dirty,
rotten, stinking, filthy foreign slush! What about a glass of Devon cider.
Glorious Devon cider, nothing wrong with that.
W: No,
I’m afraid not.
C: Well,
blackberry wine, that’s another. My old grandmother, blackberry wine she made.
W: No,
I’m afraid not.
C: Well,
what can I drink with safety?
W: Well,
perhaps monsieur, you would like a cup of tea?
GF: Oh,
I’d love a cup of tea.
C: All
right then, two teas. Thank goodness, there’s something English in this
godforsaken establishment.
W: Two
teas, monsieur. Indian or China?
C: (absolutely
furious and exasperated) How dare you!!!
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