The Well Spoken Barber

Stephen Fry plays an overly verbose and eloquent barber who takes an extraordinarily long time to cut Hugh Laurie's hair. The barber uses elaborate, flowery language to describe every aspect of the haircutting process, speaking in long, convoluted sentences filled with unnecessarily complex vocabulary. Hugh's character grows increasingly impatient as the barber pontificates about "which of Sir's manifold hairs" is destined "for an encutment" and whether "sir would prefer it if in the sphere of total hair cutation I was to him a virgin." The sketch is a brilliant parody of overly formal and pretentious service providers, showcasing Fry's talent for verbose, patronizing servant characters (similar to his later role as Jeeves).