The Dirty Fork

A man and his wife settle in at a highly rated restaurant, and he mentions in passing that his fork is a little dirty. The waiter, Gaston, is mortified and fetches the head waiter, Gilberto, who recoils from the fork in disgust and orders the entire washing-up staff sacked. The manager then arrives to apologise in person, but his contrition turns into a tearful account of the restaurant's woes until he collapses in despair. Mungo the cook bursts out of the kitchen with a cleaver to berate the couple for crushing such a fine man, the manager stabs himself with the fork, Gilberto falls to his war wound, and the staff brawl across the table. A caption then announces the punchline, which the husband delivers to camera to a chorus of boos.

The sketch was later remade for the 1971 film And Now for Something Completely Different, in which the waiter is named Giuseppe and the closing punchline is delivered without the booing studio audience.