I was watching the Secret Service Dentists sketch by Monty Python, and in the video, The Big Cheese says the following after shooting his pet rabbit:
There — poor Flopsy's dead, and never
called me mother!
For the full context of the quote, you can use this link instead; it will skip past all the nonsense directly to the relevant part.
I was curious, what precisely does this phrase mean, especially in this context? Google didn't assist me a great deal — there are lots of references to East Lynne, the novel that the quote is often attributed to, but I didn't see any actual explanation of what the phrase means.
Best Answer
Sadly, I don't think you'll get a very satisfactory definition of what that line meant in that sketch. It is Monty Python - who often said virtually meaningless things.
Having said that, we can assume The Big Cheese was effectively 'Mother' to poor Flopsy, who certainly never acknowledged that relationship verbally. Much to his annoyance, perhaps; he might have felt the rabbit should have been more effusively grateful for the doting treatment it received prior to its sudden untimely demise.
Doubtless there have been plays and films where the line will have been delivered in earnest (bewailing dead infant too young to have ever talked, or adopted child who never discovered his parentage before dying dramatically on set). It was may well have been something of a 'catchphrase' among the Pythons, evocative of absurdly overacted pathos.
It made me laugh to watch it again, anyway. But I'm English, with a warped sense of humour. I don't think many Americans of today would like it one bit.