ABSTRACT
In one of the lesser-known skits performed by the immortal comedy team Monty Python, an interviewer is talking to the Oxford Professor of Medieval History about the medieval open-field farming system. As the two of them drone on about the rights and obligations of freemen and villeins, the audience are giggling uncontrollably. Why? Because, although the interviewer sounds like any other interviewer, the ‘Oxford Professor’ speaks throughout the discussion in a broad Cockney accent—that is, in the working-class accent of London. In Britain, an Oxford professor just does not speak with that sort of accent. Consequently, even though what the ‘Professor’ says is perfectly sensible and informative, it sounds hilarious to British ears: British listeners find it impossible to take seriously a professor with a working-class urban accent who expresses agreement with ‘s right, yeah instead of with yes, indeed.
