Undressing in Public is a sketch that appears in "Owl-Stretching Time," the fourth episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Synopsis[]
A gentleman (Terry Jones) goes to the beach and makes several attempts to undress without being seen. The sketch is done like a silent movie, with only music accompanying the action.
On his first attempt, he notices that other beach-goers are watching him. He pulls his pants up and wraps a towel around his waist, but it is stolen by some women.
He goes to a tent to undress until he sees feet right next to the tent. He goes out to see a man (Michael Palin) appearing to be peeking inside, but is actually lighting a cigarette. When he goes back in, a woman had gone inside and throws him out.
He next tries to undress behind an ice cream truck, which moves when his pants are around his ankles. Seeing a police officer (Graham Chapman), he runs away.
He comes upon a commissionaire (Chapman) and mimes pulling down his trousers to explain his dilemma. The commissionaire pulls his own pants down.
The gentleman runs away again and starts to undress behind a stack of chairs, which are quickly taken away.
He runs and hides behind a 'what the butler saw' machine to undress, but the machine is viewed by a couple, through which they see him undressing and they chase him off.
He goes into a door in complete blackness and he begins the undress. A curtain lifts, revealing that he is on a stage and he performs a striptease, which ends with the phrase, "It's a man's life taking your clothes off in public," prompting the Colonel to end the scene.