And now for something completely different: Inattentional blindness during a Monty Python's Flying Circus sketch.

Richard Wiseman,Caroline Watt

doi:10.1068/i0706sas

Abstract

Perceptual science has frequently benefited from studying illusions created outside of academia. Here, we describe a striking, but little-known, example of inattentional blindness from the British comedy series “Monty Python's Flying Circus.” Viewers fail to attend to several highly incongruous characters in the sketch, despite these characters being clearly visible onscreen. The sketch has the potential to be a valuable research and teaching resource, as well as providing a vivid illustration of how people often fail to see something completely different.

Highlights

“Inattentional blindness” occurs when individuals fail to perceive something obvious and unexpected because their attention is engaged elsewhere
Interest in inattentional blindness extends beyond academia, with magicians, artists, and filmmakers using the phenomenon to influence observers’ perception
We showed the sketch to a group of undergraduates (N = 54) to discover the percentage of people that fail to perceive the incongruous characters, despite them being in full view throughout

Summary

Introduction

“Inattentional blindness” occurs when individuals fail to perceive something obvious and unexpected because their attention is engaged elsewhere. Despite widespread interest in inattentional blindness, most researchers are unaware that a striking example of the phenomenon appears in the British comedy series “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” Episode 12 of the second series of Monty Python’s Flying Circus aired in December 1970 contained a short sketch entitled “Ypres 1914—Abandoned.” This sketch takes place during the First World War, and begins with a close-up image of a harmonica being played by a British soldier (Eric Idle).

Results

Conclusion