Inspired by a Monty Python sketch, a charity fund-raiser in London with an odd-ball sense of humour submitted himself on Saturday to being slapped in the face with a couple of wet fish.
Ben Fillmore (24) turned up at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park in central London as promised at high noon to be publicly humiliated with two fresh Scottish rainbow trout at the hands of student Lucy Berry (23).
She had paid £210 on internet auction site eBay to be part of Fillmore’s quest to raise a total of £10 000 for the Stroke Association.
”It felt OK,” Fillmore confided to reporters afterwards. ”My face feels a bit taut and the fish really stinks. It felt very slimy — but it was definitely worth it.”
The stunt was an homage to ”the fish-slapping dance” in which John Cleese and Michael Palin, both in safari outfits, take turns whacking each other with fish in a classic episode from television’s Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
Berry has so far raised £2 000 pounds for the charity, which helped his mother survive a stroke six years ago.
He said he has more stunts in the pipeline — as well as a project to scale Mount Everest. — Sapa-AFP