My short time on a term abroad many years ago in France did not expose me to that. You may well be right. However, the actions they took while doing that To me, it was equivalent to "get the cow".

The Monty Python crew is a whole bunch of really really smart people so they may have had that Slang in mind and perhaps they did say that.

edit: unrelared comment , since you are French: i fell in love with Mylene Farmer while there, still love her work and am happy to see she is still doing amazing work today.

when i heard Alizee sing i had a hunch and found i was right that Mylene and her husband were on her team. i recognized the style.