Monty Python's Flying Circus - Classic or Dud?

so it's a funny scene but the minstrel is what makes it funny

It’s hard to tell any of them apart in holy grail with the beards and helmets and such

idle was my favorite when i was little -- loved the smarm

ken buddha: a smile, two bangs and a religion

Thinking about Mattress Store and giggling to myself

I can see not especially taking note of Chapman in Grail, as he's m/l the straight man, and everyone else plays multiple roles (even Innes and Gilliam).

well maybe it wasn't the movie specifically but more the cultural millieu. i didn't see the tv series (maybe i saw "and now for something completely different"?) but i knew about the parrot sketch and the bookshop sketch and cheese shop sketch and the argument sketch (god do i fucking love the argument sketch), which are all sort of variations on the same thing, and the whole cringe comedy character of that imperious argumentative twit clicked with me so hard. also cleese was fucking tall so he stood out.

eric idle was just fucking loud in ways that were highly noticeable by teenage amabs.

I still can't tell Palin and Idle apart

the other thing about chapman is that he could sort of kind of act a little? cleese is cleese, idle is idle, chapman is king of the britons or a very naughty boy or, you know, whatever role he's playing.

Palin can act too imho.

Doesn't Idle collect the dead in Grail?

Idle was kind of the first Python to break out in the States (hosted SNL etc.), and he and Cheese had the most visible post-Python careers over here.

sure, palin can act, but in general i feel like there's a perfectly good reason chapman kept getting cast as the lead

Idle was kind of the first Python to break out in the States (hosted SNL etc.), and he and Cheese had the most visible post-Python careers over here.

― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain)

can't tell if that's ducking autocorrect or if you were drumpfing him

Idle was kind of the first Python to break out in the States (hosted SNL etc.), and he and Cheese had the most visible post-Python careers over here.

That sounds about right. Cleese can act, he was quite established before Python. Idle can't and Jones couldn't.

Idle was kind of the first Python to break out in the States (hosted SNL etc.)

Palin hosted as many times (4), but, yeah, Idle was in early - twice in the 1976-77 run. Also introduced Kate Bush in late '78!

I loved the Idle rants as a teenager... Bleedin' Watney's Red Barrel, etc...

Didn't know that Palin hosted, and yeah that Cleese thing was autocorrect.

His family's surname was originally Cheese, but his father had thought it was embarrassing and used the name 'Cleese' when he enlisted in the Army during the First World War; he changed it officially by deed poll in 1923.

the parrot sketch and the bookshop sketch and cheese shop sketch and the argument sketch (god do i fucking love the argument sketch)

― revenge of the jawn (rushomancy), Sunday, January 26, 2020 9:24 AM (two hours ago)

I still can't tell Palin and Idle apart

― Frederik B, Sunday, January 26, 2020 9:27 AM (two hours ago)

seems like maybe rusho couldn't really (or Chapman) either tbh :)

Idle's ambient profile was probably higher in the US due to the Rutles spin-off doco and sitcom appearances and more American-audience-friendly films than the others (plus eventually moving there).

Tbh, don’t remember Rutlemania ever really breaking out in any significant sense in the American market.

gilliam worst. not really a python tbh.

idle next worst, despite good turns and writing plenty of the good sequences. introduced innes and generally a shitty influence, and intrinsically unfunny in any post python effort

cleese limited to cleese but cleese properly deployed is amazing and untouchable

palin likeable, talented, works well with others, adaptable, prone to corny when not countered

jones just off the wall enough and beats palin by doing a lot of what the former does but less predictably and often with a bit of genius skew.

straight man chapman the least straight of all, the quantum leap of illogic that drove connections to new direction that otherwise wouldve been sketches no more inspired than any oxbridge efforts at zany or class or pun sketch comedy.

anyone who argues against python in general because of their ubiquity amongst teenage boys or whatever can do the same thing that anyone who rejects the beatles on the same lines- die roaring

<3 u deems

Good post

No way to argue honestly

thread is a decent argument vs Python fans

idle did the songs, the skits i mentioned i think of as all basically cleese joints (i mean cleese was in all of them, right? i don't remember super good)

thread is a decent argument vs Python fans

― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius)

"a decent argument vs python fans" is like "a decent argument vs dream theater fans", seriously it's not even necessary, we know already

Tbh, don’t remember Rutlemania ever really breaking out in any significant sense in the American market.

Inasmuch as SNL hosting was being cited as evidence of his prominence, since All You Need Is Cash was commissioned by Lorne Michaels & basically made as an SNL lead-in or filler or w/e aiui

Right, well aware of this, but that is more a proxy for the SNL/Michaels/Idle connection, it’s not like people came for the Rutles and stayed for the Idle.

The Rutles special legendarily the lowest rated program in the nation when it aired.

but still, about same size as SNL audience

p sure most of my high school class saw it

The Rutles special legendarily the lowest rated program in the nation when it aired.

ha, did not know this. nearly everything famous about SNL is completely opaque to non-US humans.

I saw it when it aired, as did some of my school friends, but it was more from a Beatles angle than a Python slant. Bought the album and studied it. There was a ton of stuff in the accompanying booklet so it was almost like watching the show again, which I was finally able to do when decades later I got the DVD at J&R Music World.

People knew about the Pythons from PBS, in New York WNET/13, where the show aired on Sunday evenings, usually paired with various other British sitcoms or shows such as Rising Damp or The Two Ronnies and kids would talk about it in school on Monday morning.
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/10/archives/monty-pythons-fully-different-new-series-plus-tom-mix-and-fellini.html

idle next worst, despite good turns and writing plenty of the good sequences. introduced innes and generally a shitty influence, and intrinsically unfunny in any post python effort

There was always Rutland Weekend Television, I don't think that's ever been repeated though, so it might be terrible, the Neil Innes bits are good. Also it's never been released on DVD, I wonder if that's Idle's decision? I've got the album though!

(xp) You got Rising Damp? Cool.

at the time i loved rutland weekend TV bcz of this guy:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hU0QZQRTNr0/hqdefault.jpg

= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Woolf

https://www.nytimes.com/1975/03/15/archives/bbcs-monty-python-surprise-hit-on-public-tv-serious-doubts-at-first.html

(xp) Harold Pinter's old mucker.

...still alive, 90! And many more, Henry!

Have to admit at the time I never really got into Rising Damp, or The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin for that matter. It was only when I got to college (François Truffaut to thread!) and saw Billy Liar as well as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and rewatching A Hard Day's Night, the latter with the similarly named Norman Rossington, did I start wondering what this Leonard Rossiter guy was about.

Hollywood should do a remake of "Rising Damp" with Ralph Fiennes as Rigsby.

Just now learned that the common thread between Monty Python and Rising Damp was Ian MacNaughton.

"Grrrrrrreat. We're losing the lion. Rewrite. Lose the lion everyone. That's fantastic!"

In my mind's eye I have over the years minimized Eric's contribution to the Rutles, extending his silencing from the epicenter of Ollie Halsall singing his character's vocals, preferring to think of them as an offshoot of The Bonzos (see my current controversial screenname) as well as Patto/Timebox.

I used to have at least some of the Rutland Weekend Televisions as video files, assume they're still accessible on the Internet somewhere. It was OK, mark otm about Henry Woolf

Forgot to mention Fans of the Rutles and Rockpile, are you familiar with a band called Fatso?

since i'm declaring my teenage allegiance in the thread i shd also mention that as a loyal child of beatles fans i was hotly offended by the entire concept of the rutles, and also george h's enthusiasm (my favourite beatle why so treacherous!): i refused to countenance that any of the parodies were any good, and indeed anything but utterly point-missing -- however i loved the bonzos unreservedly (and still do)

no wonder i became a professional rock critic eh foax

george h's enthusiasm balanced by the fact that, acc to Idle's autobiog, he listened to the rutles songs gruffly made sure that the beatles got a sizeable cut of the songwriting royalties

Is any Rutles song a pastiche of one of George’s? Can’t recall one.

"Nevertheless"