Monty Python's Flying Circus - Classic or Dud?

I'd caught programmes here and there on TV, but the majority of it I'd never seen before. My conclusion? Classic. Python is quite simply the funniest and most creative comedy show there has ever been. Perhaps only Chris Morris comes close to the subversive surrealism of it.

Actually, Terry Gilliam's interludes are what I like least; I find him manic and vulgar. For me he's the Ringo Starr of the Pythons, a sort of fratboy Salvador Dali. The others remind me of Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, Eric Satie... brilliant eccentric humour which can only come out of a certain high-minded seriousness. For instance, I discovered recently that one of the sketches was based on a Fluxus performance that happened in London. Now, even to parody a Fluxus performance, the Pythons had to be arty and curious enough to go to one, just as, to parody medieval romance it helped to be steeped in the subject, as Terry Jones was.

Those darn Americans! ;-)

Momus, people were writing news articles about Fluxus events back then; it seems like the sort of thing that you'd just be aware of (especially after Yoko had gotten famous through Lennon). I'm not sure any of them actually went to such an event.

I'm not sure that the slow-moving bullet hitting the tenor or the old lady tripping the busses are any more manic and vulgar than the French aero-sheep demonstration or "sex on the telly" bit.

(I have the DVD set. I can hereby attest to the fact that watching a whole day worth of MPFC can drive one slightly batty. I, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed myself.)

Also, for anyone who loves the show and hasn't heard any of Python's comedy albums, I highly suggest picking those up. "Matching Tie and Hankerchief" is by far my favorite of the bunch.

I picked-up a CD set of ... hmmm .... maybe 'The Best of Python'? It sounds like someone put a tape recorder next to a TV speaker while MPFC was on, and then burned that to CD. Horrible quality. And yet funny. We listened to that skit about the architect who was supposed to design an apartment building and ended-up with a slaughterhouse instead while driving through Flagstaff in the middle of the night during a snow storm. Without the visual cues for the skits, well, it is an experience. Highly recommended.

And yes, Spiny Norman did go around looking for his friend Dinsdale.

My mom made almost this exact comment earlier tonight. (My cousins--aged 7 and 10--had a sleep over here tonight and we watched the blancmange episode. Eh...but I did giggle at the manner in which the people were instantly transformed). She first saw it in the early-mid 70s on PBS. She had never even heard about it, just happened across it by chance one night. It truly was the first of its kind and, arguably, the best.

Dan, I fucking love that gore-gy scene. And can I just say: Momus OTM about the Gilliam segments. I just. don't. get it...and aesthetically, it makes me uneasy.

Apparently, as I've recently discovered, there are some funny edits and things on the A&E boxset. The "Proust" sketch is censored for the word "masturbation", for a start. I think the "Biggles Dictates A Letter" sketch features a weird glitch at the start due to being mastered from a faulty copy... and I've heard series 4 is all different edits. Oh yes, and the end of episode 12 of series 3 has been cut. And of course the picture quality is a bit rubbish (what with everything coming from early NTSC transfers which are all horribly smudgy).

Some guy over on the Comedy (formerly SOTCAA) Forum on NotBBC claims there's a UK boxset coming out in a year's time, which might rectify these faults.

I am probably utterly wrong about that bit, by the way, so feel free to correct me!

This reminds me of some sketches which were filmed but got cut out at the last minute, and subsequently wiped - "Choreographed Party Political Broadcast", something about a sculptor and his big nosed subject, and a thing about bees and businessmen (I think I completely misremembered that one). Just the scripts and a couple of production stills are all that exists of them now.

Also, has anyone here ever heard of the infamous "Wee-Wee Sketch"? Apparently it was written but it never got filmed, as the censors forbade it. It was about a couple at a restaraunt trying out wines, which are all actually urine.

Thought I saw that sketch, but I could be thinking of the restaurant sketch instead, where the guy eats so much, he throws up everywhere.

(It's OK to show that, but not glasses of wee? Odd moral bent.)

YESSS!!!! Can it get any better than that?!

My Python geekery is shining especially brightly on this thread.

Isn't the beauty of Python that it allows for happy juvenile geekdom too, though?

The Simpsons, The Day Today, Tommy Cooper, Morecambe and Wise, Wayne's World, Police Squad, Blackadder, early Friends.

One edit I always found curious in the versions I have (which are some kind of US VHS ones done in the late 80s) - the sketch where the black spot appeared on the guys face. In the original showing they apparently said he died of cancer. In the copy I have it is dubbed over (very badly and obviously - on purpose?) with the word "gangrene" which is absurd.

I dont know if the dubbing was a BBC thing or a US thing... *consults her 200 years of python book* Ah it was a BBC thing. Which word is used in the box sets? I'd like to buy the DVDs but now I'm dubious if it is true they're poor prints...

This is very interesting.

Most consistent/coherent Python show was the one with Palin as the cyclist, more or less parodying himself 20 years later (Pole to Pole etc.), which probably remains funny because it doesn't get rerun that often.

I don't know how accurate this is, or if this is actually true - but I recently read that Thames offered to produce Monty Python in 1969, and planned it as a 45 minute show in a primetime slot. For some reason Thames couldn't commit themselves to doing the show until 1971 and so they went with the BBC. Again, I'm not sure if this is true, as I'm sure I remember something about them being with the BBC from day one but it's an interesting "what-if" story, anyway.

Most consistent/coherent Python show was the one with Palin as the cyclist

Mr Pither's Cycling Tour. Very good that - with Terry Jones losing his memory and thinking he's Clodagh Rogers, and then Lenin.

"Pither! What a stroke of luck to find you again!"

"Well, yes and no..."

the Jesus on the telephone poles thing is BIZARRE.

I remember for the LONGEST time being utterly befuddled by the brief clip of the animation of that showing in the 'episode recap' and trying to pause the videotape just so so I could read it.

Wonderful book, picked up a republication when I was 16 or so. Very goofy and ridiculous. The Famous Five parody is absolutely stellar.

Annoying how the BBC has lost so much wonderful old footage - Goodies, python, dr who etc.

"To save time, I will continue in English ..."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-806332_1,00.html

(not even sure why I care at this point though, slow day at work obviously)

http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sotcaa/python.html

The above link is of a truly incredible website that examines the production of the shows, movies and records, with fantastically detailed examinations of various edits, out-takes, alternate versions of episodes/records, acres of quotes from actual rehearsal scripts featuring - yes! - the Wee-Wee Sketch in full, along with a great big press archive dating back to the very first article ever written about Python in the Radio Times in 1969! It is wonderful and I have spent virtually the whole evening reading it.

Gonococcal urethritis, streptococcal ballinitis,
Meningo myelitis, diplococcal cephalitis,
Epididymitis, interstitial keratitis,
Syphilitic choroiditis, and anterior u-ve-i-tis.

"Medical Love Song," I salute you.

One story: when King Arthur crossed the rope bridge, it was actually an extra, as Graham was suffering from the shakes and couldn't really perform that day.

Cleese fought to play Brian in TLOB, but he was shouted down.
Eric Idle wrote strictly on his own, and out of all five, he's the only one who comes across as a primadonna and an arrogant jerk. He seems to despise Cleese with a passion, and always blames Cleese for any trial or tribulation suffered by the group, usually contradicting all four of the other pythons.

*nudge, nudge, wink, wink*

Who else remembers first seeing Monty Python on
The Dean Martin Comedy World?

Maybe I should start a summer replacement show thread.

how old do you think we all are

I'm intrigued by this "comedy acts from around the world" premise of the Dean Martin show you mention - any idea if any non anglo acts were featured?

terry jones?

how old do you think we all are

I'm intrigued by this "comedy acts from around the world" premise of the Dean Martin show you mention - any idea if any non anglo acts were featured?