Why Monty Python ?

B

BAYLOR

There Are Always new Things to Learn.
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I have the whole show on dvd and on occasion I pop in a dvd sit back and watch the silliness unfold . One thing that becomes very clear is how brilliant and larger then life and unique each one of them truly were. They were witty, perceptive and wonderfully absurd and laugh out loud funny. They classic skits have in some case become embedded in culture and strangely have times quite to them . :cool: And yet ' No one expects The Spanish Inquisition, hm.:unsure:


Thought?:)
 
I rewatched it all a little while ago, and I have to say that, although when they are good, they are brilliant, there is quite a lot of each show that was pretty dull stuff really.

I think it's true that almost every episode had at least one sketch that was hilarious, but that in each half hour episode only about 10 minutes could be considered exceptional. That's still a pretty good score, but I can't say it was non stop killing, as your first post seems to imply, @BAYLOR.

We all know which of the sketches were so brilliant, and on this site we have several threads on which we are invited to highlight them. And as you say, many of them have passed into everyday language. Most noticeably Spam and the Spanish Inquisition. But this can be said of several other shows and films.

Just the other day, as I was waiting at the cashier in the supermarket, they played Hot Stuff on the tannoy, and I found myself copying the guys from the dole queue in the Full Monty. I doubt that very many of the French men and women there had any idea why I was doing it, but it would have been recognised in Blighty.
 
farntfar said:
I rewatched it all a little while ago, and I have to say that, although when they are good, they are brilliant, there is quite a lot of each show that was pretty dull stuff really.

I think it's true that almost every episode had at least one sketch that was hilarious, but that in each half hour episode only about 10 minutes could be considered exceptional. That's still a pretty good score, but I can't say it was non stop killing, as your first post seems to imply, @BAYLOR.

We all know which of the sketches were so brilliant, and on this site we have several threads on which we are invited to highlight them. And as you say, many of them have passed into everyday language. Most noticeably Spam and the Spanish Inquisition. But this can be said of several other shows and films.

Just the other day, as I was waiting at the cashier in the supermarket, they played Hot Stuff on the tannoy, and I found myself copying the guys from the dole queue in the Full Monty. I doubt that very many of the French men and women there had any idea why I was doing it, but it would have been recognised in Blighty.
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In world of ordinary Supermen , there is only one Bicycle Repairman . A world of superman with extraordinary strength and powers , have X real vision are bulletproof, can ben steel with their bare hands, able to leap tall building in single bound. And yet , only one them, with secret identity as an ordinary man , can actually fix a broken bicycle and, is looked up to by all the rest of the Supermen as a folk hero. Sad, absurd and funny as hell.:D
 
Sadly, most people today know nothing of MP. They all recognise the name, but think of it as way before their time, so too old to consider. But MP itself was an extension of similar original sketch comedy shows such as At Last the 1948 Show, Do Not Adjust your Set and the Frost Report, as well as radio The Goon Show. Which almost no one nowadays has seen. Tim Brooke Taylor, Marty Feldman , Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers could easily have ended up as part of the Pythons.

But for me it was Graham Chapman who was the real star of the show, and got the best out of all of his companions.
 
paranoid marvin said:
Sadly, most people today know nothing of MP. They all recognise the name, but think of it as way before their time, so too old to consider. But MP itself was an extension of similar original sketch comedy shows such as At Last the 1948 Show, Do Not Adjust your Set and the Frost Report, as well as radio The Goon Show. Which almost no one nowadays has seen. Tim Brooke Taylor, Marty Feldman , Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers could easily have ended up as part of the Pythons.

But for me it was Graham Chapman who was the real star of the show, and got the best out of all of his companions.
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Yep, I’ve been saying for a while that the comedy of Monty Python is destined to fade into obscurity just like that of The Goons before it. When people doubt me, I challenge them to quote anything by The Crazy Gang. (Precursors to The Goon Show)
And thus it goes, after Python were the Comic Strip (plenty can quote from The Young Ones) and anything featuring Rowan Atkinson (“Bob” will cease to be automatically hilarious someday) and thence on to…..I don’t know the next equivalent generation - Peep Show maybe?

Fred Karno, anyone?
 
paranoid marvin said:
Sadly, most people today know nothing of MP. They all recognise the name, but think of it as way before their time, so too old to consider. But MP itself was an extension of similar original sketch comedy shows such as At Last the 1948 Show, Do Not Adjust your Set and the Frost Report, as well as radio The Goon Show. Which almost no one nowadays has seen. Tim Brooke Taylor, Marty Feldman , Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers could easily have ended up as part of the Pythons.

But for me it was Graham Chapman who was the real star of the show, and got the best out of all of his companions.
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In terms of acting, Graham Chapman was the very best of them , had he lived longer than he did , who knows how far he could've gone. He was great at comedy. And we know theat ther have comedians who have prevented they can do serious drama and do it well, Good examples of this Bob Hope. Bing Crosby , Robbie Coltrane, Simon Pegg ,Nick Frost , Bill Murray , Martin Short , Chevy Chase, and others. Graham Chapman would have been one of them And I think would been outstanding in serious dramatic roles , even Oscar worthy.
 
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Why not?! It's full of fun and silly things that make no sense at all! And F.Y.I. I'm saying this while trying not to be seen.
PS. I'm not hiding behind that tree over there... or am I?...

The vast creativity of the group as a whole and the intellectual mocking of intellectuals was fun, even in my youth when I first saw them.
And being a former government worker, I can see the Ministry of Silly Walks as being a real thing. And the way John Cleese played the role in absolute seriousness made it even funnier!
 
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THX1138 said:
Why not?! It's full of fun and silly things that make no sense at all! And F.Y.I. I'm saying this while trying not to be seen.
PS. I'm not hiding behind that tree over there... or am I?...

The vast creativity of the group as a whole and the intellectual mocking of intellectuals was fun, even in my youth when I first saw them.
And being a former government worker, I can see the Ministry of Silly Walks as being a real thing. And the way John Cleese played the role in absolute seriousness made it even funnier!
Click to expand...

Which brings to mind the Vocational Guidance Counselor sketch . Cleese maintains complete seriousness in the face of having to deal with the Accountant who wants to switch careers and become a lion tamer .:)
 
No. It's too easy to say that it's just the guys channeling their memories of Spike, just as it's wrong to say that Rowan Atkinson, or whoever else, is just channeling his memories of Cleese. (Although it's often done.)

Python was certainly influenced by Milligan, and lots of other people and shows, like Hancock or even Arthur Askey and other vaudeville and radio shows. And The Young Ones, and Not the Nine O'clock News, and many others were influenced by Python.

But in all cases they took what they saw of their predecessors and created something new.
 
I agree. I've never found Milligan very funny, but some of Monty Python is great. Unfortunately the hit rate isn't that high: perhaps a third of the show is really good, whereas (to my mind) all of Blackadder except the first season is very high quality. Obviously there's a lot less of Blackadder than MP, and the comedy is much more disciplined. The Monty Python films, especially The Life of Brian and The Holy Grail feel tighter and more consistently funny. Being silly well is difficult.
 
farntfar said:
No. It's too easy to say that it's just the guys channeling their memories of Spike, just as it's wrong to say that Rowan Atkinson, or whoever else, is just channeling his memories of Cleese. (Although it's often done.)

Python was certainly influenced by Milligan, and lots of other people and shows, like Hancock or even Arthur Askey and other vaudeville and radio shows. And The Young Ones, and Not the Nine O'clock News, and many others were influenced by Python.

But in all cases they took what they saw of their predecessors and created something new.
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They weren't channelling their memories of Spike. They were influenced by him, and recognised that he had done it all before, including on telly - Q5
 
Stephen Palmer said:
They weren't channelling their memories of Spike. They were influenced by him, and recognised that he had done it all before, including on telly - Q5
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With regard to the subjects their comedy tackled , their philosophy was." We will attack them with satire" ;)
 
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