Why Monty Python ?

[paranoid marvin]

Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you? Did she die in vain!?

 

[Karapace]

And Monty Python gave us the Killer joke , and as result , Joke Warfare was banned by a special session of the Geneva Convention.This is one of their best Skits.

And an honorary mention and nod to The Batley Townswomans Guild's reenactment of the Battle of Peal Harbor.

Personally I prefered their light-hearted production of Nazi war atrocities

 

[pogopossum]

I lived in London 1962-4. I listened to the Goons on American radio later and was familiar with MP from US Public Broadcasting. Never heard of the The Crazy Gang was just a name. I was lucky that there was a local NPR weekend variety show here later whose host loved Brit. comedy.
Goons et al were only a part of BBC comedy. My step mother was a British coloratura soprano, stage name Julia Shelley. I attended a couple of variety shows where there was a long comedy sketch, someone would sing a light air, another comedy bit and so on Julia was a mainstay on such programs. My point being that in terms of heritage, radio humor was a cultural presence beyond the well known groups. She didn't talk about earlier years except to once comment that she learned to not glance at Peter Sellers backstage as you were going on. , He wouldn't be doing anything, but if you did his very presence might crack you up live on the BBC.
I would ask the Brits here if any of that culture, which I believe was part of what led to MP is still there.

 

[paranoid marvin]

It's odd that for most of my life I'd only heard of Harry Secombe as presenter of Songs of Praise. Bet even he didn't see that one coming his way.

 

[Ursa major]

I do know Flanagan and Allen

I'm old enough to have seen Flanagan perform on stage. The only thing I remember about him is that he sang Run, Rabbit, Run.

This was at the Butlins Bognor Regis holiday camp in 1966**, and I was probably in the audience because my parents didn't want to leave me alone in the chalet.


** - If I recall correctly: while in a queue of cars waiting to enter the camp, we heard (on the portable radio we'd brought with us) that England had won the World Cup.

 

[Karapace]

My point being that in terms of heritage, radio humor was a cultural presence beyond the well known groups. She didn't talk about earlier years except to once comment that she learned to not glance at Peter Sellers backstage as you were going on. , He wouldn't be doing anything, but if you did his very presence might crack you up live on the BBC.
I would ask the Brits here if any of that culture, which I believe was part of what led to MP is still there.

A lot of BBC comedy shows start out on radio. The League of Gentlemen, Goodness gratious me, The Mighty Boosh, Dave Hollins: Space Cadet (became Red Dwarf), The Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy and so on.

Comedy aside, I would love to see a good TV production of "Pilgrim" about William Palmer, cursed to wander forever between the worlds of man and fairie by the King of the Greyfolk in 1185 whilst on his way to Canterbury. The series takes place in modern times and sees Palmer acting as a mediator between the mortal and supernatural worlds

 

[Vladd67]

I'm sorry I'll read that again was an influence on python, Graham Chapman being one of the writers along with Cleese was probably part of the reason. Among its sketches was the prototype Yorkshire men, but listen to it now and it has aged badly, maybe it this is because it tried to be different and was a kind of new kid on the block comedywise occasionally making fun of Round the Horn for being old fashioned when in fact being more traditional Round the Horn has more hits than misses today. I think as the pythons leave us it will slowly fade into comedy history, it's films will go the same way as the Goons Down among the Z men. The Pythons tried something new but even the Parrot sketch can probably be traced back to Tony Hancock returning a dead tortoise to Sid James' pet shop, to quote the Not the Nine O'clock News sketch about the General Synods film The life of Christ when discussing the pythons, "These men died for us, many times,"

 

[BAYLOR]

Then there was the weird animation of Terry Gilliam .

 

[Toby Frost]

People have been doing absurd humour for years, all the way back to Beachcomber, Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear, so Monty Python clearly didn't make it up from scratch. But they had a certain style: very straight-faced at times, not music-hall or variety-derived, somehow tying into the rebelliousness of the 60s.

And then there's just personal taste. There's a fair amount of older comedy that I can respect but don't find all that funny. I can tell that Tony Hancock, Peter Cook and Dad's Army are good, but they don't make me laugh much. Tom Lehrer and Bob Newhart's monologues aren't absurd comedy (not in the same way) and they're coming from a different, American tradition, but I find them very funny. I know for certain that the Four Candles sketch is cleverer than Butthead doing The Great Cornholio, and is better art, but I find them about equally funny.

 

[Judderman]

There are so many great comedy shows that are barely known by people who were little or not born when they were released. Who under 30 now would even know such as Vic Reeves or the Fast Show. Then Little Britain was criticized too.
Monty Python has the advantage they did so well that they had both films and international success. Or a few American sitcoms like Seinfeld or Everybody Loves Raymond that are repeated for decades.