Article
In praise of… Monty Python's Flying Circus
"I'll give you 13 shows, but that's all," said the BBC's head of light entertainment in 1969, and Monty Python's Flying Circus aired to a perplexed, but eventually grateful, British audience on Sunday 5 October that same year. Over the subsequent 45 shows, the rules of television comedy were rewritten as John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam created lunatic characters and sketches, as funny today as they were 40 years ago. A new generation now memorises the Lumberjack Song, the Spanish Inquisition and the Dead Parrot sketch (famously employed by Margaret Thatcher shortly before she politically "ceased to be") – although the Fish Slapping Dance is harder to pull off, culminating as it does in a 3m plunge into Teddington Lock. Terry Gilliam's surreal and frequently disturbing animations threaded a creative link through the mad mosaic of ideas and gave the whole its unique appearance. Films raised the bar again. A tiny budget almost scuppered The Holy Grail, allowing no money for horses, but it inspired coconut-playing squires. The Life of Brian gave us a singing crucifixion scene – sheer genius. We had never seen anything like it, but Monty Python became a national treasure, influencing almost everything that followed. The surviving five Pythons (Graham Chapman sadly passed away in 1989) will be presented with a special Bafta at a reunion in New York next week. So cue Sousa's march, The Liberty Bell ... and don't forget the raspberry at the end.
• This article was amended on 6 October 2009. The original said that 5 October 1969 was a Monday. This has been corrected.
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User Comments
Auric
5 October 2009 3:27AM
I live abroad now, and year or two ago found a Python video in a second-hand shop, which had three programmes on it. I vaguely remembered seeing two of the three many, many years beforehand.
I`d have to say the three programmes rarely raised a chuckle, but that is maybe because it has got a bit too old now - I am too used to that type of humour.
Again, if one was more critical rather than `oh they were wonderful`, they did tend to do a joke to death. Sometimes I found myself thinking "for God`s sake stop and get onto the next sketch".
Conversely, I saw `Life of Brian` again for the first time and thought it still very funny.
Auric
5 October 2009 3:29AM
Sorry s.b. "I saw `Life of Brian` for the second time recently and thought it still very funny."
groyniad
5 October 2009 4:57AM
The greatest celebration of silliness AND the most insightful critique of British class consciousness (just before we all started to forget that the only thing that really matters in Britain is what class you belong to).
Keo2008
5 October 2009 5:52AM
I agree with Auric. Apart from a handful of the classic sketches mentioned in the article, much of the humour is laboured and unsuccessful by modern standards. I think the humour has aged less well than (say) Fawlty Towers. But "Life of Brian" is wonderful and even "Grail" contains some gems.
Very talented they were and fully deserve their award- but lets not get too silly about them
EnBuenOra
5 October 2009 7:17AM
This house is surrounded. I'm afraid I must not ask anyone to leave the room. No, I must ask nobody ... no, I must ask everybody to... I must not ask anyone to leave the room. No one must be asked by me to leave the room. No, no one must ask the room to leave. I ... I ... ask the room shall by someone be left. Not. Ask nobody the room somebody leave shall I. Shall I leave the room? Everyone must leave the room... as it is... with them in it. Phew. Understand?
LordSummerisle
5 October 2009 8:42AM
I loved/love Python but I have to go with John Cleese's assessment. While some sketches are classics, the TV shows contain an awful lot of filler.
explodingbadger
5 October 2009 9:18AM
The Pythons were very funny but didn't quite rewrite the rules of comedy... before them was of course the fantastic and equally bizarre goon show:
bass46
5 October 2009 9:33AM
Every day there is some moment where someone, somewhere, unknowingly becomes a character from a Monty Python sketch. The trick is not mentioning it.
Every week they attempted a show of completely new material, so they can be excused for inadvertently repeating themselves. Even if it didn't always succeed they should get points for trying, unlike every comedy show ever made since which is the same sketch every week, same punchline, same gag, we queue up to laugh.
unbanned
5 October 2009 10:00AM
Auric, Keo2008 et al,
Dare I suggest that it is not the Python material that has aged, it is you?
I can remember in the late 60's, being allowed to stay up late on Thursday nights, loving every mad minute of Python madness and then lapsing into tears of laughter as soon as Terry Gilliam's animations appeared. I was amused and happy more recently to see exactly the same reaction in my children at a similar age, and now they bring their friends round to watch it, but sadly for me it has also aged.
Bgold40
5 October 2009 10:29AM
The funniest thing of the lot is the fact that when first shown Monty Python went out only in London. The BBC took the view that the rest of the country was not intelligent enough to understand it. Strange, I lived in London for over 20 years and formed an opposite view of the intelligence of the average Londoner.
peterNW1
5 October 2009 11:09AM
Unfortunately, the TV shows are not nearly as funny as one remembers them. Their targets -- army officers, C of E bishops, working class women (Mrs Cutout) -- were easy targets, and they never knew how to finish off a sketch. Very little of this stuff will stand up to Hancock, Steptoe, Dad's Army or Fawlty Towers.
Life of Brian worked because it had a sustained narrative, but other films like Meaning of Life were only occasionally brilliant (the 'Every Sperm is Sacred' and 'Mr Creosote' sequences.) The rest of Meaning of Life was boring filler.
iamnotacrook
5 October 2009 11:51AM
The Pythons were very funny but didn't quite rewrite the rules of comedy... before them was of course the fantastic and equally bizarre goon show
Indeed. And the Pythons acknowledge that Milligan's Q Series on TV turned comedy upside down using much the same template (i.e. a rejection of the standard beginning-middle-end sketch format) before they got there.
Much of it didn't work (in fact, an ever-increasing proportion as the series went on, until the final painful 6 episodes of Series 4), but that can be forgiven in the light of the brilliance of the hits, which we take for granted because they have become so ubiquitous.
Among others, and leaving aside the usual suspects, there's Self-Defence Against Fruit, How to Avoid Being Seen, Blackmail, The Society for Putting Things on Top of Other Things, Confuse-a-Cat, Army Protection Racket, Ethel the Frog, Summarize Proust, Conquistador Coffee and the Fish Licence. Whenever I watch it, I discover more gems that I'd forgotten.
divesandlazarus
5 October 2009 12:07PM
'The Life of Brian' is a work of absolute genius - perhaps one of the best made movies ever.
Apart from a few classic songs and sketches - the rest I could live without.
Fawlty Towers, Ripping Yarns and the various documentaries are far better.
TurminderXuss
5 October 2009 1:54PM
No I paid for the half hour...
I'd agree with others above, Q, broke the ground Python reaped the rewards, but most of the series doesn't age well, recently saw people walking out of the burying your mother sketch, thought that was interesting...
jamesinverona
5 October 2009 2:14PM
Peter NW1: Very little of this stuff will stand up to Hancock, Steptoe, Dad's Army or Fawlty Towers.
Dad's WHAT?? Next thing you'll be telling me you can laugh while Last of the summer wine is on. I know humour is subjective (I've even heard of people who like My Family), but please...
Malchemy
5 October 2009 12:14AM
And now for something completely different ...