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Discussion on Radio2, people getting quite angry and saying it's not remotely funny.

They obviously haven't watch the Life of Brian.

He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy!

I like to think I have a decent grasp on comedy and humour, but for some reason I really dislike Monty Python. Just not for me.

Then again, I don't like the Beatles either, so maybe I just have rubbish taste in general.

It's not for everybody, but it's popularity shows they clearly got something right. I love most of their stuff.

My opinion is the TV show is quite dated and I don't find much of it funny. In fairness its probably very much 'of the time', and I can't say I've ever watched the episodes any more than sporadically.

I quite liked the fast show/Reeves and Mortimer/Not the Mary Wihitehouse experience when younger. Would i have found them funny had I jumped into an episode midway through someone saying "see that ....that's you that is". Probably not.

However The Life of Brian and The Holey Grail are works of comedy genius (to me).

I guess the debate was triggered because remaining  Pythons are due to announce new project/stage show tomorrow.

Not forgetting the meaning of life, where the guy is.chased off a cliff by dozens of topless women on roller skates  :) . You don't see that very often.

Apart from the film 'Clifftop Tragedy' by Eileen Dover of course.

'Welease Wodger' and 'Biggus Dickus' are among the funniest things on film/TV ever. FACT!

:D

In a lot of ways Python was of its time....it sprang from a sort of combination of the satirical stuff which lampooned the political establishment...beginning with That Was The Week That Was, through The Frost Report, and wacky stuff, in the tradition of the Goons and Spike Milligan, which gave us Do Not Adjust Your Set...nominally a kid's show.  This enabled pretty much everything to be ripe for humour.

This chimed well with the times, as Britain was passing to a new generation that had been largely unscarred by WW2, but had been brought up with potential horrors of the post war settlement and Cold War, MAD scenario.

Don't think I've ever seen a re-run of any of these shows...

The number of comedians these days (and as far back as the 1980s) who credit Python as an inspiration for what they went on to write is quite large.  They wrote a great deal and a lot of it, I agree, was pretty forgettable.  But their best stuff, to me, is simply brilliant.  That you still have sketches like 'What have the Romans ever done for us?' being quoted in daily conversation 35 years after it was written proves that it has lasted the test of time.

Jabberwocky was ace.

To add to Reg's post, comedy would not be what it is today without Monty Python. You have to view it in the social context of a post-war, sexist, racist, 'old school tie' Britain. It blew away a lot of boundaries and stereotypes...blah, blah, blah...alright I don't really know what I'm on about.

Python was a keystone in the evolution of British comedy though, no doubt about it*




*A lot/most of it is a bit crap if you watch it now (although a lot of that I think is to do with the fact that so much of it has been copied over and over again and its become a cliche. At the time though, no one had ever seen anything like it)

The reason Monty Python are so influential - just as the Beatles in Music - is that they were the first ones to do what they do and get success for it. None of it seems particularly original now because we've had nigh on 40 years of people copying it.

Watching python is like panning for gold......there's nuggets of gold amongst the dross.

Right room for an argument...

Election Special....

Excellent...

The much publicised reunion would be good for my brother in law...he watched the very last stage show at Drury Lane and is on the albumn cover!

The Dead Parrot sketch and 'Two Sheds' still make me laugh, as does the sketch where Goebbals (I think) is living in a boarding house. Oh and The Lumberjack song is brilliant. All of the above were from the TV shows, as was the 'poor?' Sketch (northerners competing against each other as to who grew up the poorest).
Comedy, like music, is about personal taste. But people who wouldn't chuckle at that lot are clearly imbeciles.

The further this thread goes on the more brilliant sketches are remembered, and I think I'm the first on this thread to mention the dead parrot sketch.

Ahem....

Ministry of silly walks too.

Has anyone mentioned the dead parrot sketch?

Oops.

I love this part of the life of Brian, really ripping the shit out of Christianity/Religion. (Which the whole movie does anyway)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krb2OdQksMc&list=PL4A119B37EDE10A15

Ex-leper is another one.

One could spend all night long laughing at Monty Python stuff. Actually, I think I'm going to do just that.

The larch

Raymond Luxury-Yacht...the chocolate manufacturer...the bloke complaining about his holiday...even the old woman who trips up a bus...gold, I tell thee, gold.

Bicycle repairman man was good.

These guys were comedy trailblazers.  So much of the alternative comedy that began to get proper airtime in the 90's (thanks mainly to C4 and to a lesser extent BBC2) was possible and inspired by having Monty Python going first.  "Absolutely" for example.

Some of the sketches are still brilliant, like those mentioned, some will no doubt age badly because they seem quite subtle compared to what we have now been allowed to watch.  Do not forget just what a storm Life of Brian made when released.

Silly Olympics: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzrI15uw92k

Philosophers football - some would say England still use the template : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-2gJamguN04

Upper Class Twit of the Year - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5ba1OKY7Xc (with Tim Nice but Dim running right through it).

There are plenty.

The context is entirely that what has been since is largely influenced by them, or possible because of them.  There was a programme on them a while back with a web drawn of where their influence has gone and it is massive.

Other, less Python but still quite funny at times films such as Erik The Viking deserve a bit of a mention as well.  And Spamalot made me near wet myself.

Philosophers song.  Renee Descarte was a drunken fart I drink therefore I am etc etc.

Remember as a young man being amazed by this...even the intro  with the music and silly captions had me loving it.

And now, for something close to the average TEFr's heart

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPN3KTtrnZM

I also thought it was perceived wisdom that females struggled to raise a smile at Python whereas proper blokes loved it.

They also released recordings as well, including such gems as the Olympic sport of being eaten by a crocodile.

The Hilter in Minehead sketch was great, not seen that before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQFKtI6gn9Y

Not really my cup of tea. Was a bit too young to appreciate it at the time and just found it all a little too 'silly'. Some amusing moments, but not enough to draw me in. Thought the same of the films too.

Bloody love Monty Python. The films are better than the TV show, but some (not all) of the sketches are brilliant to this day.

'Tis but a flesh wound!

I understand the whole personal taste thing but how can you not like Python? Absurd.

The brilliance of the films is down to Gilliam's direction IMO.

The World's Funniest Joke sketch is one I remember finding hysterical when I was a kid, along with The Lumberjack Song and Ministry of Silly Walks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsW9DO1k5-s


The Life of Brian is surely one of the greatest films ever made.

I used to listen to a cassette as a kid that was basically a 'best of' collection of Monty Python sketches and excerpts from the films. It was bloody brilliant and the Cheese Shop was one of my absolute favourites. Until this day I had not actually seen the sketch, despite listening to it a hundred times, so thanks very much for that. A Cleese masterclass.

The Gilliam animations for me are still some of the funniest I've seen. Struggled to study medieval literature at uni without imagining Holy-Grail-like silliness going on in the margins of the books.

I think the explosion of comedians of that era was partly down to python- they showed something that was 'just' silly could work. Step up Rowan Atkinson, step up Spitting Image etc. etc.

Silliness sums it up. Admittedly there are some mildly amusing bits and they influenced some very clever and funny people. But all a bit OTT for me.

Spike Milligan was the same. Some incredibly clever and funny stuff, but some absolute lunacy too.

I do think the Goon Show is the obvious precursor to Python- but the way Python 'broke into' TV (which is an infinitely more expensive medium and therefore more risky if something goes wrong) set the stage for the rest of comedy.

Dara O'Brian making lorryloads of cash has the Pythons to thank.

Weirdly, I went through a stage of not finding it funny, but now find it funny again.

Laurel and Hardy, 80+ years and still funny. The "look to camera" that Oliver Hardy did has been used many.times since.

'Well it's certainly uncontaminated by cheese.'

Vintage Cleese.

Although some stuff will clearly now be dated they were geniuses and ahead of their time. Take for example the 'Mr Neutron' sketch where Graham Chapman as Mr Neutron (but making a passing resemblance of Julian Alsop dressed as a banana) chats up a character called Mrs S.C.U.M.

Good luck getting tickets for their gig. A one off at O2

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/news/a532870/monty-python-to-play-one-off-show-at-londons-o2-arena-in-2014.html

Aaand there goes Monday morning.

A more accurate representation you'll never see...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcSMaNlcDPs

Tickets booked :)

Sweet! Only remembered at 11, amazingly thee were none left.

They sold out im 43 seconds
So they have added another 4 shows I think

The extra four shows sold out in an hour....  Hoping they'll release some more.

It's a wee bit of a stunt - given how quickly the other four shows went on sale, and the first was on sale for a Tuesday night, the publicists behind Monty Python knew what they were doing....  Bit peeved not to be able to get tickets, as would have been an ace Crimbo present for my dad.