Monty Python

[Sippo]

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!

[LucienSanchez]

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.

[reeves4england]

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

[Batch]

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.

[4D]

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.

[Bob's Orange]

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.

[Flashheart]

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

[Only Me]

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

[Reg Smeeton]

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.

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...

[Ardiles]

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.

[4D]

Jabberwocky was ace.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

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)

[Bogus Dave]

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.

[THE FLASH]

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!

[herthab]

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.