Monty Python's Flying Circus - Classic or Dud?

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There's definitely stuff that falls flat and doesn't work in virtually every episode.

Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:45 (five years ago) link

Plus a lot is badly under-rehearsed and looks cheap and threadbare (lol BBC comedy budgets).

Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:47 (five years ago) link

Low-budget production on British shows are quaint!

Newsted joins this band and quickly he’s subdued (Leee), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:49 (five years ago) link

as a kid, i found a lot of the flying circus not funny so much as just fascinatingly weird, like i'd watch it with a real sense of wonder and anticipation that i can't remember ever feeling with any other comedy show. so much of it was based on satire of things i was completely unfamiliar with (both as an american and as a non-adult) that there were entire episodes that just flew over my head, but i don't remember ever being bored by it.

(The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 00:04 (five years ago) link

Leee's initial revive point is pretty OTM, one I've been turning over a lot in my brain ever since they announced it would end up on Netflix.

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 00:10 (five years ago) link

I do think the movies are generally better, even though I never, ever need to see them again due to overexposure

Οὖτις, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 00:12 (five years ago) link

as a kid, i found a lot of the flying circus not funny so much as just fascinatingly weird

OTM. I loved the out-of-left-field stuff like 'Conrad Pooh's Dancing Teeth' and 'Find the Fish' so much.

Fantasy Eyelid (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 00:57 (five years ago) link

fishy fishy fishy fish

galaxy brian (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 01:08 (five years ago) link

weird coincidence: just watched a Monty Python sketch, as the result of searching Youtube for 'hide and seek championship'. i wish i was lying

imago, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 01:11 (five years ago) link

The racist skits haven't aged well, suffice to say.

*takes a drink*

a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 02:00 (five years ago) link

it's very much of another time. If I were to watch it now I doubt I would laugh at all
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, November 27, 2018 6:24 PM

I'll take How to Tell Things Are Funny for $200, Alex

a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 02:06 (five years ago) link

oh shit, Monty Python is on Netflix?!

Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 02:13 (five years ago) link

Dr Morbius: “Racism is actually good”

I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 02:16 (five years ago) link

Nobody was saying blackface was bad in 1970! We didn’t know!

I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 02:18 (five years ago) link

The English were blacking up their children for a larf on bonfire night until the late 90s

I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 02:18 (five years ago) link

you fuckers need an enema

a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 02:33 (five years ago) link

hey guys the Marx Bros did blackface in A Day at the Races, I'm letting you know so you can lead off every discussion of them til you fucking die with that (yer welcome)

a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 02:35 (five years ago) link

Do u still laugh at it

Οὖτις, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 02:45 (five years ago) link

Come on, guys, we all know the best way to handle instances of unfortunate racism from the past is to pretend that they never even happened. It will never magically disappear if you keep bringing it up (v uncool, F-).

Fantasy Eyelid (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 02:45 (five years ago) link

Fwiw my initial comment wasnt meant to imply that the show isnt funny because its racist, just that i dont find it funny anymore - it’s targets (stuffy british ppl, mainly) don’t much concern me or seem so funny as they did in previous times.

Οὖτις, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 03:23 (five years ago) link

It's not racist and it remains very funny and ingenious. And the TV shows are better than the films.

everything, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 04:02 (five years ago) link

The Goodies was way more 70s casual racist than MP shurely. i’m struggling to even think of a blackface flying circus skit but i prob just don’t remember?

Oh there was that Gilliam bit with the jewish satan and jesuses on the telephone poles but that bit got cut in the first place.

Stoop Crone (Trayce), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 05:07 (five years ago) link

wait no now i remember that jungle one urgh.

Stoop Crone (Trayce), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 05:08 (five years ago) link

Yeah there's a number -- not to mention a lot of yellowface ones too.

Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 05:11 (five years ago) link

Onion A/V Club writers, always talking like a normal human

Okay, we should probably back up a bit. I don’t really want to talk about this, but I’ll give it a paragraph, and that’ll be enough. (I mean, feel free to whatever in the comments, although please be respectful, except when you’re talking about me, because let’s face it, I deserve what I get.) Palin is playing a character named “Mrs. Nigger-Baiter,” and while I don’t know how this was supposed to play at the time, as is, it’s an ugly line with no real point other than to shock. There’s no context, no build, no punchline. It’s just a mean, vile word tossed out without any apparent consideration. I don’t think challenging or hateful language needs to be banned, because that never gets us anywhere we want to go. But when you’re going to use a word like this, it needs some reason beyond itself to be there.

5th Ward Weeaboo (Whiney G. Weingarten), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 05:15 (five years ago) link

There's a recurring gag about cricket teams, confused about a joke saying the test match is being held in a room and being shepherded out told "it's only a joke, it's a joke". The team appear in black face as the Trinidad team. No-one would do it now but it's not racist.

everything, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 05:16 (five years ago) link

Are we really going to have to cover why blackface is ipso facto racist in this thread

I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 05:29 (five years ago) link

Are we not just gonna fucking take that as read at this point

I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 05:29 (five years ago) link

I was half-thinking about starting a "Racist art that still holds up" thread (I reckon someone would say Birth of a Nation, though I found it incredibly dull), but then some of these responses give me pause.

Newsted joins this band and quickly he’s subdued (Leee), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 05:34 (five years ago) link

The Wikipedia page for Al Jolson contains a lot of carefully sourced “he had black friends” which made me kind of 🤨

I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 05:44 (five years ago) link

xpost TBF, the Venn diagram of 'pre-21st Century art that still holds up' and 'racist art that still holds up' is close enough to a perfect circle to render that project mostly pointless.

(See also: a non-negligible portion of 21st Century art.)

Fantasy Eyelid (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 05:46 (five years ago) link

It seems like most older stuff I engage with has at least one or two 'oof'-worthy moments that I can consider within the given context and move on from. And then occasionally I stumble upon something where I'm like 'okay, this isn't really defensible' and I have to kinda shut the door on it. Monty Python is certainly among the former grouping.

Fantasy Eyelid (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 05:51 (five years ago) link

(Even just realizing lately how ubiquitous 'retard' was well into this decade! Very little can ever fully avoid being retroactively tainted by progress.)

Fantasy Eyelid (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 05:54 (five years ago) link

I do appreciate their casting an actual black jazzman to turn into Scotsman.

Scape: Goat-fired like a dog! (Myonga Vön Bontee), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 06:59 (five years ago) link

Billy Crystal did his Sammy Davis Jr thing in full makeup (for about 5 seconds, on film) the last time he hosted the Oscars. I never worried about it being racist bcz it was never funny. He and Chris Guest played two elderly ex-Negro League ballplayers when they were on SNL in '84-85. I remember that being funny.

The Jolson thing was a phenomenon essays could be written about (and have). He had a base of black fans, including Sammy Davis Jr. For homework, all the snowflakes can decide whet all the black performers who used blackface... oh fergit it.

a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 07:09 (five years ago) link

Wow, guess you just went for it there...

Mario Meatwagon (Moodles), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 07:31 (five years ago) link

ipso facto racist

Whenever I read the word ipso I think of these tic-tac knock offs and this advert which is also kinda you wouldn't do that now.

https://youtu.be/q4Tww7bcIWQ

Wegmüller Fruit Corner (Noel Emits), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 08:46 (five years ago) link

The sexism in Monty Python is much much worse than the racism, to open another can of worms. I kind of agree with whoever itt said the TV shows are better than the films, they seem like more of an achievement.

Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 10:51 (five years ago) link

Lots of homophobic/transphobic cheap laughs in MP too - all in line with the popular light entertainment of the day.

Ward Fowler, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 10:53 (five years ago) link

Oh yes, of course! There's a reason why Netflix isn't re-running the Goodies - and it's not just to annoy Bill Oddie, though that is a fine and noble reason in itself.

Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 10:56 (five years ago) link

It seems like most of the threads I engage with have at least one or two 'oof'-worthy posts that I can consider within the given context and move on from.

Fantasy Eyelid (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 11:26 (five years ago) link

(xposts, as I'd hope would be obvious)

Fantasy Eyelid (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 11:30 (five years ago) link

yanks as a rule think the gilliam stuff is what mattered thats how you know not to mind too much what yanks think about mp

old yeller-at-clouds (darraghmac), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 11:44 (five years ago) link

Monty Python's That Shit Doesn't Fly Any More Circus

Bound 4 da Remoan (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 11:46 (five years ago) link

You know what does hold up? The sketch where Hitler, Von Ribbentrop and Himmler are hiding out in a British b&b.

"No, no, you've got the wrong map there, this is Stalingrad, you want the Ilfracombe and Barnstaple section."

Daniel_Rf, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 11:58 (five years ago) link

yes, as with all things from 1970, comedy was much more sexist.

with 1930, at least you have Groucho, who made sexism hilarious.

a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 12:13 (five years ago) link

xp i liked it when hitler disguised as mr hilter was holding a political rally and a woman in the crowd complained, ‘i gave him my baby to kiss and he bit it on the head’

estela, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 12:20 (five years ago) link

Also the mountaineering expedition sketch, "... Kilimanjaro is a pretty tricky climb you know, most of it is up until you reach the very very top, and then it tends to slope away rather sharply".

(thread descends into a succession of 'funny' quotes)

Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 13:30 (five years ago) link

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Stomp.gif

mark s, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 13:33 (five years ago) link

yanks as a rule think the gilliam stuff is what mattered thats how you know not to mind too much what yanks think about mp

― old yeller-at-clouds (darraghmac), Wednesday, November 28, 2018 5:44 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Maybe if those other guys had ever done anything after Python instead of fading into obscurity we would feel differently.

Wait, I take it back, I guess one of them was in The Great Muppet Caper. The exception that proves the rule.

Fantasy Eyelid (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 13:53 (five years ago) link


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