Monty Python's Flying Circus - Classic or Dud?

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."

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

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

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’

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)

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

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.

You mean you never saw Terry Jones' "Barbarians" documentary series? That was v. good.

Poor Americans haven't had the pleasure of watching Eric Idle's 'Breakaway' adverts

I dont' think the intention was ever racist, but the presentation certainly...doesn't age well. That said, the golden moments of the show do not involve any of those sketches. The best sketches are still funny. ARgument Clinc, Parrot, that hilarious sketch where they classify words as 'woody' or 'tinny'....I'd say a good 1/3 of this entire series is out of the part brilliant and holds up. The rest varies from 'very good' to 'wtf'.

"He and Chris Guest played two elderly ex-Negro League ballplayers when they were on SNL in '84-85. I remember that being funny."

this is one of the best SNL bits in history (as is most of that season IMO).

With the possible exception of Kids in the Hall, I don't think there's a sketch show in existence with a hit/miss ratio that far exceeds 50/50. I'd say MP hits that threshold. Despite being a half decade older, it at least holds up better than the 'classic' era of SNL.

The sketches with the merchant banker being asked to give to charity; and the man undergoing the bizarre job interview (with Cleese playing the banker and the interviewer, respectively) are probably in my top 5, are still extremely funny, and have none of the "problematic" stuff. Some of y'all are crazy.

Yeah I've never met an American MP fan who felt that Gilliam was the main attraction. Guy just got a lot more ink over the years because his work outside of Python was significantly higher profile.

xps

Wait, was Monty Python responsible for that weirdly-long epilogue to my favorite Gilliam movie, The Crimson Permanent Insurance? That was pretty good, I guess.

Yeah darragh have you met someone who was like “I only liked the cartoons?” I cannot imagine such a person into being

Insurance Assurance, oof

"Yeah flying circus has some pretty racist bits, but have you rewatched Spike Milligan's Q.. series recently?

― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length)"

"less racist than Q" is setting the bar real, real low.

"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)"

yes this is extremely wikipedia, i recall the wikipedia page for "coal black and de sebben dwarfs" being the same way

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

― Ward Fowler"

yeah for me personally their contribution to the (long established) british tradition of comedy transvestism is the worst thing about them

having made all these ancillary complaints i will point out as is my wont that "monty python and the holy grail" is one of the most historically accurate movies about the medieval era there is and i will always love them for that

It was a prologue, not an epilogue – shown before TMoL, or the first part of it if you will.

xps

I think you have been read that xps too fast.

monty python and the holy grail" is one of the most historically accurate movies about the medieval era

I find the prevelance of coconuts unlikely tbh.

xpost Yes, as per usual, that was just me being a total dipshit.

it may have been british ilxors on this very thread who the fucknose

It's always anglophile Americans I come across who love MP the most and the grotesque 'Britishness' is obviously a big part of the appeal.

"Wait, was Monty Python responsible for that weirdly-long epilogue to my favorite Gilliam movie, The Crimson Permanent Insurance? That was pretty good, I guess."

that is from a Monty Python film, yes.

xpost Yes, as per usual, that was just me being a total dipshit.

― Fantasy Eyelid (Old Lunch), Wednesday, November 28, 2018 9:04 AM (twenty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It helps to know that the prologue was very much Gilliam's thing.

Also, whatever dialect Graham Chapman is using in the "flying sheep" sketch never fails to make me laugh. Nor does the following bit with Cleese and Palin speaking as Frenchmen demonstrating the sheep airliner.

"Wait, was Monty Python responsible for that weirdly-long epilogue to my favorite Gilliam movie, The Crimson Permanent Insurance? That was pretty good, I guess."

i thought this was funny OL do not apologise

yes, OL's dumb joke was good and ppl explaining it to him are the true dummies

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.

It's the same reason they're not re-running any other British sitcom or sketch-com or sit-sketch or indeed any programme of any kind from the 1970s (or 1980s or 1990s)

Netflix US does have 'Allo 'Allo!

I rescind my entire posting history

Also, whatever dialect Graham Chapman is using in the "flying sheep" sketch never fails to make me laugh.

Yes! "Notice they do not so much fly, as ploomet."

Aussie Netflix has fawlty towers and yes minister, there’s probably more but I can’t say I’ve loooked too hard.

There's a reason why Netflix isn't re-running the Goodies

There's plenty of racism in The Goodies and at least one incidence of blackface (specifically Tim Brooke-Taylor in blackface as an African-American boxer in 'Kung-Fu Capers'). The BBC did a 'Goodies Night' a few years ago and IIRC they couldn't show an entire episode. Instead they kept showing clips and then cutting back to Tim/Grahame/Bill in a studio in front of a live audience.

Also, whatever dialect Graham Chapman is using in the "flying sheep" sketch never fails to make me laugh.

A kind of generic West Country yokel accent. Or East Anglian.

Aussie Netflix has fawlty towers and yes minister, there’s probably more but I can’t say I’ve loooked too hard.

ha ha, searching for Yes, Minister on US Netflix brings up:

Fawlty Towers
The IT Crowd
World War II In Colour
the US remake of House Of Cards
Bodyguard
The Good Place
Death In Paradise
Friends
Life Of Brian
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
and Lars Von Trier's Nymphomaniac

My first exposure to Python was via a CBBC programme called 'Boxpops' which also featured this sketch from NTNOCN:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asUyK6JWt9U

Which, while somewhat true, isn't half calling the kettle black in NTNOCN's case. And re-watching it on YouTube a year or so ago, it's probably aged much worse…

i certainly think SCTV w/ the peak cast was better than 50/50

is SCTV streaming anywhere?

It is strange how poorly the UK looks back on the Goodies - it was very very popular in Australia in the 80s as a kids show! Apparently even the cast members were a bit taken aback.

I dont recall weather what we saw was edited much, but probably not given how shithouse Australians tend to be about caring about racism/sexism in media in the first place ("its just a jooooke cant you take a joke" etc)

haha never saw that NTNOCN skit. Funny.

AFAIK the Goodies never ran in the US, at least not with any regularity; maybe a few PBS stations picked it up in the 80's. I've never seen it and only knew about it from books on Python.

It is strange how poorly the UK looks back on the Goodies - it was very very popular in Australia in the 80s as a kids show!

It was generally considered a bit of kids show in the UK tbh.

it was a kids show

it was on at 7, even benny hill was on at 8

Many episodes parodied current events, such as an episode where the entire black population of South Africa emigrates to Great Britain to escape apartheid. As this means that the white South Africans no longer have anyone to exploit and oppress, they introduce a new system called "apart-height", where short people (Bill and a number of jockeys) are discriminated against.

Huh.

(xp) I think Bill Oddie got annoyed at the idea that it was seen as a kids show but then he's annoyed at everything.

it was on at 7, even benny hill was on at 8

it was generally on at 5-6pm in Australia, and quite frequently cut. They did a stage tour in 2005 which was largely them sitting down, talking about the episodes that had been censored, and then showing the censored bits on a big screen.

lol

i liked the one where they knew the end of the world was about to happen bcz the pages in graeme's diary were blank after a certain date, aged 11 i thought this tremendous stuff

I remember one episode that was a parody of Clockwork Orange - not exactly a kids' film!