Also the more popular sketches have been ruined a bit by endless repetition by boring people in playgrounds/student bars (Spammy Lumberjack Cheese Shop Parrots, and so on) however with 45 episodes there's a large amount of top notch stuff which is happily untainted (off the top of my head - the Raymond Luxury Yacht sketches, S. Frog and Conquisidor Coffee, the entirety of the "Micheal Ellis" episode from the massively underrated fourth series).
Anyway, what say you?
― Chriddof (Chriddof), Sunday, 31 August 2003 21:27 (twenty years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 31 August 2003 21:38 (twenty years ago) link
― Venga, Sunday, 31 August 2003 21:43 (twenty years ago) link
― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Sunday, 31 August 2003 21:46 (twenty years ago) link
― Venga, Sunday, 31 August 2003 21:48 (twenty years ago) link
― Trayce (trayce), Sunday, 31 August 2003 21:48 (twenty years ago) link
― trife (simon_tr), Sunday, 31 August 2003 21:54 (twenty years ago) link
― Chriddof (Chriddof), Sunday, 31 August 2003 21:58 (twenty years ago) link
total classic, btw. as I have written elsewhere recently, almost unspeakably *important* at times.
― robin carmody (robin carmody), Sunday, 31 August 2003 23:12 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 31 August 2003 23:25 (twenty years ago) link
― stevem (blueski), Sunday, 31 August 2003 23:51 (twenty years ago) link
― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 1 September 2003 00:02 (twenty years ago) link
― stevem (blueski), Monday, 1 September 2003 00:12 (twenty years ago) link
"that series 1 episode where it's mostly about the Scottish man fighting alien blancmanges is pretty poor."
I love that episode! One of the very first ones I ever saw... for some reason, people always rag on the Python sketches that went any longer than five minutes, but i thought this and Scott of the Antarctic were quite good.
Series three, very good. Series four, okay... even though Cleese's writing material did make into several episodes, the sense of balance he provided the show was gone, and a lot of the material just fell into overdone and overplayed nonsense. See the sketch with Terry Gilliam on the couch eating beans very messily with Chapman in drag and Jones I believe going on about snogging. I mean, I like gross-out humor, but a lot of the fourth season just seemed pointless and uninspired. There are a few moments of brilliance still present, however.
― The Man they call Dan (The Man they call Dan), Monday, 1 September 2003 00:21 (twenty years ago) link
(Also, does anyone remember those Time Life UK adverts where they tried some rip-off thing where you signed up for a series of tapes at 5.99 each or something that only had two episodes on each one, all out of sequence, and all from those smudgy mid seventies NTSC transfers?)
― Chriddof (Chriddof), Monday, 1 September 2003 00:45 (twenty years ago) link
― RJG (RJG), Monday, 1 September 2003 00:49 (twenty years ago) link
― Chriddof (Chriddof), Monday, 1 September 2003 01:09 (twenty years ago) link
― robin (robin), Monday, 1 September 2003 01:30 (twenty years ago) link
― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 1 September 2003 06:12 (twenty years ago) link
― donna (donna), Monday, 1 September 2003 06:16 (twenty years ago) link
― Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 20:13 (twenty years ago) link
― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 22:28 (twenty years ago) link
― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Tuesday, 2 September 2003 23:43 (twenty years ago) link
If not classic I don't know what is.
― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Wednesday, 3 September 2003 01:03 (twenty years ago) link
― Trayce (trayce), Wednesday, 3 September 2003 01:04 (twenty years ago) link
― colin s barrow (colin s barrow), Wednesday, 3 September 2003 01:09 (twenty years ago) link
Er, these are arguments for Python?
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 5 September 2003 07:19 (twenty years ago) link
I had no idea there were episodes without John Cleese, though.
― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 5 September 2003 07:32 (twenty years ago) link
― Alex K (Alex K), Friday, 5 September 2003 07:46 (twenty years ago) link
The Spanish Inquisition sticks in my mind as the sketch that made me chuckle a lot. I don't even mind when people quote that one.
― robster (robster), Friday, 5 September 2003 07:48 (twenty years ago) link
― dave q, Friday, 5 September 2003 07:51 (twenty years ago) link
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 5 September 2003 07:59 (twenty years ago) link
― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 5 September 2003 08:42 (twenty years ago) link
― Nick H, Friday, 5 September 2003 09:34 (twenty years ago) link
― NA (Nick A.), Friday, 5 September 2003 11:57 (twenty years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Friday, 5 September 2003 12:31 (twenty years ago) link
"I say, Lionel! Catch!"
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 September 2003 13:34 (twenty years ago) link
― Chris P (Chris P), Friday, 5 September 2003 16:22 (twenty years ago) link
Ah ... so you're a Two Ronnies man, then?
― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Friday, 5 September 2003 18:48 (twenty years ago) link
― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Friday, 5 September 2003 18:51 (twenty years ago) link
― Myron Kosloff, Friday, 5 September 2003 19:12 (twenty years ago) link
― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Friday, 5 September 2003 19:31 (twenty years ago) link
I'd caught programmes here and there on TV, but the majority of it I'd never seen before. My conclusion? Classic. Python is quite simply the funniest and most creative comedy show there has ever been. Perhaps only Chris Morris comes close to the subversive surrealism of it.
Actually, Terry Gilliam's interludes are what I like least; I find him manic and vulgar. For me he's the Ringo Starr of the Pythons, a sort of fratboy Salvador Dali. The others remind me of Lewis Carroll, Edward Lear, Eric Satie... brilliant eccentric humour which can only come out of a certain high-minded seriousness. For instance, I discovered recently that one of the sketches was based on a Fluxus performance that happened in London. Now, even to parody a Fluxus performance, the Pythons had to be arty and curious enough to go to one, just as, to parody medieval romance it helped to be steeped in the subject, as Terry Jones was.
― Momus (Momus), Friday, 5 September 2003 20:27 (twenty years ago) link
― Myron Kosloff, Friday, 5 September 2003 20:52 (twenty years ago) link
Those darn Americans! ;-)
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 5 September 2003 20:55 (twenty years ago) link
― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 5 September 2003 20:58 (twenty years ago) link
Momus, people were writing news articles about Fluxus events back then; it seems like the sort of thing that you'd just be aware of (especially after Yoko had gotten famous through Lennon). I'm not sure any of them actually went to such an event.
I'm not sure that the slow-moving bullet hitting the tenor or the old lady tripping the busses are any more manic and vulgar than the French aero-sheep demonstration or "sex on the telly" bit.
― Chris P (Chris P), Friday, 5 September 2003 22:17 (twenty years ago) link
(I have the DVD set. I can hereby attest to the fact that watching a whole day worth of MPFC can drive one slightly batty. I, on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed myself.)
― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Saturday, 6 September 2003 01:31 (twenty years ago) link
Also, for anyone who loves the show and hasn't heard any of Python's comedy albums, I highly suggest picking those up. "Matching Tie and Hankerchief" is by far my favorite of the bunch.
― The Man they call Dan (The Man they call Dan), Saturday, 6 September 2003 01:53 (twenty years ago) link
I picked-up a CD set of ... hmmm .... maybe 'The Best of Python'? It sounds like someone put a tape recorder next to a TV speaker while MPFC was on, and then burned that to CD. Horrible quality. And yet funny. We listened to that skit about the architect who was supposed to design an apartment building and ended-up with a slaughterhouse instead while driving through Flagstaff in the middle of the night during a snow storm. Without the visual cues for the skits, well, it is an experience. Highly recommended.
― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Saturday, 6 September 2003 02:15 (twenty years ago) link
And yes, Spiny Norman did go around looking for his friend Dinsdale.
― Chris P (Chris P), Saturday, 6 September 2003 04:15 (twenty years ago) link
― sundar subramanian (sundar), Saturday, 6 September 2003 04:21 (twenty years ago) link
My mom made almost this exact comment earlier tonight. (My cousins--aged 7 and 10--had a sleep over here tonight and we watched the blancmange episode. Eh...but I did giggle at the manner in which the people were instantly transformed). She first saw it in the early-mid 70s on PBS. She had never even heard about it, just happened across it by chance one night. It truly was the first of its kind and, arguably, the best.
Dan, I fucking love that gore-gy scene. And can I just say: Momus OTM about the Gilliam segments. I just. don't. get it...and aesthetically, it makes me uneasy.
― oops (Oops), Saturday, 6 September 2003 05:29 (twenty years ago) link
Apparently, as I've recently discovered, there are some funny edits and things on the A&E boxset. The "Proust" sketch is censored for the word "masturbation", for a start. I think the "Biggles Dictates A Letter" sketch features a weird glitch at the start due to being mastered from a faulty copy... and I've heard series 4 is all different edits. Oh yes, and the end of episode 12 of series 3 has been cut. And of course the picture quality is a bit rubbish (what with everything coming from early NTSC transfers which are all horribly smudgy).
Some guy over on the Comedy (formerly SOTCAA) Forum on NotBBC claims there's a UK boxset coming out in a year's time, which might rectify these faults.
― Chriddof (Chriddof), Saturday, 6 September 2003 16:04 (twenty years ago) link
I am probably utterly wrong about that bit, by the way, so feel free to correct me!
― Chriddof (Chriddof), Saturday, 6 September 2003 16:06 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 6 September 2003 16:33 (twenty years ago) link
This reminds me of some sketches which were filmed but got cut out at the last minute, and subsequently wiped - "Choreographed Party Political Broadcast", something about a sculptor and his big nosed subject, and a thing about bees and businessmen (I think I completely misremembered that one). Just the scripts and a couple of production stills are all that exists of them now.
Also, has anyone here ever heard of the infamous "Wee-Wee Sketch"? Apparently it was written but it never got filmed, as the censors forbade it. It was about a couple at a restaraunt trying out wines, which are all actually urine.
― Chriddof (Chriddof), Saturday, 6 September 2003 17:10 (twenty years ago) link
Thought I saw that sketch, but I could be thinking of the restaurant sketch instead, where the guy eats so much, he throws up everywhere.
(It's OK to show that, but not glasses of wee? Odd moral bent.)
― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Saturday, 6 September 2003 17:17 (twenty years ago) link
YESSS!!!! Can it get any better than that?!
― Francis Watlington (Francis Watlington), Saturday, 6 September 2003 17:20 (twenty years ago) link
My Python geekery is shining especially brightly on this thread.
― Chris P (Chris P), Saturday, 6 September 2003 17:33 (twenty years ago) link
Isn't the beauty of Python that it allows for happy juvenile geekdom too, though?
― Nichole Graham (Nichole Graham), Saturday, 6 September 2003 17:37 (twenty years ago) link
― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 6 September 2003 18:00 (twenty years ago) link
― oops (Oops), Saturday, 6 September 2003 18:07 (twenty years ago) link
The Simpsons, The Day Today, Tommy Cooper, Morecambe and Wise, Wayne's World, Police Squad, Blackadder, early Friends.
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Sunday, 7 September 2003 23:52 (twenty years ago) link
One edit I always found curious in the versions I have (which are some kind of US VHS ones done in the late 80s) - the sketch where the black spot appeared on the guys face. In the original showing they apparently said he died of cancer. In the copy I have it is dubbed over (very badly and obviously - on purpose?) with the word "gangrene" which is absurd.
I dont know if the dubbing was a BBC thing or a US thing... *consults her 200 years of python book* Ah it was a BBC thing. Which word is used in the box sets? I'd like to buy the DVDs but now I'm dubious if it is true they're poor prints...
― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 8 September 2003 00:17 (twenty years ago) link
This is very interesting.
― Chriddof (Chriddof), Monday, 8 September 2003 10:22 (twenty years ago) link
― robin carmody (robin carmody), Monday, 8 September 2003 10:29 (twenty years ago) link
― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 8 September 2003 10:40 (twenty years ago) link
Most consistent/coherent Python show was the one with Palin as the cyclist, more or less parodying himself 20 years later (Pole to Pole etc.), which probably remains funny because it doesn't get rerun that often.
― Marcello Carlin, Monday, 8 September 2003 11:42 (twenty years ago) link
I don't know how accurate this is, or if this is actually true - but I recently read that Thames offered to produce Monty Python in 1969, and planned it as a 45 minute show in a primetime slot. For some reason Thames couldn't commit themselves to doing the show until 1971 and so they went with the BBC. Again, I'm not sure if this is true, as I'm sure I remember something about them being with the BBC from day one but it's an interesting "what-if" story, anyway.
Most consistent/coherent Python show was the one with Palin as the cyclist
Mr Pither's Cycling Tour. Very good that - with Terry Jones losing his memory and thinking he's Clodagh Rogers, and then Lenin.
― Chriddof (Chriddof), Monday, 8 September 2003 13:31 (twenty years ago) link
"Pither! What a stroke of luck to find you again!"
"Well, yes and no..."
the Jesus on the telephone poles thing is BIZARRE.
I remember for the LONGEST time being utterly befuddled by the brief clip of the animation of that showing in the 'episode recap' and trying to pause the videotape just so so I could read it.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 September 2003 13:42 (twenty years ago) link
― Nick H, Monday, 8 September 2003 14:40 (twenty years ago) link
― Myron Kosloff, Monday, 8 September 2003 21:00 (twenty years ago) link
Wonderful book, picked up a republication when I was 16 or so. Very goofy and ridiculous. The Famous Five parody is absolutely stellar.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 8 September 2003 21:29 (twenty years ago) link
― robin carmody (robin carmody), Monday, 8 September 2003 22:27 (twenty years ago) link
― Douglas (Douglas), Monday, 8 September 2003 23:28 (twenty years ago) link
Annoying how the BBC has lost so much wonderful old footage - Goodies, python, dr who etc.
― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 8 September 2003 23:29 (twenty years ago) link
― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 02:07 (twenty years ago) link
"To save time, I will continue in English ..."
― brian nemtusak (sanlazaro), Tuesday, 9 September 2003 02:30 (twenty years ago) link
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-806332_1,00.html
― Chriddof (Chriddof), Friday, 12 September 2003 12:41 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 12 September 2003 14:14 (twenty years ago) link
― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Friday, 12 September 2003 15:54 (twenty years ago) link
― Chriddof (Chriddof), Friday, 12 September 2003 19:02 (twenty years ago) link
(not even sure why I care at this point though, slow day at work obviously)
― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Friday, 12 September 2003 21:00 (twenty years ago) link
http://web.ukonline.co.uk/sotcaa/python.html
The above link is of a truly incredible website that examines the production of the shows, movies and records, with fantastically detailed examinations of various edits, out-takes, alternate versions of episodes/records, acres of quotes from actual rehearsal scripts featuring - yes! - the Wee-Wee Sketch in full, along with a great big press archive dating back to the very first article ever written about Python in the Radio Times in 1969! It is wonderful and I have spent virtually the whole evening reading it.
― Chriddof (Chriddof), Monday, 6 October 2003 21:13 (twenty years ago) link
My penile warts, your herpes my syphilitic sores Your moenelial infection how I miss you more and more You dobie's itch, my scrumpox our lovely gonorrhea At least we both were lying when we said that we were clear
Our syphilitic kisses sealed the secret of our tryst You gave me scrotal pustules with a quick flick of your wrist Your trichovaginitis sent shivers down my spine I got snail tracks in my anus when your spirochetes met mine.
Gonococcal urethritis, streptococcal ballinitis, Meningo myelitis, diplococcal cephalitis, Epididymitis, interstitial keratitis, Syphilitic choroiditis, and anterior u-ve-i-tis.
My clapped out genitalia is not so bad for me As the complete and utter failure every time I try to pee. My doctor says my buboes are the worst he's ever seen My scrotum's painted orange and my balls are turning green.
My heart is very tender though my parts are awful raw You might have been infected but you never were a bore I'm dying of your love my love I'm your spirochaetal clown I've left my body to science but I'm afraid they've turned it down.
"Medical Love Song," I salute you.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 26 May 2005 04:39 (eighteen years ago) link
One story: when King Arthur crossed the rope bridge, it was actually an extra, as Graham was suffering from the shakes and couldn't really perform that day.
Cleese fought to play Brian in TLOB, but he was shouted down. Eric Idle wrote strictly on his own, and out of all five, he's the only one who comes across as a primadonna and an arrogant jerk. He seems to despise Cleese with a passion, and always blames Cleese for any trial or tribulation suffered by the group, usually contradicting all four of the other pythons.
― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Friday, 15 September 2006 02:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 15 September 2006 02:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Friday, 15 September 2006 02:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 15 September 2006 02:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 15 September 2006 02:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Friday, 15 September 2006 02:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Friday, 15 September 2006 02:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Friday, 15 September 2006 02:30 (seventeen years ago) link
― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Friday, 15 September 2006 02:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 15 September 2006 10:03 (seventeen years ago) link
This--and I know you're just paraphrasing--is fucking brilliant.
― g00blar (gooblar), Friday, 15 September 2006 10:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 15 September 2006 10:18 (seventeen years ago) link
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Friday, 15 September 2006 10:19 (seventeen years ago) link
ask neil innes!
agreed!
― i am not a nugget (stevie), Friday, 15 September 2006 10:25 (seventeen years ago) link
In Idle's defence, he was responsible for one of the great TOTP performances - "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" where he systematically demolished the stage set.
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 15 September 2006 10:25 (seventeen years ago) link
― kyle (akmonday), Friday, 15 September 2006 12:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Friday, 15 September 2006 12:33 (seventeen years ago) link
Very pleasant and likeable, in the same way Palin's travelogues are very pleasant and likeable. Jones and Palin are still very good friends, I believe.
― chap who would dare to start Raaatpackin (chap), Friday, 15 September 2006 14:45 (seventeen years ago) link
― M Carty (mj_c), Friday, 15 September 2006 15:05 (seventeen years ago) link
Agreed. I was so happy to see that at long last, having heard about it for years.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 15 September 2006 15:05 (seventeen years ago) link
Basically the dispute between him and Innes is well known, and I watched the Rutles with the "director's commentary" i.e. Idle's, and two things struck me:
1) No mention at all of Innes2) or anybody else who did non-oncreen work.
Until about halfway through when he discusses Innes' wonderful songs, the co-director's work and everyone else. Ah well, I guess he warmed up.
Oh, and 4) It actually isn't unfair to claim he wrote it, as there is a great deal in it that isn't purely beatlessong or story.
Also, that he 'idly' pondered getting out all the out-takes and extras and making a sequel. "YOU NUTS??" I thought.... (It's easy to think this bloke chatting over the film is in the chair next to you)..
So I look up on Amazon, IMDB etc, and that is exactly what he did do. And how dreadful the reviews were for it.
― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 15 September 2006 15:15 (seventeen years ago) link
Monty Python & Stephanie Edwards hosting A.M. America in 1975. Includes bonus Peter Jennings reporting on the fall of Saigon. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfmS-DM8Jc0
― Elvis Telecom, Friday, 8 August 2008 16:05 (fifteen years ago) link
My son has just started watching Monty Python and repeating the lines as I did as an irritating teenager (although he's only 11) and indeed still do as an irritating 40 something. It was one of the first programmes I was allowed to stay up and watch back in the early 70s. The circle is unbroken.
― Ned Trifle II, Friday, 8 August 2008 18:38 (fifteen years ago) link
palin's 70s diary rocks. great book to have on a pain-in-the-arse long journey.
― piscesx, Sunday, 10 August 2008 06:02 (fifteen years ago) link
Monty Python Youtube Channel Launches
― Manchego Bay (G00blar), Friday, 21 November 2008 13:00 (fifteen years ago) link
holy fuck was the series lame. dig the movies, but i hadn't properly sat down to watch eps of the actual MPFC in aeons. so far not a single lol.
― robin carmody (robin carmody), Monday, September 1, 2003 1:12 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
wonder what he meant. maybe it was the comedy working-class accents or preponderance of loldolly-birds.
― special guest stars mark bronson, Monday, 9 February 2009 11:06 (fifteen years ago) link
the rutles movie is a stinker as well.
Would you leave your kids with Eric Idle alright?
― Bernard Braden Misreads Stephen Leacock (Marcello Carlin), Monday, 9 February 2009 11:08 (fifteen years ago) link
It matters not which Python's were right bastards and which were nice guys, the comedy is still funny after all these decades (at least whatever was funny the first time through) and that is quite a feat. Classic, obv.
― Aimless, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:08 (fifteen years ago) link
nrq keeps rong streak goin
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 9 February 2009 18:29 (fifteen years ago) link
the series beats any of the movies (as well as just about any other sketch comedy) any day.
i love how brits frantically detest any comedian of theirs with overseas appeal, then turn around and lionize shit like "friends."
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Monday, 9 February 2009 21:43 (fifteen years ago) link
TS: Benny Hill vs Curb yr Enthusiasm
― Mark G, Tuesday, 10 February 2009 09:28 (fifteen years ago) link
Yeah, we ALL do that.
― The Unbelievably Insensitive Baroness Vadera (Ned Trifle II), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 09:45 (fifteen years ago) link
Because americans never lionised Friends or anything.
― The Unbelievably Insensitive Baroness Vadera (Ned Trifle II), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 09:46 (fifteen years ago) link
so far not a single lol.
And you, so renowned for your gaiety and hearty sense of humour
― Vicious Cop Kills Gentle Fool (Tom D.), Tuesday, 10 February 2009 10:26 (fifteen years ago) link
John Cleese, who at 70 is the oldest of the group, in addition to appearing in movies and sitcoms and making golf-ball commercials, sometimes turns into a cranky old buffer complaining about cultural decline and Britain’s tabloids. He doesn’t watch much comedy anymore. “As you get older you laugh less,” he says, “because you’ve heard most of the jokes before."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/04/arts/television/04mcgr.html?pagewanted=all
You see, this is why *I* am watching less comedy...
― A Patch on Blazing Saddles (Dr Morbius), Monday, 5 October 2009 13:11 (fourteen years ago) link
Is it NY Times house style to call everyone "Mr."?
― Michael Jones, Monday, 5 October 2009 14:06 (fourteen years ago) link
Very much so. Especially if you are female.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 5 October 2009 14:14 (fourteen years ago) link
I remember when their Iggy reviews called him "Mr. Osterberg."
― A Patch on Blazing Saddles (Dr Morbius), Monday, 5 October 2009 15:15 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm told they used to add "Mr." and such even to one-name celebrities, thus Mr. Meatloaf, Ms. Cher, etc, but I'm not sure I believe this.
― Nemo, Monday, 5 October 2009 15:28 (fourteen years ago) link
Mr Cent.
― Mark G, Monday, 5 October 2009 15:31 (fourteen years ago) link
Mr Mr Mr, the famous band
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Monday, 5 October 2009 15:32 (fourteen years ago) link
“As you get older you laugh less,”
Soon we die.
― boring movies are the most boring (Eric H.), Monday, 5 October 2009 17:00 (fourteen years ago) link
Hahaha and I know exactly the tone of voice in which you say that...
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 5 October 2009 17:02 (fourteen years ago) link
I know you do, and you know why i agonized over "we" vs. "you," and now fear I may have chosen the wrong word.
― boring movies are the most boring (Eric H.), Monday, 5 October 2009 17:15 (fourteen years ago) link
You should really just relax.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 5 October 2009 17:17 (fourteen years ago) link
Death relaxes you like nothing else can. Your bladder and bowels, too.
― Aimless, Monday, 5 October 2009 17:22 (fourteen years ago) link
haha
― boring movies are the most boring (Eric H.), Monday, 5 October 2009 17:24 (fourteen years ago) link
and sphincter.
― A Patch on Blazing Saddles (Dr Morbius), Monday, 5 October 2009 18:02 (fourteen years ago) link
Take it to I Love TMI.
― a wicked 60s beat poop combo (Pancakes Hackman), Monday, 5 October 2009 18:09 (fourteen years ago) link
Where is the love for the Monty Pythons albums?? ABSOLUTE TOTAL FUCKING CLASSIC!!
Monty Python's Flying Circus, though, is pretty duddy. Way too much laughtrack.
― Mr. Snrub, Tuesday, 6 October 2009 02:16 (fourteen years ago) link
you're deranged, TV was their medium.
― A Patch on Blazing Saddles (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 6 October 2009 02:19 (fourteen years ago) link
people ragging on python must not have seen 90% of other tv. i'm hoping.
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 6 October 2009 08:58 (fourteen years ago) link
it didn't have a 'laugh track,' it was filmed in front of an audience.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Tuesday, 6 October 2009 16:51 (fourteen years ago) link
Are you sure about that? Not the filmed bits -- I don't believe any TV comedy was permitted NOT to have a laugh track in that era.
― A Patch on Blazing Saddles (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 6 October 2009 16:54 (fourteen years ago) link
British TV didn't use laugh tracks, as far i'm aware
― The Prince's choice: making a brush. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 6 October 2009 16:58 (fourteen years ago) link
Definitely in front of an audience from the start and the laughter you hear is live -- it's not only been discussed in any number of books/documentaries but a slew of sketches specifically use the audience as either backdrop or part of the whole thing. (Best example being the second season ender, the cannibal undertakers, which involved the audience supposedly rising up and charging the set in protest.)
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 6 October 2009 16:58 (fourteen years ago) link
I can't think of a single British comedy series of the 60s and 70s with one
Sketch in question:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWWg5shNWR4
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 6 October 2009 16:59 (fourteen years ago) link
One of the Pythons mentions in a later book and interview that this didn't quite go off as planned since most of the audience were loving it -- you can hear a few plants from staff/friends complaining and catcalling but the initial cutaways to the audience show 'em all chilling. The 'stage invasion' is a little easygoing at points. And then they all stand for the queen (the conceit of the episode being that Her Majesty was supposedly tuning in that night -- whenever she did so the national anthem was played, etc.)
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 6 October 2009 17:00 (fourteen years ago) link
Hahaha I have very strong memories of that sketch!
― The Book of Outhere (HI DERE), Tuesday, 6 October 2009 17:55 (fourteen years ago) link
Based on the time you broke into the mortuary and...well anyway.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 6 October 2009 17:59 (fourteen years ago) link
That IFC special sounds pretty cool!
― Darin, Tuesday, 6 October 2009 18:35 (fourteen years ago) link
Cleese, sounding off on everything:
I went through a very unpleasant divorce and discovered just how hopeless the American legal system is.... Now I have to pay one million dollars a year until I’m 76. So that means I have to organize my life around earning the first million dollars every year. And the normal sources of income for people like me are drying up. There aren’t as many film and TV parts — and you can do interesting documentaries but they don’t pay anything. So I’m doing one-man shows and other things ...
(on quitting the MPFC series)
Two things: One is I did not like the fact that we were repeating a lot of our material, even if other people didn’t notice; the others didn’t care. They were having a good time. I think if one was playing “I’m the pure artist,” I would win on that one. The other thing was that I was carrying the alcoholic [the late Graham Chapman]. That seems to get forgotten in all of these discussions. They were completely blind to an extraordinarily important point, which was: I was the guy who was having to work with the alcoholic. They never said, ‘We’ll share part of that burden with you. I’ll write with him one day a week.’ This is never mentioned. It was ‘Oh, John was rather difficult … ’
There were two types of days: days where I did 80 percent of the work and days when Graham did 5 percent of the work. He was basically lazy, but he had two great qualities: He was the most extraordinary sounding board and he was capable of coming in with very good off-the-wall ideas. But he was very lazy.
http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2009/10/interview_john_cleese_slams_ex.html
― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Monday, 12 October 2009 13:00 (fourteen years ago) link
Gilliam was on the One Show last week, making very Bryan Ferry-esque statements about the Nazis.
― I thought I could make it work because you look a bit like a man (aldo), Monday, 12 October 2009 13:12 (fourteen years ago) link
Graham Chapman may have been an alcoholic layabout, but he was an extremely funny one. So there.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Monday, 12 October 2009 17:05 (fourteen years ago) link
Anything but mindless good taste for him.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Monday, 12 October 2009 17:06 (fourteen years ago) link
I would love to read a book about Graham Chapman. He was a wild guy!
― existential eggs (Abbott), Monday, 12 October 2009 17:26 (fourteen years ago) link
He wrote A Liar's Autobiography. Great title.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 12 October 2009 17:26 (fourteen years ago) link
Cleese: the Ingmar Bergman of the Pythons
― boring movies are the most boring (Eric H.), Monday, 12 October 2009 17:28 (fourteen years ago) link
He's funny, too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlmzwZXa-Ww
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Monday, 12 October 2009 17:29 (fourteen years ago) link
Great commercials, all of them. The Mac vs. PC ads of their day.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Monday, 12 October 2009 17:37 (fourteen years ago) link
Well, "wrote" is a bit of a stretch, it ended up being a collaboration with four other writers(including Douglas Adams).
Yeah, Python always had a live audience. In fact rewatching the first episode is fascinating in this regard, as you can practically hear the unease in the studio as if they aren't quite whether they should be laughing at this.
Oh, while we're here, is everyone aware of Eric Idle's latest Python-milking atrocity?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVA_qFKEys4
He is absolutely determined to squeeze every drop of life out of those withered teats, isn't he?
― Pheeel, Monday, 12 October 2009 20:54 (fourteen years ago) link
so you wd say, Smiles of a Summer Night hata
― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 01:21 (fourteen years ago) link
xpost dunno, is that not "what it says on the tin"?
(didn't watch clip tbf)
― Mark G, Tuesday, 13 October 2009 07:11 (fourteen years ago) link
yes, but there was previously Spamalot, and that seemed a bit on the "get your own career" side already.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 07:46 (fourteen years ago) link
Not that it was bad or anything. I didn't see it, but 14 Tony noms isn't too shabby. Idle has a way with a tune, hafta admit. Even so. Enough, already.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 07:48 (fourteen years ago) link
S'funny, cause about 10 years ago when Idle appeared on the Craig Kilborn show, Kilborn announced forthright that Idle refused outright to talk about MP - a kinda unprecedented occurrance, especially for a particularly irreverent talk show host. (In the end, Idle brought his acoustic guitar and sang an amusing little song called "I'm Waiting For the Film".)
― Race Against Rockism (Myonga Vön Bontee), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 08:18 (fourteen years ago) link
I did.
Well, if anyone's going to, and people want to see it, hey...
The above bit reminded me of some TV appearance where he had it stated "No monty python" whic was like taking the elephant out of the room, and did new/different things, and by all accounts was great.
XPOST!
― Mark G, Tuesday, 13 October 2009 08:19 (fourteen years ago) link
I just got this like six disc doc about MP has anybody seen it??
― banned, on the run (s1ocki), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 08:38 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SXq5X9zEZI
― DavidM, Tuesday, 13 October 2009 08:50 (fourteen years ago) link
"And Gilliam, being American, went to no known school whatsoever." Heh.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 10:23 (fourteen years ago) link
Very nicely done, sir. :)
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 10:26 (fourteen years ago) link
(One quibble -- his answer about Life of Brian is disingenuous. It hardly matters that Jesus also appears in the film. The film mercilessly makes fun of the New Testament in many places -- its inscrutable language, its impossible instructions -- and worse yet, it points out the solid fact, as its premise even, that Jesus was one of many prophets who were hanging 'round at the time, and perhaps suggests that Jesus' choice as the one messiah was more or less arbitrary. idle knows all this. But I suppose to really answer the question would be to start a theology debate, which he likely is not interested in doing. So why address that question at all?)
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:01 (fourteen years ago) link
That Palin + Cleese vs. Muggeridge + Bishop of Southwark confrontation is classic though, not that Palin contributes much
― The Prince's choice: making a brush. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:04 (fourteen years ago) link
palin very nervous, as opposed to cleese seeming like he's been looking forward to it his whole life.
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:08 (fourteen years ago) link
He comes across as a guy you wouldn't want to fall out with
― The Prince's choice: making a brush. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:09 (fourteen years ago) link
Cleese? or Idle?
― Mark G, Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:11 (fourteen years ago) link
Cleese/Fawlty
― The Prince's choice: making a brush. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:12 (fourteen years ago) link
I think I saw Palin say that he was very angry about it all and had a selection of excellent debate points prepared, but then Cleese started with the jokes and he didn't know what to do with his serious arguments.
― FC Tom Tomsk Club (Merdeyeux), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:12 (fourteen years ago) link
Hard not to resort to humour when confronted with Mervyn Stockwood, the gayest Bishop in Christendom
― The Prince's choice: making a brush. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:14 (fourteen years ago) link
Apparently not even being Cleese's friend from college age, and his longtime professional partner, and then dying suddenly and very sadly, will save you from his scorn.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:18 (fourteen years ago) link
I don't know if that makes him a bastard cocksucker or not, though. It probably is, in fact, quite difficult to work with someone who, though brilliant, has no work ethic at all and actually has the shakes if made to work for long hours.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:19 (fourteen years ago) link
No, can't be too critical of someone who has to work with an alcoholic
― The Prince's choice: making a brush. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:20 (fourteen years ago) link
― The Prince's choice: making a brush. (Tom D.), 13 October 2009 11:09 (16 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban PermalinkCleese? or Idle?
― Mark G, 13 October 2009 11:11 (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink
God
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:27 (fourteen years ago) link
xp It does seem rude of him, though. Why say those things? Why bother at this point?
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:27 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah, look what he did to poor old Graham Chapman :( (xp)
― The Prince's choice: making a brush. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:28 (fourteen years ago) link
^ God, that is, not Cleese... or Idle
hard for cleese to come across as any other way, but if you think that being honest about graham chapman being difficult to work worth, or cleese's frustration manifesting itself as irreverence towards alcoholism or chapman's behaviour isn't understandable then........
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:28 (fourteen years ago) link
No I get that. But see my earlier post. What is it that he's actually trying to vent? Frustration at not being properly recognized, is how it reads to me. And it's plenty petty.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:31 (fourteen years ago) link
but cleese being frustrated and bitter is a running joke at this stage, and i honestly think he plays to it when discussing python, particularly when referring to jones or being left to work with python.
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:32 (fourteen years ago) link
Could be, but I hope when and if I'm his age I don't drag my dear old dead friends into it anymore.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:34 (fourteen years ago) link
i think they assume that
a) he wouldn't mind, would probably approve in fact
b) it's up to them how they refer to someone they worked with and knew closely for 20 years or so before he died.
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:36 (fourteen years ago) link
I was more referring to his propensity for giving crusty, bitter interviews.
― boring movies are the most boring (Eric H.), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:36 (fourteen years ago) link
I preferred his earlier, funnier interviews
― The Prince's choice: making a brush. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:39 (fourteen years ago) link
^ we've come full circle
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:40 (fourteen years ago) link
he repeated himself after interviews 1 & 2 imo
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:42 (fourteen years ago) link
would love to see the full clip
― no bubo, no credibility (stevie), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 11:58 (fourteen years ago) link
I'm a fan of crusty + bitter in comedians/people, don't all faint.
Why say those things? Why bother at this point?
cuz fanboys are still "blaming" him for leaving the show? I don't see his remarks as scornful. Don't hold your breath for the day Aykroyd says the same about Belushi.
― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 12:54 (fourteen years ago) link
I don't think anyone "blames" Cleese for leaving the show, I know Python fans are saddoes, but not that sad. I think he could be crusty and bitter because nobody finds him funny anymore, least of all himself.
― The Prince's choice: making a brush. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 12:59 (fourteen years ago) link
Aykroyd always wanted to leave the coke fiesta at 4.30am and bang some party girl before passing out and getting up 12 hours later to write five lines of banter, while Belushi always insisted on staying til 5 o'clock
― RAPTOBER (sic), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:00 (fourteen years ago) link
... also because, the others, in different ways, all seem happier and more successful than him? (xp)
― The Prince's choice: making a brush. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:00 (fourteen years ago) link
different in the way of not making fawlty towers?
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:02 (fourteen years ago) link
judging ppl's happiness by media/interviews = hilarious. Sample, 1993: "Oh, that River Phoenix and his healthy vegan lifestyle."
yeah, Eric Idle's current "success" largely built on the dumbed-down recycling that is Spamalot.
― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:03 (fourteen years ago) link
It's making him rich(er), that's success of a kind
― The Prince's choice: making a brush. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:05 (fourteen years ago) link
judging ppl's happiness by media/interviews = hilarious
Well, of course, but there appears to be only one embittered sourpuss these days, where they're used to be two (Cleese and Idle)
― The Prince's choice: making a brush. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:09 (fourteen years ago) link
do people want to see john cleese happy?
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:10 (fourteen years ago) link
They want to see him funny
― The Prince's choice: making a brush. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:10 (fourteen years ago) link
Ok, look. The man will be 70 years old on the 27th. (Happy Birthday, Cleese, in advance -- the world would be quite a bit less funny without you.) It just seems unnecessary for him to go pissing on his ex wife in public, or his old friends... it's ugly, is what I mean. You'll be sour enough when you're dead, so lighten the fuck up. You're rich as hell and loved wherever people speak English. Count your motherfucking blessings, you old coot.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:14 (fourteen years ago) link
maybe john cleese doesn't think people want to see him happy, though? seriously, have you ever seen the man appear out of 'grouch' mode. i can't think of an instance.
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:15 (fourteen years ago) link
Well, I'm on the record now, fwiw.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:16 (fourteen years ago) link
john cleese, we'd like to see you happy.
but we don't pay as well as mastercard, so that's probably that out of the running.
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:17 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah, he's nearly 70, he's more or less retired anyway
― The Prince's choice: making a brush. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:18 (fourteen years ago) link
Younger than Woody Allen though
You're rich as hell
Not what he says! He's in Eddie Murphy HALF mode.
― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:19 (fourteen years ago) link
I think that's exactly what it is, Morbs. How much money does he want buried with him, I wonder?
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:21 (fourteen years ago) link
I mean, give the bitch the money. It's just money. It's not going to make her any happier, either.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:22 (fourteen years ago) link
bollocks it won't
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:25 (fourteen years ago) link
taking it off him in the first place will make her happier, and then she actually gets to buy stuff with it.
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:26 (fourteen years ago) link
Yeah, but... fine. Let her. I don't actually believe that he's hurting financially. He's just sour-graping. He can give her half and still have plenty to live in the country, drink the world's finest wine, and grow ever more Orson-shaped until his demise.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:31 (fourteen years ago) link
I guess i AM asking for a mellow, contented John Cleese. And I guess that is a bit silly.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:32 (fourteen years ago) link
it's a fine world we live in when john cleese can't find happiness but jerry seinfeld only ever seems to be fucking grinning at me.
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:33 (fourteen years ago) link
xp yeah, i just don't think i've ever seen anything to suggest cleese has that 'setting'
Maybe Michael Palin could help him
― The Prince's choice: making a brush. (Tom D.), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:37 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiBWHHqK7W8
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:37 (fourteen years ago) link
He has a video about cheese, too.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:39 (fourteen years ago) link
(Although it seems the a youtube search for "John Cleese cheese" only turns up the obvious.)
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:41 (fourteen years ago) link
you guys must get in touch w/ him and tell him what a breeze it is to make a million a year in Hollywood at 70.
― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:44 (fourteen years ago) link
he has to make it in hollywood? that's a strange stipulation to throw on to a divorce settlement.
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:46 (fourteen years ago) link
I have not seen the man's bank balance, but I would be surprised if he didn't have a million a year to spare for a good while. Judges can be bastards, but they don't tell people to pay their exes a million a year unless they have many, many millions.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:46 (fourteen years ago) link
no, it has to be new money he earned that year in hollywood i think.
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:47 (fourteen years ago) link
That does seem to be his side of the story.
― tie me up, dress in drag, and read to me from the bible (kenan), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:49 (fourteen years ago) link
anyway, if the judgement enraged him with its unfairness then hurrah cos that's when he's at his best. we should break all his windows and put a potato in his exhaust pipe imo.
― Brewer's Bitch (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 13:51 (fourteen years ago) link
eagerly awaiting the divorce-induced Zach Braff remake of Fawlty Towers
― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 October 2009 16:22 (fourteen years ago) link
(Although it seems the a youtube search for "John Cleese cheese" only turns up the obvious)
heh heh...what, the "cheese shop" sketch or the fact that his grandfather's surname was originally "Cheese"?
(Oh wait, YOUTUBE search not google...never mind.)
― Race Against Rockism (Myonga Vön Bontee), Wednesday, 14 October 2009 03:32 (fourteen years ago) link
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/a-night-of-round-table-with-monty-python/
Responding to a question about how to tell which Pythons wrote which sketches, Mr. Cleese said that his work with Mr. Chapman was fairly clean and “finished short,” while Mr. Palin and Mr. Jones’s skits were “prolonged,” and Mr. Idle’s were “highly verbal” and “disappeared up their own funnel.” (Mr. Palin said his material could be recognized because it produced laughter.)
Other exchanges were downright bizarre, even by Python standards. Mr. Cleese read a card that asked, “What about that very funny thing that happened at Auschwitz?” This yielded an anecdote about the troupe’s visit to Germany when they traveled a concentration camp — recollections differed as to which one — only to discover that it was closed to visitors. Mr. Chapman suggested they say that they were Jewish, but the group was still denied entry.
The format also yielded a couple of authentically touching moments. Mr. Gilliam read a question submitted by 10-year-old Talia Lindner, asking if she could perform her version of the Spanish Inquisition skit for the Pythons. Mr. Gilliam accepted, and up to the front of the theater strode little Talia, in glasses and blue jeans. After a deep breath or five, she rapidly performed all the characters in the scene in just under a minute (“I didn’t expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition”; “Hold on, I’ll come in again”), drawing roars of laughter from the troupe followed by enthusiastic handshakes.
― Your Favorite Saturday Night Thing (Dr Morbius), Friday, 16 October 2009 12:41 (fourteen years ago) link
I'd heard that Auschwitz story before, forget where...
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 16 October 2009 12:51 (fourteen years ago) link
Haha visualizing that ten year old girl has me chuckling out loud
― a╓by's (╓abies), Friday, 16 October 2009 13:15 (fourteen years ago) link
nytimes:
Chapman suggested they say that they were Jewish, but the group was still denied entry.
wired:
"Graham (Chapman) said, 'Tell them we’re Jewish,' he recalled, to a now completely inconsolable audience. 'They let us in.'"
― surfing on hokusine waves (ledge), Friday, 16 October 2009 13:21 (fourteen years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmWN9fwmOKM
― Yutte Hermsgervørdenbrøtbørda (Eisbaer), Sunday, 16 January 2011 21:32 (thirteen years ago) link
I remember being thirteen or so and seeing that on PBS...I had no idea wtf was happening. "When will they start speaking English?"
― Stop Non-Erotic Cabaret (Abbbottt), Sunday, 16 January 2011 23:06 (thirteen years ago) link
i only recently found out about German Python. Palin's and Cleese's German are actually quite good as far as i can tell.
― Yutte Hermsgervørdenbrøtbørda (Eisbaer), Sunday, 16 January 2011 23:08 (thirteen years ago) link
This has been out on DVD for ages here. First ep is all German, second is all English. Fascinating stuff.
― goldenarsehat.jpg (Schlafsack), Sunday, 16 January 2011 23:10 (thirteen years ago) link
Oh god, a guy I was dating broght over the german python dvd once, back in 2002. I got rabidly drunk while watching it and so dont recall most of it.
― Stargazey Pi (Trayce), Sunday, 16 January 2011 23:41 (thirteen years ago) link
Chapman would have approved
― zappi, Sunday, 16 January 2011 23:47 (thirteen years ago) link
Heh :D
― Stargazey Pi (Trayce), Sunday, 16 January 2011 23:48 (thirteen years ago) link
This has been out on DVD for ages here
it's been out on VHS here for longer
― basically just a 2/47 freak out (sic), Monday, 17 January 2011 00:24 (thirteen years ago) link
Huh.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 21 June 2011 17:03 (twelve years ago) link
But on another note.
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 27 June 2011 17:20 (twelve years ago) link
Eric Idle is basically like "can my part in this be me singing while fucking a large pile of money? no? then piss off"
― chupacabra - a delicious burrito (DJP), Monday, 27 June 2011 17:27 (twelve years ago) link
When did Gilliam turn into Orson Welles?!
http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/06/27/arts/JPPYTHON3/JPPYTHON3-articleInline.jpg
― Whitey G. Bulgergarten (Phil D.), Monday, 27 June 2011 17:31 (twelve years ago) link
No, no, no. He is clearly Sigmund Freud.
― Aimless, Monday, 27 June 2011 17:33 (twelve years ago) link
Excellent! I like the story about how he recorded this in one night at Nilsson's place. The usual schtick about that group of party fiends (Lennon, Moon, Nilsson, Ringo, Chapman etc) being on a years-long career-killing bender often overlooks some pretty creative stuff.
― everything, Monday, 27 June 2011 17:34 (twelve years ago) link
I would rather see a docfilm about the LoBrian contretemps.
― joyless shithead (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 June 2011 18:47 (twelve years ago) link
Comedian Steve Punt will star as Eric Idle
― Gary Barlow syndrome (Autumn Almanac), Monday, 27 June 2011 21:02 (twelve years ago) link
especially for rhyming verses
― Chunks on strippers is the game of my frog (darraghmac), Monday, 27 June 2011 21:21 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/aug/13/monty-python-life-brian-bbc
Steve Punt has always reminded me a bit of Eric Idle.
― Inevitable stupid samba mix (chap), Saturday, 13 August 2011 22:29 (twelve years ago) link
um
― Autumn Almanac, Saturday, 13 August 2011 22:41 (twelve years ago) link
would love to see the full-length version of cleese and palin's face-off with muggeridge one day. have only seen clips in docs, and it seems a corker.
― sbgorf (stevie), Sunday, 14 August 2011 10:22 (twelve years ago) link
getting repeated next month iirc? spods have compiled 45 minutes of it from all the excerpts in various docos over the years but this may be its first ever actual full rebroadcast
― generous loller at dollies (sic), Sunday, 14 August 2011 15:17 (twelve years ago) link
there's no "face-off" to speak of tho. muggeridge is an utter tool and the increasingly hurt and pissed-off cleese and palin just zing the senile old twat into oblivion.
― Looking for Mrs Nutbar (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 14 August 2011 15:36 (twelve years ago) link
awesome news. that's kind of what i'm after tbh nv.
― sbgorf (stevie), Sunday, 14 August 2011 16:10 (twelve years ago) link
"...We thought about doing jokes about Jesus. Trying to book a table for 12 for the last supper. 'I can do you three 4s. Or you can come in tomorrow night?' 'No, it's got to be tonight'..."
― Ned Trifle X, Sunday, 14 August 2011 16:22 (twelve years ago) link
"jesus h christ: lust for glory"
― 10/11 of a dead jesus (darraghmac), Sunday, 14 August 2011 16:24 (twelve years ago) link
"not a funny building" tbh
― Looking for Mrs Nutbar (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 14 August 2011 16:31 (twelve years ago) link
Palin in partic claims to have been completely surprised by the vitriol directed at the movie. And tho I think they were being a little disingenuous when they said that they weren't laughing at Christianity, it should be pretty obvious to the feeblest feeb that the man-made fuckery of religious bureaucracy is the real target. Muggeridge, like a lot of late-convert Catholics, doesn't realise something that the church had sussed many years earlier: the best way to deflect satire is to pretend that the work is deeply religious at heart. (Obv it ain't)
― Looking for Mrs Nutbar (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 14 August 2011 16:35 (twelve years ago) link
Jones said at the end of the one of those clip show thingys - "It was't blasphemous, it was heretical..."
― Ned Trifle X, Sunday, 14 August 2011 16:41 (twelve years ago) link
Rather more than a clip show thingy actually. This was on the Beeb a couple of years ago.http://youtu.be/eC5rhnuMPz8
― Ned Trifle X, Sunday, 14 August 2011 16:46 (twelve years ago) link
Great clip.
― Inevitable stupid samba mix (chap), Sunday, 14 August 2011 18:25 (twelve years ago) link
The new movie then:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jan/27/monty-python-film-reunion-absolutely-anything
Terry Gilliam cast doubt on whether a reunion would ever be successfully achieved. "We all have our own careers now … the BBC put us on 10 years ago, and it was an hour of mediocrity … the work wasn't what it should be."
He means that Monty Python Night thing hosted by Eddie Izzard, I presume. He's right, the new sketches in that were pretty mediocre.
― DavidM, Friday, 27 January 2012 14:21 (twelve years ago) link
watching series four atm, move towards making each installment a more complete episode with a theme or two running through it works very well i think
― less of the same (darraghmac), Saturday, 24 March 2012 13:52 (eleven years ago) link
mm, where do you stand on 'The Cycling Tour' from Series 3? it's years since i saw it but i thought it worked pretty great; one long 30 minute sketch as it were. i think they put it into the 'failed experiment' box, or some of them did anyway as they never did that again.
― piscesx, Saturday, 24 March 2012 14:06 (eleven years ago) link
i think that was the first departure in that direction, yeah (tho 'ethel the frog' with spiny norman and the krays substitutes was probably close to it too). i didn't like that one iirc but i could revisit.
i think it maybe turned out a lot like one of palin's whatchoocallem tales?
― less of the same (darraghmac), Saturday, 24 March 2012 14:09 (eleven years ago) link
rippin yarns, that's the one
Palin & Jones wrote Cycling Tour, also wrote Ripping Yarns
― ┗|∵|┓ (sic), Saturday, 24 March 2012 23:57 (eleven years ago) link
only caught the ripping yarns last year, varying quality but not bad at all
― less of the same (darraghmac), Sunday, 25 March 2012 00:10 (eleven years ago) link
Cycling Tour is one of my favorite episodes.
― Marilyn Hagerty: the terroir of tiny town (Abbbottt), Sunday, 25 March 2012 16:28 (eleven years ago) link
"¿Su mujer se enrolla? ¡Seguro que sí, seguro que sí!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vyKGxwmQRXY
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 19 October 2013 21:17 (ten years ago) link
Ok so
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24999401
― piscesx, Tuesday, 19 November 2013 14:00 (ten years ago) link
"Idle went on to create spoof Beatles band The Rutles and wrote the hit Spamalot musical."
Neil Innes could not be reached for comment.
― Ian from Etobicoke (Phil D.), Tuesday, 19 November 2013 14:06 (ten years ago) link
Eh, those reunion bits for the thirtieth anniversary special programming in the UK were pretty unspecial, and I can't imagine things being any better now. All feels like yet another Eric Idle attempt to keep functioning somehow.
― Ned Raggett, Tuesday, 19 November 2013 14:28 (ten years ago) link
the reunion sketches were dire yeah. supposedly it was always Palin who didn't fancy a reunion much, seems he's come round to the idea. it must be the early 1980s since they all last performed together onstage.
― piscesx, Tuesday, 19 November 2013 14:32 (ten years ago) link
Palin's diaries are really good value, apropos of nowt.
― Vic Arpeggio, Private Investigator (stevie), Tuesday, 19 November 2013 14:54 (ten years ago) link
true say. got a bit of a shock in Volume 2 when his sister killed herself :/
― piscesx, Tuesday, 19 November 2013 14:56 (ten years ago) link
NO SPOILERS!
― Vic Arpeggio, Private Investigator (stevie), Tuesday, 19 November 2013 15:17 (ten years ago) link
The 3000 Year Old Men
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 19 November 2013 15:57 (ten years ago) link
Expecting the Spanish Inquisition.
― Mark G, Tuesday, 19 November 2013 15:58 (ten years ago) link
The 3000 Year Old Sketches
― Thomas K Amphong (Tom D.), Tuesday, 19 November 2013 15:58 (ten years ago) link
The Dead Horse Sketch
― Mark G, Tuesday, 19 November 2013 16:00 (ten years ago) link
Did Cleese get divorced again or something?
― Ian Glasper's trapped in a scone (aldo), Tuesday, 19 November 2013 16:38 (ten years ago) link
i've been watching these for the first time in yeeears, and last night i was thinking how awful it would be if they ever got together and tried to make it work again. and now this.
― Autumn Almanac, Tuesday, 19 November 2013 20:26 (ten years ago) link
First it was the Pixies wo Kim Deal, now this. Ugh
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Tuesday, 19 November 2013 20:36 (ten years ago) link
don't tempt fate, they could recruit Gervais
― eclectic husbandry (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 19 November 2013 20:40 (ten years ago) link
talk about not tempting fate, sheesh!
― Mark G, Tuesday, 19 November 2013 20:52 (ten years ago) link
He added on Tuesday: "Python meeting this morning. Can't wait. Press Conference Thursday will apparently be live on Sky News. I'll get you the online URL."
get us the offline URL you lazy shit
― ͼѾͽ (sic), Wednesday, 20 November 2013 09:35 (ten years ago) link
So, one show so far, at the O2 in London in July 2014.
― my father will guide me up the stairs to bed (anagram), Thursday, 21 November 2013 13:13 (ten years ago) link
At a press conference, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones said they wanted to see if they "were still funny".
good one
― conrad, Thursday, 21 November 2013 14:04 (ten years ago) link
You aren't, go back to writing your memoirs
― Thomas K Amphong (Tom D.), Thursday, 21 November 2013 14:49 (ten years ago) link
John Cleese says, familiar sketches like “Dead Parrot” and “Crunchy Frog” won’t be done in “a predictable way,” but rather be given a “modern, topical, Pythonesque twist”
O___0
― piscesx, Thursday, 21 November 2013 19:34 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, no.
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 21 November 2013 19:35 (ten years ago) link
this is going to be very shit isn't it.
i mean, at least with rocky horror, people can enjoy the songs, and shout at the appropriate times turning the show into a mass gathering 'event'.
if they try and be clever and make their so called classic sketches different who fuckin' wins from that ?
― mark e, Thursday, 21 November 2013 20:24 (ten years ago) link
nah, they shd do a show of nothing but misanthropic spite where they shit on every fond memory their audience has, that wd be legit lol
― uk cheese board (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 21 November 2013 20:28 (ten years ago) link
would still be crap though.
that said, i have never fallen for the MP groove - too many of my school classmates used to recite the classics every f*ckin' day ..
so, with that in mind, anyone want a full set of the reissued expanded albums i have in the archive ?
(could be good time to check ebay to see if they are worth posting at long last !)
― mark e, Thursday, 21 November 2013 20:32 (ten years ago) link
“Dead Parrot” and “Crunchy Frog”
sigh
― Autumn Almanac, Thursday, 21 November 2013 20:41 (ten years ago) link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-25031520
but reiterated that there would also be "some new material".
― Autumn Almanac, Thursday, 21 November 2013 20:44 (ten years ago) link
the sad thing is i always thought it was awesome that these guys went out at the top and refused to get back together, and that they went out on such an uncompromising, nihilistic, fuck-you note -- 'meaning of life' is one of the most disturbing and upsetting comedies i've ever watched. i guess everyone gets around to doing that tedious reunion that everyone wants but no one actually likes.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 21 November 2013 20:45 (ten years ago) link
plus there are about a billion sketches and bits on the original python show that aren't tired at all because no one ever remembers or recites them, but i somehow doubt many of them will make their way into this.
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 21 November 2013 20:46 (ten years ago) link
not everyone
xp
― Ayn Rand Akbar (Shakey Mo Collier), Thursday, 21 November 2013 20:47 (ten years ago) link
I'd rather they appear in a film together than a stage show frankly; and maybe not a 'python' film, more along th elines of fish called wanda. What's going on with Absolutely Anything (terry jones film that was supposed to have them all but idle didn't wind up in it)?
― akm, Thursday, 21 November 2013 20:55 (ten years ago) link
They need to just re-create confuse-a-cat as a web series or something.
― Emperor Cos Dashit (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 21 November 2013 21:49 (ten years ago) link
Could happen:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvhdWBBuBpA
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 21 November 2013 22:06 (ten years ago) link
there's going to be screens and such so the film aspect could mean a revival of such relative unknown classics as..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ur5fGSBsfq8
― piscesx, Friday, 22 November 2013 00:41 (ten years ago) link
Hard to recreate Confuse-a-Cat and the Philosopher's Football match live on stage :(
― Thomas K Amphong (Tom D.), Friday, 22 November 2013 09:00 (ten years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcsVz6jo5MM
― panic disorder pixie (Sanpaku), Monday, 30 June 2014 19:22 (nine years ago) link
decent new 90 minute Yentob doc for the Britishers
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b048ry6w/imagine-summer-2014-4-monty-python-and-now-for-something-rather-similar
― piscesx, Tuesday, 1 July 2014 06:38 (nine years ago) link
they bleeped them, they bleeped out the swearing omg
― blap setter (darraghmac), Sunday, 20 July 2014 18:54 (nine years ago) link
The fuckers.
― Welcome to the dessert of the real (snoball), Sunday, 20 July 2014 18:57 (nine years ago) link
friend went to one of the O2 shows and said a guy in front of him was aggressively shouting the punchlines before the team got to them, which was, tbh, exactly what I would have expected.
― a biscuit/donut hybrid called “bisnuts” (stevie), Sunday, 20 July 2014 21:13 (nine years ago) link
http://uproxx.com/filmdrunk/2014/07/john-cleese-wrote-this-amazing-letter-to-a-14-year-old-monty-python-fan/?utm_source=huffingtonpost.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=pubexchange_article
― Randall "Humble" Pie (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 5 August 2014 18:27 (nine years ago) link
anyone read Cleese's book? goes up to start of MP, i think?
― things lose meaning over time (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 17 December 2014 22:18 (nine years ago) link
I haven't yet, but Palin's diaries are an absolute joy to read.
― Nixon head is essential. (stevie), Thursday, 18 December 2014 09:54 (nine years ago) link
I'd be surprised if there's much joy to be had from the Cleese book.
― Root It Oot (Tom D.), Thursday, 18 December 2014 10:21 (nine years ago) link
The boys were back in town, being interviewed after a fashion by John Oliver.
https://tribecafilm.com/stories/tribeca-film-festival-2015-monty-python-holy-grail-reunion
― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), Monday, 27 April 2015 22:02 (eight years ago) link
Oh no :(
http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37451043
Monty Python star Terry Jones has been diagnosed with a severe variant of dementia.The 74-year-old is suffering from primary progressive aphasia, which affects his ability to communicate.As a result, Jones "is no longer able to give interviews", his spokesman said.The news was confirmed as Bafta Cymru announced the Welsh-born comedian is to be honoured with an outstanding contribution award.The National Aphasia Association describes primary progressive aphasia as a neurological syndrome in which language capabilities become slowly and progressively impaired."It commonly begins as a subtle disorder of language, progressing to a nearly total inability to speak, in its most severe stage," their website states.
The 74-year-old is suffering from primary progressive aphasia, which affects his ability to communicate.
As a result, Jones "is no longer able to give interviews", his spokesman said.
The news was confirmed as Bafta Cymru announced the Welsh-born comedian is to be honoured with an outstanding contribution award.
The National Aphasia Association describes primary progressive aphasia as a neurological syndrome in which language capabilities become slowly and progressively impaired.
"It commonly begins as a subtle disorder of language, progressing to a nearly total inability to speak, in its most severe stage," their website states.
― Cumstaun (Phil D.), Friday, 23 September 2016 14:46 (seven years ago) link
grievous
― The Hon. J. Piedmont Mumblethunder (Dr Morbius), Friday, 23 September 2016 14:50 (seven years ago) link
awful
― tongue and cheek (stevie), Friday, 23 September 2016 15:02 (seven years ago) link
Wow. I could have sworn Jones was active and busy even recently. Dementia is the worst. Once it's been diagnosed you often realize it's been going on for some time, and that you've already been living with the steady decline.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 23 September 2016 15:07 (seven years ago) link
:(
― Autotune the Sky (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 23 September 2016 15:37 (seven years ago) link
That is sad. Terry Jones rules.
― jmm, Friday, 23 September 2016 15:38 (seven years ago) link
It's a little weird realizing that 'Python' as a loose group has now existed for notably longer without Graham Chapman than it did with him -- it almost seemed like they'd live forever as a result, I was just used to the five of them celebrating the occasional anniversary and all. Hope Jones has got the good care he needs.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 23 September 2016 15:41 (seven years ago) link
Our hairdresser's husband died of logopenic progressive aphasia & apparently the later stages involve daily inarticulate screaming fits.
― Wes Brodicus, Friday, 23 September 2016 15:51 (seven years ago) link
Such sad news.
― Acid Hose (Capitaine Jay Vee), Friday, 23 September 2016 16:16 (seven years ago) link
My aunt just died after a year of progressive dementia (ultimately diagnosed as vascular dementia); it was very bad. Unlike the perception of a happy, senile person living their life in a bizarre reality, she was angry, confused, and resentful of not being allowed to drive or, say, walk out of the house with no clothes on. She finally was unable to swallow. It was all very fast and intense.
― akm, Friday, 23 September 2016 18:28 (seven years ago) link
Long ago I had a friend describe the cheerful sort of interaction mentioned a few posts up. The aphasic would sit on a porch and say things such as "In there, but not anymore" and their companion would say "Walter Cronkite?" to which they would smile and nod.
― Autotune the Sky (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 23 September 2016 20:00 (seven years ago) link
In fact my mom is now a cheerful aphasic. A few months ago she told me she was wearing purple "because of the guy, something happened to him."
― Autotune the Sky (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 23 September 2016 20:05 (seven years ago) link
Just noticed that TJ has a seven year old daughter.
― Autotune the Sky (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 24 September 2016 18:57 (seven years ago) link
TJ's general lustiness is a recurring joyous theme of Palin's v enjoyable diaries
― tongue and cheek (stevie), Saturday, 24 September 2016 19:28 (seven years ago) link
so am not surprised he fathered offspring so recently
So did anyone watch the DVD of the 2014 reunion show? Will it make me sad?
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 11 July 2017 19:39 (six years ago) link
It's on the Netflix now. I'm about 6 episodes in but have to admit I've been generally unimpressed. The racist skits haven't aged well, suffice to say.
― Newsted joins this band and quickly he’s subdued (Leee), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:13 (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, 27 November 2018 23:24 (five years ago) link
comedys job to age well for americans alright
― old yeller-at-clouds (darraghmac), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:24 (five years ago) link
comedys job is to annoy lex and calzino afaict
― Οὖτις, Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:25 (five years ago) link
I would laugh.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:29 (five years ago) link
The movies are still brilliant though! The one that I watched anyway!
― Newsted joins this band and quickly he’s subdued (Leee), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:29 (five years ago) link
thanks to this show, whenever somebody says "not guilty," i think not gillcup
― galaxy brian (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:30 (five years ago) link
The records (apart from the first one) are better than the TV show too. Think it's just the pressure of putting together three hours of sketches, you could edit the first series down to a much better single hour.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:32 (five years ago) link
I bought the complete Flying Circus on DVD with bar mitzvah money but probably the last time I watched any was sometime in college. I'm pretty sure even adult woke me would think much if not most of it is still good. I remember the ratio of unmoored absurdity to racism being pretty high?
― I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:33 (five years ago) link
I'd rather watch a randomly selected episode from the first three Flying Circus series than even one minute of (say) Animal House, Airplane, a Pink Panther movie…
― I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:34 (five years ago) link
Kinda glad they could get away with not boiling it down, it wouldn't be improved as wall to wall "classics"
― Bound 4 da Remoan (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:37 (five years ago) link
Science Fiction Sketch is a miserable shaggy dog story with no proper punchline that takes up two thirds of an episode and I love it
― I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:38 (five years ago) link
TBF the only inarguably offensive sketch that I've seen so far is the Native American theatre aficionado.
But in terms of real lols, it's been very sparse. Lots of riffing on a single unworthy joke.
― Newsted joins this band and quickly he’s subdued (Leee), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:38 (five years ago) link
Yeah flying circus has some pretty racist bits, but have you rewatched Spike Milligan's Q.. series recently?
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:39 (five years ago) link
Yeah I'd never say it all works but it's absolutely not punchline comedy
― Bound 4 da Remoan (Noodle Vague), Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:40 (five years ago) link
Recently cried with laughter at those German episodes that on Netflix. Brilliant, genius etc.
― everything, Tuesday, 27 November 2018 23:43 (five years ago) link
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
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 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
― 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
You mean you never saw Terry Jones' "Barbarians" documentary series? That was v. good.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 13:57 (five years ago) link
Poor Americans haven't had the pleasure of watching Eric Idle's 'Breakaway' adverts
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:08 (five years ago) link
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).
― akm, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:24 (five years ago) link
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.
― Fantasy Eyelid (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:32 (five years ago) link
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.
― Plinka Trinka Banga Tink (Eliza D.), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:35 (five years ago) link
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
― circa1916, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:42 (five years ago) link
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.
― Fantasy Eyelid (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:46 (five years ago) link
Yeah darragh have you met someone who was like “I only liked the cartoons?” I cannot imagine such a person into being
― I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:48 (five years ago) link
Insurance Assurance, oof
― Fantasy Eyelid (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:50 (five years ago) link
"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
― dub pilates (rushomancy), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:53 (five years ago) link
It was a prologue, not an epilogue – shown before TMoL, or the first part of it if you will.
― the word dog doesn't bark (anagram), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 14:55 (five years ago) link
I think you have been read that xps too fast.
― Wegmüller Fruit Corner (Noel Emits), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 15:00 (five years ago) link
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.
― Wegmüller Fruit Corner (Noel Emits), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 15:04 (five years ago) link
xpost Yes, as per usual, that was just me being a total dipshit.
― Fantasy Eyelid (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 15:04 (five years ago) link
it may have been british ilxors on this very thread who the fucknose
― old yeller-at-clouds (darraghmac), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 15:07 (five years ago) link
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.
― Wegmüller Fruit Corner (Noel Emits), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 15:10 (five years ago) link
"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.
― akm, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 15:29 (five years ago) link
― Fantasy Eyelid (Old Lunch), Wednesday, November 28, 2018 9:04 AM (twenty-seven minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Welcome to Gropelord, TX (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 15:33 (five years ago) link
It helps to know that the prologue was very much Gilliam's thing.
― Wegmüller Fruit Corner (Noel Emits), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 15:36 (five years ago) link
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.
― Plinka Trinka Banga Tink (Eliza D.), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 15:45 (five years ago) link
i thought this was funny OL do not apologise
― Bênoit Balls (stevie), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 16:07 (five years ago) link
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)
― sans lep (sic), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 20:34 (five years ago) link
Netflix US does have 'Allo 'Allo!
― carson dial, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 20:35 (five years ago) link
I rescind my entire posting history
― sans lep (sic), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 20:39 (five years ago) link
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."
― Drunk Charles Nelson Reily violating Paul Lynn at a toga party (Dan Peterson), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 20:49 (five years ago) link
Aussie Netflix has fawlty towers and yes minister, there’s probably more but I can’t say I’ve loooked too hard.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 20:49 (five years ago) link
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.
― Chequers Plays Pop (snoball), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 20:58 (five years ago) link
A kind of generic West Country yokel accent. Or East Anglian.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 21:00 (five years ago) link
ha ha, searching for Yes, Minister on US Netflix brings up:
Fawlty TowersThe IT CrowdWorld War II In Colourthe US remake of House Of CardsBodyguardThe Good PlaceDeath In ParadiseFriends Life Of BrianThe Roosevelts: An Intimate Historyand Lars Von Trier's Nymphomaniac
― sans lep (sic), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 21:07 (five years ago) link
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…
― carson dial, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 21:08 (five years ago) link
i certainly think SCTV w/ the peak cast was better than 50/50
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 21:27 (five years ago) link
is SCTV streaming anywhere?
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 21:45 (five years ago) link
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)
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 22:39 (five years ago) link
haha never saw that NTNOCN skit. Funny.
― akm, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 22:45 (five years ago) link
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.
― akm, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 22:50 (five years ago) link
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.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 22:52 (five years ago) link
it was a kids show
― mark s, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 23:04 (five years ago) link
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.
― I have measured out my life in coffee shop loyalty cards (silby), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 23:07 (five years ago) link
(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.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 23:08 (five years ago) link
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.
― sans lep (sic), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 23:13 (five years ago) link
lol
― mark s, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 23:14 (five years ago) link
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
― mark s, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 23:16 (five years ago) link
I remember one episode that was a parody of Clockwork Orange - not exactly a kids' film!
― Zelda Zonk, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 23:16 (five years ago) link
i think the parody involved them dressing up then falling down
― mark s, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 23:19 (five years ago) link
IIRC, Cleese appears in The Goodies as a genie emerging from a can, shouts "Kids' programme!" and disappears.
― Michael Jones, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 23:20 (five years ago) link
everything the goodies have done since the goodies is better than anything john cleese did EVEN IN MONTY PYTHON there i said it
― mark s, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 23:21 (five years ago) link
Some of them were definitely broadcast later than 7, I wasn't allowed to stay up for them. Altho that was probably mainly on the grounds that my dad "wasn't watching that rubbish".
― Bound 4 da Remoan (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 23:22 (five years ago) link
yr dad otm tho i loved em (silly men falling down was my jam)
― mark s, Wednesday, 28 November 2018 23:23 (five years ago) link
Yeah I had the books and watched the TV show whenever the opportunity presented. The books were *definitely* not kids material despite the fact that yeah it's just gussied up slapstick mostly
― Bound 4 da Remoan (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 28 November 2018 23:26 (five years ago) link
I still fondly remember the Bronson The Wonder Man and "many moods of Charles Bronson" jokes from the Goodies' Disaster Movie book in the school library, despite having not seen Death Wish at age 8, nor any subsequent age
― sans lep (sic), Thursday, 29 November 2018 01:29 (five years ago) link
Is that a dagger I see before me? No, it's Trufo the wonder dog!
...sorry I seem to have derailed a Python thread into a Goodies discussion haha.
― Stoop Crone (Trayce), Thursday, 29 November 2018 03:21 (five years ago) link
Unlike almost every other film, MP films really got onscreen filth right. Like, literally, the cast often looks like it'd been rolling around in the dirt and mud before shooting a scene.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 29 November 2018 04:02 (five years ago) link
holy grail is probably their finest achievement in so many ways -- a consistently funny script, fine performances, just enough animation -- that i wish i hadn't burned out on it so long ago
still laugh whenever i think of "what, the curtains?"
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Thursday, 29 November 2018 04:10 (five years ago) link
Yeah. Probably not an uncommon story, but The Holy Grail deeply resonated with me and my nerd (USA) friends in middle school in the mid 90s. Like actually revelatory, shaped our senses of humor and inspired us to write comedy bits that we passed back and forth. It was an obsession for a good year or two.We delved deeper into all the other Python stuff but it was mostly never on the same level in our minds. Not entirely sure of the alchemy, that one wrecked us scene to scene but the other movies and show mostly fell flat.
― circa1916, Thursday, 29 November 2018 04:31 (five years ago) link
Is this where I can reveal that I changed all my AOL sound effects to Holy Grail .wavs
― circa1916, Thursday, 29 November 2018 04:38 (five years ago) link
It’s SO much funnier than ‘.. Brian’ that it’s not even a debate anymore.
― piscesx, Thursday, 29 November 2018 05:07 (five years ago) link
incorrect
like incorrect on both counts but so incorrect on in not being a debate that you should be banned
― old yeller-at-clouds (darraghmac), Thursday, 29 November 2018 08:36 (five years ago) link
Since we brought up The goodies, bill office was quite the musician/songwriter, two songs a week on. I’m sorry i’ll Read that again for ten years.
Needless to say there is a lot of Python in ISIRTA and the earlier series probably have a similar hit/miss ratio. Ferret song stands with most of the best python sketches.
― American Fear of Pranksterism (Ed), Thursday, 29 November 2018 08:56 (five years ago) link
out of em all was bill oddie or gilliam or who the biggest prick
― old yeller-at-clouds (darraghmac), Thursday, 29 November 2018 10:00 (five years ago) link
tim brooke-taylor clearly the worst ito no actual talent coattailing
Oddie the worst in terms of glaring me down when I saw him on a bus one time and was thinking of thanking him for his work
― Bound 4 da Remoan (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 29 November 2018 10:04 (five years ago) link
A glare that intimated the real possibility of verbal assault if I dared to acknowledge him
― Bound 4 da Remoan (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 29 November 2018 10:06 (five years ago) link
old cunt
― old yeller-at-clouds (darraghmac), Thursday, 29 November 2018 10:12 (five years ago) link
t/s getting slotted by Bill Odie vs Rory McGrath.
― calzino, Thursday, 29 November 2018 10:17 (five years ago) link
Hate to say it, but Oddie used to be a regular customer when I worked in the jazz department of London's biggest record shop and he was always perfectly fine - clearly knew and loved his music, didn't expect or demand any special treatment, no trouble at all.
― Ward Fowler, Thursday, 29 November 2018 10:18 (five years ago) link
I know someone who used to work with his ex-wife and, yes, ex-wives and all that, but...
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Thursday, 29 November 2018 10:22 (five years ago) link
... or Cleese or Idle.
Just watched the episode with the Clockwork Orange parody for the first time in several decades ( https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x6ewjb0 ) and it's pretty insane. And is in fact a parody of 2001 as well. Graham sends rabbits to the moon, Bill and Tim follow suit and get kidnapped by the moon rabbits who have become a super race and are sent back to earth as rabbits to terrorise the population (The Transistorised Carrot). How in hell they dreamed that up I don't know. It sort of holds up.
― Zelda Zonk, Thursday, 29 November 2018 10:28 (five years ago) link
And it references Monty Python too!
― Zelda Zonk, Thursday, 29 November 2018 10:32 (five years ago) link
That NTNOCN sketch is great, and sent me back to the original, which I still think might be their finest moment.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeKWVuye1YE
― Bênoit Balls (stevie), Thursday, 29 November 2018 10:38 (five years ago) link
if you can bear it, the bill oddie "who do you think you are" was interesting, if also wrenchingly sad (one of the saddest i remember): http://www.bbc.co.uk/whodoyouthinkyouare/past-stories/bill-oddie.shtml
it doesn't quite expunge the "don't be a prick" rule but it does explain what maybe turned him into one
― mark s, Thursday, 29 November 2018 11:03 (five years ago) link
If Marcello was here he could list all the jazz/improv musicians who played on the Goodies records. I know Dave Macrae, from Matching Mole, was heavily involved. Also that "Funky Gibbon" was inspired by Parliament/Funkadelic, though it sounds more like "Smash the Social Contract" by Cornelius Cardew.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Thursday, 29 November 2018 11:09 (five years ago) link
... actually it's the other way round "Smash the Social Contract" sounds like "Funky Gibbon".
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Thursday, 29 November 2018 11:18 (five years ago) link
*hurries off to the wire to steal that insight for a thinkpiece*
― mark s, Thursday, 29 November 2018 11:20 (five years ago) link
isn't it also the "vote for nigel barton" tune tho? i think it's something repurpoised from the common realm
― mark s, Thursday, 29 November 2018 11:21 (five years ago) link
Yes, I think you're right, nonetheless I refuse to give up on the idea that Goodies inspired Maoism was a thing at some point in the 70s.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Thursday, 29 November 2018 11:24 (five years ago) link
the guerrilla must move amongst the people as a fish on a (three-man) bicycle swims in the sea
― mark s, Thursday, 29 November 2018 11:28 (five years ago) link
Here: http://www.alwynwturner.com/glitter/funky_gibbon.html
Bill Oddie:You won't believe the musical pretensions that went on in my head. I listened to a lot of jazz and a lot of funk, and that period of the '70s for me was fantastic - it was really the era when fusion started. The people I liked were Sly Stone and early Parliament, and I listened to what was happening in jazz at the time, when Miles Davis was coming up with some very interesting hybrid music. With 'Funky Gibbon', I started off - it's almost unbelievable considering how stupid the song is - trying to get the feel of a Miles Davis track, I can't remember which, probably just after Bitches Brew and that sort of era: some really choppy Miles Davis-type rhythm, again with a Sly Stone influence.We had marvellous musicians on those sessions, but they couldn't get it. They knew what I was sort of trying to do, but I probably listened to that sort of thing more than they did, and it was driving us nuts, so we sent the drummer and the bass-player and the guitarist home. And I had a keyboard player called Dave Macrae, who'd played with Matching Mole and Robert Wyatt and people like that - governor player - and he started playing some clavinet, very Stevie Wonder-type feel to it, and I said, 'That's fine; could you do a synth-bass on it?'And then I literally started whacking the top of the grand piano. So the actual rhythm-track of 'The Funky Gibbon' has only got me and Dave on it - he plays clavinet and synth-bass and we miked up the top of the piano. Then we got the horn section of Gonzales playing a Memphis Horns-type thing. It was lovely for me to be able to use musicians I liked and try to reproduce sounds which I also listened to. And then put the stupid song over the top of it. The idea that all that effort went into 'The Funky Gibbon'!It sounds like Parliament on a bad day, or something like that (laughs), that kind of thing. I think subconsciously people feel it - this was always my theory about it, I thought: I want the music to sound good or authentic, whatever style it happens to be in.
― fetter, Thursday, 29 November 2018 11:30 (five years ago) link
the deeps of this man! no wonder he is always cross
― mark s, Thursday, 29 November 2018 11:37 (five years ago) link
I have a positive Oddie story that involves a large bag of chocolate peanuts. It was Halloween and we kids knocked on his door. Always had time for the man after that but now re-evaluating my whole childhood.
― Wegmüller Fruit Corner (Noel Emits), Thursday, 29 November 2018 11:57 (five years ago) link
I had a better impression of him than of Mel Smith who I also 'met' around the same time when he was filming something in a mate's house.
― Wegmüller Fruit Corner (Noel Emits), Thursday, 29 November 2018 12:01 (five years ago) link
Still the NTNOCN hi-fi shop sketch remains classic at least until I decide to watch it again and I can't remember anything specific from The Goodies.
― Wegmüller Fruit Corner (Noel Emits), Thursday, 29 November 2018 12:03 (five years ago) link
Henry was to meet a grisly end. While working as a semi-retired night watchman in his late 60s - back then a comfortable retirement was a luxury not extended to the working class - he died after tripping into a vat of boiling brine.
sniff, I heard he was remarkably well preserved.
― calzino, Thursday, 29 November 2018 12:27 (five years ago) link
lol i knew you'd enjoy that bit
― mark s, Thursday, 29 November 2018 12:32 (five years ago) link
If Marcello was here he could list all the jazz/improv musicians who played on the Goodies records. I know Dave Macrae, from Matching Mole, was heavily involved. Also that "Funky Gibbon" was inspired by Parliament/Funkadelic, though it sounds more like "Smash the Social Contract" by Cornelius Cardew.― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Thursday, November 29, 2018 11:09 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink... actually it's the other way round "Smash the Social Contract" sounds like "Funky Gibbon".― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Thursday, November 29, 2018 11:18 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink*hurries off to the wire to steal that insight for a thinkpiece*― mark s, Thursday, November 29, 2018 11:20 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalinkisn't it also the "vote for nigel barton" tune tho? i think it's something repurpoised from the common realm― mark s, Thursday, November 29, 2018 11:21 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post PermalinkYes, I think you're right, nonetheless I refuse to give up on the idea that Goodies inspired Maoism was a thing at some point in the 70s.― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Thursday, November 29, 2018 11:24 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Thursday, November 29, 2018 11:09 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Thursday, November 29, 2018 11:18 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― mark s, Thursday, November 29, 2018 11:20 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― mark s, Thursday, November 29, 2018 11:21 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Thursday, November 29, 2018 11:24 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
The 'who killed Cornelius Cardew' plot thickens...
― GG Allin: The Musical (Matt #2), Thursday, 29 November 2018 13:01 (five years ago) link
Are you suggesting a tricycle was seen speeding away from the seen of the crime?
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Thursday, 29 November 2018 13:06 (five years ago) link
well, speeding then falling over
― mark s, Thursday, 29 November 2018 13:07 (five years ago) link
'the seen of the crime' nice
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Thursday, 29 November 2018 13:08 (five years ago) link
go off to yr Goodies thread already
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 29 November 2018 13:10 (five years ago) link
I remember my ex-brother-in-law gave me a *tape of "Silence" by Michael Mantler with this photo on the cover, which he'd labelled, l-to-r, Robert Wyatt, Carla Bley, Kevin Coyne, Michael Mantler:
https://dvd-fever.co.uk/dvd-fever/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/the-goodies-featureda.jpg
(*we did get on, in spite of this)
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Thursday, 29 November 2018 13:15 (five years ago) link
warning: personal anecdotes time.
1. inspired by repeated listenings of a dubbed copy of my friend's cassette of MP's the final rip off comp, i recorded my own comedy sketches tape. it was probably no more than 4 or 5 sketch ideas, but i sequenced them, voiced the characters, etc. this was probably ca. '89. i only recall 2 of the ideas. in one, a famous literary critic is on a radio show to discuss (pausing to recall the novel...) (ah!) hardy's return of the native. he gets called out for instead just reading the back of a hardy boys book. the other one i remember was this week's episode of "dictionary reading for the blind," in which i pick up where we left off last episode just reading through the dictionary. my voice fades and the music comes up. the end. really shitty stuff, but what i wouldn't give to have this tape still.
2. i participated pretty heavily for a couple of years in the NFL (national forensic league). my specialty was HI (humorous interpretation, or humorous interp if you're in the know). you got like 10 minutes to present your piece. do all the voices if there are any. etc. in 11th grade i got 2nd place in the state (missippi) on the strength of my performance of "four yorkshiremen." it won me a trip to nationals that summer in san jose. only trouble was they required material to be published in written form and submitted. i couldn't find anywhere where that sketch was transcribed/published. i did, however, find "crunchy frog" published in written form somewhere. so i did that one at nationals and failed miserably. there was a great dance party for all of us, though, and the dj played all my faves of that time: "hippy chick," "enjoy the silence," etc.
― andrew m., Thursday, 29 November 2018 15:19 (five years ago) link
sorry this is now a Goodies thread
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 29 November 2018 17:42 (five years ago) link
I can't understand why this episode hasn't been repeated. What could go wrong?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alternative_Roots
Funny how little TV Python I'd seen when I wrote a thesis school project on them (CSE Drama, only the middle-class kids got to do the O-level). Fortunately, I could borrow Roger Wilmut's From Fringe to Flying Circus for weeks on end from the library, to lift sections from verbatim. And then shoehorn in references to Comic Strip and Alexei Sayle, which didn't work at all. I dimly remember the Cleeseless 4th series when it went out (or soon-after repeat) and only saw the early "good" stuff around '87, when BBC ran the lot again. I knew the films and the records best at 15, I suppose.
― Michael Jones, Thursday, 29 November 2018 18:12 (five years ago) link
I’ve fussed abt this on ilx before but it’s pertinent here too: we laugh at things for many reasons, but two of them that don’t really coincide are surprise and comfortable familiarity.
MP is very nearly 50 years old, and its ideas are even more pervasive than its actual material these days. I first saw eps (airing in real time) in maybe 1971- 72, when I was 11 or 12. Someone that age today couldn’t possibly watch a sketch — semi-chaotic TV version or slicked-up film version — and be startled into hilarity by the style, I don’t think… as you still could by watching British TV at the end of the 60s. We primarily laugh at it because what’s funny in it reminds of enjoying ourselves in past times — and this isn’t at all a bad thing! but it does also mean that the er difficult elements grate a lot more than they did back in the days when it was genuinely busy puncturing professional staidness, at a formal level as much as anything.
As some of you are aware — promo shill alert klaxon — I’ve been working on a book for the last few years, an anthology of stuff talking about the UK music press from the 1960s to the early 1980s. One key development in this story is how NME converted from a failing pop-focused early 70s trade rag to the best-selling voice-of-underground-youth UK rock paper — which it did in 1973-74. In May 1974, it included a free flexidisc 45 on the cover: Monty Python’s ‘Tiny Black Round Thing’ — which entirely fitted in with its new editorial ethos (as well the tastes of the readership).*
Because among other things it had cemented its turnaround in direction by a full-on assault on the writer-readers fourth wall, using endless self-reflexive MP-ish tricks in headlines and standfirsts and coverlines and captions to draw the reader into the process of making a weekly paper, including self-deprecating gags about how headlines and captions get decided, plus running jokes (often via editorial interpolation — ed.) about writers as recognisable characters whose views and behaviour you could poke regular affectionate fun at. This wasn’t new to the world of publishing — editors and writers were often also Marvel fans well aware of Stan Lee’s ‘Bullpen Bulletins’ — but it revolutionised the tone of the UK rock weeklies, and set it strongly against the dominant “view from nowhere”, which permeated establishment media. So there was a kind of pellmell anti-officious surrealism suddenly at work, right there among the very extremely sober work of explaining why the Groundhogs were better than Blodwyn Pig.
So yes, anyway — this is an immediate subcultural effect of MP in the UK, which tells you something about the very widespread receptiveness to it, at the level of the teenaged political unconscious.
•It wasn’t actually the first UK rock publication to do this! In 1972, when NME was still flailing re its identity, the underground UK rock monthly ZigZag put the ’Teach Yourself Heath’ MP flexidisc on its cover, a kind of linguaphone parody of the then-prime minister’s very imitable (and widely imitated) voice patterns.
― mark s, Monday, 3 December 2018 12:05 (five years ago) link
^ Good stuff.
I think I said it somewhere else on ILX, but worth mentioning here, football fans singing "Spot the Looney" to the tune of "Son of Your Father" - I'm not sure you can't get more 1970s UK than that.
― Monica Kindle (Tom D.), Monday, 3 December 2018 13:12 (five years ago) link
RIP Terry Jones. You and the lads warped me forever at 14. I've met Michael and John, but never you nor Graham. A great writer/performer/director for a timeless team. Thanks Jonesy. pic.twitter.com/ZXxXpgkNL0— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) January 22, 2020
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 22 January 2020 15:13 (four years ago) link
R.I.P., heaven needed two sheds.
― Pete Swine Cave (Eliza D.), Wednesday, 22 January 2020 15:40 (four years ago) link
I saw a Jones appearance at a Museum of Broadcasting thing on Python, likely in the '90s, with Idle and Palin. They had cardboard cutouts of the other three onstage.
Someone asked how they each felt about "being an icon" and Jones said, "I don't mind being a painting in a Russian Orthodox church."
Unless that was Idle.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 22 January 2020 18:56 (four years ago) link
RIP
― SQUIRREL MEAT!! (Capitaine Jay Vee), Wednesday, 22 January 2020 19:28 (four years ago) link
Sir Bedivere - rest well good soldier!
― | (Latham Green), Wednesday, 22 January 2020 21:20 (four years ago) link
― Corduroy Stridulations (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Thursday, 23 January 2020 02:17 (four years ago) link
RIPthis sketch makes me laugh so hard every time i see it, and the accent Jones does is so hilarious to mehttps://youtu.be/saY10AWXLIY
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 23 January 2020 03:42 (four years ago) link
This made me tear up
I was lost, on my way to an audition in 1992. Rather desperately, I stopped a man for directions. He started to explain but then said it would be easier to show me.He walked me there,told some stories,then came in to charm the casting director because I was late. #TerryJonesRIP— Minnie Driver (@driverminnie) January 22, 2020
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 23 January 2020 04:26 (four years ago) link
Here's one of my favorite deep-ish cut Python sketches, where Jones is both the straight man and one of the eccentrics, trying on all the wacky voices personally. And you get to hear him try to wrap his Welsh accent around the word "burglary" https://t.co/BGfo5bhzde— Matt Prigge (@mattprigge) January 22, 2020
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 23 January 2020 13:06 (four years ago) link
I find myself singing Sgt. Duckie's song rather often.
― Corduroy Stridulations (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Thursday, 23 January 2020 13:12 (four years ago) link
Harry "Snapper" Organs is in many ways a personal hero of mine tbh
― Catherine, Boner of JP Sweeney & Co (darraghmac), Thursday, 23 January 2020 14:21 (four years ago) link
A guy in my work has being going on all week about how much Terry Jones looked like Robert De Niro, so much so, that I almost started to believe it myself. And it turns out he's not alone!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3pzpCxz2FE
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Saturday, 25 January 2020 13:57 (four years ago) link
the one on the left is robert de niro
― mark s, Saturday, 25 January 2020 14:04 (four years ago) link
Feeling ruminative today.
Terry Jones was my favorite Python.
I guess that makes me some sort of comedy nerd. First that I have a "favorite Python", and second that it's not Cleese or Idle, who were the most gregarious and immediately noteworthy members of the group. Certainly when I was growing up obsessively rewatching "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" (like many AMABs of my generation) I had no idea about anybody but Cleese and Idle.
I don't know if Monty Python is still funny. Most comedy is of a time and a place and outside that time and place works less well. There's bits of it I find appalling. As in a significant chunk of my decades of finding myself grotesque and pathetic can be traced back to "The Lumberjack Song", and yet I still think that song is funny.
Fuck do I know about humor. Less and less, less and less, but more about history as I grow older. Terry Jones... he was an actual historian. As in had stuff published in scholarly journals. The bit where Arthur met the peasants, who claimed to be something called an "anarchosyndicalist collective", which in my younger days I found hilarious mainly for its gratuitous sesquipedalian loquaciousness, turned out to be fairly cutting-edge revisionist historiography - in "Medieval Britain" there was, arguably, no small number of people who really wouldn't have known who their "king" was. Now that is pretty fucking funny.
Not to be rude, but I don't get the sense that Jones was that great a professional historian. I mean, he didn't say a lot of shit that was out and out _wrong_ like a lot of the popular historians do, but he had certain axes to grind, and his work seemed to be mainly focused on supporting his theories. Not crackpot theories, by any means, but minority theories, theories that still haven't won acceptance to this day. An uncharitable reader might even call them "marginal". I appreciate the beauty of the worldview he was trying to propound, what he saw as obscured truths he was trying, through diligent scholarship, to reveal, even if the historical evidence for them is not conclusive.
I get the impression that, as a historian, Jones knew just enough to be dangerous. That's usually a dismissal, but it worked perfectly for him as a member of Monty Python.
― revenge of the jawn (rushomancy), Saturday, 25 January 2020 19:38 (four years ago) link
second that it's not Cleese or Idle, who were the most gregarious and immediately noteworthy members of the group.
I'll give you Cleese, but how is Eric Idle more immediately noteworthy than the rest of Python? I would say Chapman and Palin are much more likely to have been favourites than Eric Idle - Chapman's like the Python fan's Python and everybody (in the UK at least) likes Michael Palin.
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Saturday, 25 January 2020 21:03 (four years ago) link
obsessively rewatching "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" I had no idea about anybody but Cleese and Idle.
this speaks to a very idiosyncratic viewing of this film alone, from which it would be folly to assume other viewers' perceptions. let alone to extend any assumption to the other films, performances, books, recordings and their primary output of a TV show, the final series of which did not even include Cleese.
― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Saturday, 25 January 2020 21:25 (four years ago) link
The 'star' of the film is Graham Chapman! Same with "Life of Brian". I'm not even sure what Idle does in "Holy Grail" that is especially memorable?
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Saturday, 25 January 2020 21:56 (four years ago) link
brave sir robin ran away/bravely ran away away
(minstrel = neil innes, maybe that's where the feud began)
― mark s, Saturday, 25 January 2020 21:59 (four years ago) link
so it's a funny scene but the minstrel is what makes it funny
― mark s, Saturday, 25 January 2020 22:07 (four years ago) link
It’s hard to tell any of them apart in holy grail with the beards and helmets and such
― culture of mayordom (voodoo chili), Saturday, 25 January 2020 22:19 (four years ago) link
idle was my favorite when i was little -- loved the smarm
ken buddha: a smile, two bangs and a religion
― mookieproof, Saturday, 25 January 2020 22:19 (four years ago) link
Thinking about Mattress Store and giggling to myself
― Swilling Ambergris, Esq. (silby), Saturday, 25 January 2020 22:22 (four years ago) link
I can see not especially taking note of Chapman in Grail, as he's m/l the straight man, and everyone else plays multiple roles (even Innes and Gilliam).
― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Saturday, 25 January 2020 22:22 (four years ago) link
well maybe it wasn't the movie specifically but more the cultural millieu. i didn't see the tv series (maybe i saw "and now for something completely different"?) but i knew about the parrot sketch and the bookshop sketch and cheese shop sketch and the argument sketch (god do i fucking love the argument sketch), which are all sort of variations on the same thing, and the whole cringe comedy character of that imperious argumentative twit clicked with me so hard. also cleese was fucking tall so he stood out.
eric idle was just fucking loud in ways that were highly noticeable by teenage amabs.
― revenge of the jawn (rushomancy), Saturday, 25 January 2020 22:24 (four years ago) link
I still can't tell Palin and Idle apart
― Frederik B, Saturday, 25 January 2020 22:27 (four years ago) link
the other thing about chapman is that he could sort of kind of act a little? cleese is cleese, idle is idle, chapman is king of the britons or a very naughty boy or, you know, whatever role he's playing.
― revenge of the jawn (rushomancy), Saturday, 25 January 2020 22:28 (four years ago) link
Palin can act too imho.
Doesn't Idle collect the dead in Grail?
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Saturday, 25 January 2020 22:30 (four years ago) link
Idle was kind of the first Python to break out in the States (hosted SNL etc.), and he and Cheese had the most visible post-Python careers over here.
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 25 January 2020 22:33 (four years ago) link
sure, palin can act, but in general i feel like there's a perfectly good reason chapman kept getting cast as the lead
― revenge of the jawn (rushomancy), Saturday, 25 January 2020 22:33 (four years ago) link
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain)
can't tell if that's ducking autocorrect or if you were drumpfing him
― revenge of the jawn (rushomancy), Saturday, 25 January 2020 22:35 (four years ago) link
That sounds about right. Cleese can act, he was quite established before Python. Idle can't and Jones couldn't.
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Saturday, 25 January 2020 22:52 (four years ago) link
Idle was kind of the first Python to break out in the States (hosted SNL etc.)
Palin hosted as many times (4), but, yeah, Idle was in early - twice in the 1976-77 run. Also introduced Kate Bush in late '78!
I loved the Idle rants as a teenager... Bleedin' Watney's Red Barrel, etc...
― Michael Jones, Saturday, 25 January 2020 23:03 (four years ago) link
Didn't know that Palin hosted, and yeah that Cleese thing was autocorrect.
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Saturday, 25 January 2020 23:14 (four years ago) link
His family's surname was originally Cheese, but his father had thought it was embarrassing and used the name 'Cleese' when he enlisted in the Army during the First World War; he changed it officially by deed poll in 1923.
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Saturday, 25 January 2020 23:18 (four years ago) link
the parrot sketch and the bookshop sketch and cheese shop sketch and the argument sketch (god do i fucking love the argument sketch)― revenge of the jawn (rushomancy), Sunday, January 26, 2020 9:24 AM (two hours ago) I still can't tell Palin and Idle apart― Frederik B, Sunday, January 26, 2020 9:27 AM (two hours ago)
― revenge of the jawn (rushomancy), Sunday, January 26, 2020 9:24 AM (two hours ago)
― Frederik B, Sunday, January 26, 2020 9:27 AM (two hours ago)
seems like maybe rusho couldn't really (or Chapman) either tbh :)
Idle's ambient profile was probably higher in the US due to the Rutles spin-off doco and sitcom appearances and more American-audience-friendly films than the others (plus eventually moving there).
― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Sunday, 26 January 2020 01:39 (four years ago) link
Tbh, don’t remember Rutlemania ever really breaking out in any significant sense in the American market.
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 January 2020 01:44 (four years ago) link
gilliam worst. not really a python tbh.
idle next worst, despite good turns and writing plenty of the good sequences. introduced innes and generally a shitty influence, and intrinsically unfunny in any post python effort
cleese limited to cleese but cleese properly deployed is amazing and untouchable
palin likeable, talented, works well with others, adaptable, prone to corny when not countered
jones just off the wall enough and beats palin by doing a lot of what the former does but less predictably and often with a bit of genius skew.
straight man chapman the least straight of all, the quantum leap of illogic that drove connections to new direction that otherwise wouldve been sketches no more inspired than any oxbridge efforts at zany or class or pun sketch comedy.
anyone who argues against python in general because of their ubiquity amongst teenage boys or whatever can do the same thing that anyone who rejects the beatles on the same lines- die roaring
― Catherine, Boner of JP Sweeney & Co (darraghmac), Sunday, 26 January 2020 01:50 (four years ago) link
<3 u deems
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 26 January 2020 01:51 (four years ago) link
Good post
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 January 2020 01:52 (four years ago) link
No way to argue honestly
― Swilling Ambergris, Esq. (silby), Sunday, 26 January 2020 02:11 (four years ago) link
thread is a decent argument vs Python fans
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 26 January 2020 02:25 (four years ago) link
idle did the songs, the skits i mentioned i think of as all basically cleese joints (i mean cleese was in all of them, right? i don't remember super good)
thread is a decent argument vs Python fans― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius)
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius)
"a decent argument vs python fans" is like "a decent argument vs dream theater fans", seriously it's not even necessary, we know already
― revenge of the jawn (rushomancy), Sunday, 26 January 2020 02:56 (four years ago) link
Tbh, don’t remember Rutlemania ever really breaking out in any significant sense in the American market.Inasmuch as SNL hosting was being cited as evidence of his prominence, since All You Need Is Cash was commissioned by Lorne Michaels & basically made as an SNL lead-in or filler or w/e aiui
― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Sunday, 26 January 2020 03:38 (four years ago) link
Right, well aware of this, but that is more a proxy for the SNL/Michaels/Idle connection, it’s not like people came for the Rutles and stayed for the Idle.
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 January 2020 03:44 (four years ago) link
The Rutles special legendarily the lowest rated program in the nation when it aired.
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 26 January 2020 04:06 (four years ago) link
but still, about same size as SNL audience
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Sunday, 26 January 2020 09:01 (four years ago) link
p sure most of my high school class saw it
ha, did not know this. nearly everything famous about SNL is completely opaque to non-US humans.
― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Sunday, 26 January 2020 09:43 (four years ago) link
I saw it when it aired, as did some of my school friends, but it was more from a Beatles angle than a Python slant. Bought the album and studied it. There was a ton of stuff in the accompanying booklet so it was almost like watching the show again, which I was finally able to do when decades later I got the DVD at J&R Music World.
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 January 2020 12:31 (four years ago) link
People knew about the Pythons from PBS, in New York WNET/13, where the show aired on Sunday evenings, usually paired with various other British sitcoms or shows such as Rising Damp or The Two Ronnies and kids would talk about it in school on Monday morning. https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/10/archives/monty-pythons-fully-different-new-series-plus-tom-mix-and-fellini.html
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 January 2020 12:37 (four years ago) link
There was always Rutland Weekend Television, I don't think that's ever been repeated though, so it might be terrible, the Neil Innes bits are good. Also it's never been released on DVD, I wonder if that's Idle's decision? I've got the album though!
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Sunday, 26 January 2020 12:37 (four years ago) link
(xp) You got Rising Damp? Cool.
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Sunday, 26 January 2020 12:38 (four years ago) link
at the time i loved rutland weekend TV bcz of this guy:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/hU0QZQRTNr0/hqdefault.jpg
― mark s, Sunday, 26 January 2020 12:40 (four years ago) link
= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Woolf
https://www.nytimes.com/1975/03/15/archives/bbcs-monty-python-surprise-hit-on-public-tv-serious-doubts-at-first.html
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 January 2020 12:41 (four years ago) link
(xp) Harold Pinter's old mucker.
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Sunday, 26 January 2020 12:48 (four years ago) link
...still alive, 90! And many more, Henry!
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Sunday, 26 January 2020 12:49 (four years ago) link
Have to admit at the time I never really got into Rising Damp, or The Rise and Fall of Reginald Perrin for that matter. It was only when I got to college (François Truffaut to thread!) and saw Billy Liar as well as Saturday Night and Sunday Morning and rewatching A Hard Day's Night, the latter with the similarly named Norman Rossington, did I start wondering what this Leonard Rossiter guy was about.
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 January 2020 13:04 (four years ago) link
Hollywood should do a remake of "Rising Damp" with Ralph Fiennes as Rigsby.
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Sunday, 26 January 2020 13:06 (four years ago) link
Just now learned that the common thread between Monty Python and Rising Damp was Ian MacNaughton.
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 January 2020 13:06 (four years ago) link
"Grrrrrrreat. We're losing the lion. Rewrite. Lose the lion everyone. That's fantastic!"
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Sunday, 26 January 2020 13:10 (four years ago) link
In my mind's eye I have over the years minimized Eric's contribution to the Rutles, extending his silencing from the epicenter of Ollie Halsall singing his character's vocals, preferring to think of them as an offshoot of The Bonzos (see my current controversial screenname) as well as Patto/Timebox.
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 January 2020 13:12 (four years ago) link
I used to have at least some of the Rutland Weekend Televisions as video files, assume they're still accessible on the Internet somewhere. It was OK, mark otm about Henry Woolf
― GK Chessington's World of Adventure (Noodle Vague), Sunday, 26 January 2020 13:13 (four years ago) link
Forgot to mention Fans of the Rutles and Rockpile, are you familiar with a band called Fatso?
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 January 2020 13:15 (four years ago) link
since i'm declaring my teenage allegiance in the thread i shd also mention that as a loyal child of beatles fans i was hotly offended by the entire concept of the rutles, and also george h's enthusiasm (my favourite beatle why so treacherous!): i refused to countenance that any of the parodies were any good, and indeed anything but utterly point-missing -- however i loved the bonzos unreservedly (and still do)
no wonder i became a professional rock critic eh foax
― mark s, Sunday, 26 January 2020 13:36 (four years ago) link
george h's enthusiasm balanced by the fact that, acc to Idle's autobiog, he listened to the rutles songs gruffly made sure that the beatles got a sizeable cut of the songwriting royalties
― Pinche Cumbion Bien Loco (stevie), Sunday, 26 January 2020 17:52 (four years ago) link
Is any Rutles song a pastiche of one of George’s? Can’t recall one.
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 January 2020 17:54 (four years ago) link
"Nevertheless"
― Miami weisse (WmC), Sunday, 26 January 2020 17:56 (four years ago) link
offsetting what he was going to lose in the "my sweet lord" debacle i guess -- that wd sharpen yr senses round such an issue
― mark s, Sunday, 26 January 2020 17:58 (four years ago) link
John told Idle "Get Up and Go" was too close to "Get Back" and Dick James would probably sue them if it was on the album (so they left it off).
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 26 January 2020 19:04 (four years ago) link
Posted this on the Bonzos thread earlier today, perhaps it is relevant here as well:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9SQ7GeiGh8&feature=emb_logo
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 January 2020 19:13 (four years ago) link
Start againhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9SQ7GeiGh8
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 January 2020 19:14 (four years ago) link
There was always Rutland Weekend Television,Radio 5 is also good and at least sometimes funny; shows Idle dedicating the same sort of attention to detail another medium as he did to the extremely dense & visual Python books.
― don't care didn't ask still clappin (sic), Sunday, 26 January 2020 19:23 (four years ago) link
Actually the only thing I remember disagreeing with in dm's long post with Idle bringing along Innes as a negative.
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 January 2020 19:23 (four years ago) link
its a controversial take i admit but in particular i cant forgive urban spaceman
― Catherine, Boner of JP Sweeney & Co (darraghmac), Sunday, 26 January 2020 19:31 (four years ago) link
(xp) "Nausea" is not set in Paris, Neil. Tut tut.
― Duncan Disorderly (Tom D.), Sunday, 26 January 2020 19:44 (four years ago) link
Yeah, that was a little, um, defensive or something.
― TS: Kirk/Spock vs. Marat/Sade (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 26 January 2020 19:47 (four years ago) link
john cleese, 1972:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohDB5gbtaEQ
john cleese, 2020:
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/john-cleese-baffled-jk-rowling-105247414.html
― Kate (rushomancy), Friday, 19 June 2020 16:41 (three years ago) link
I've always wondered what happened to his chin between Python and Fawlty Towers, let alone old age
― all cats are beautiful (silby), Friday, 19 June 2020 16:43 (three years ago) link
tbh at this point I expected even worse from him
― Anti-Cop Ponceortium (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Friday, 19 June 2020 16:45 (three years ago) link
the other participant in the argument sketch is, of course, dead. however, in 1982 he said this:
https://youtu.be/nwOcc-buSsg?t=481
― Kate (rushomancy), Friday, 19 June 2020 16:52 (three years ago) link
Trump's latest interview vs monty python parrot sketch pic.twitter.com/GKlpNF4ffB— Darren Dutton (@Darren_Dutton) August 4, 2020
― "...And the Gods Socially Distanced" (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 5 August 2020 01:27 (three years ago) link
Never knew about the origin of this:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwJQQyF0yy0
― Tapioca Tumbril (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 6 February 2022 20:49 (two years ago) link
wow! how great. never knew that either.
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 6 February 2022 21:06 (two years ago) link
as in you didn't know it was pre python?
― Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Sunday, 6 February 2022 23:50 (two years ago) link
nope!
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 6 February 2022 23:52 (two years ago) link
I often do the real version of that: mi bed was a bit of foam on't floor for 3 years in a mice infested slum in a box room wi' brother and sister and we had black mould on toast for breakfast...
― calzino, Monday, 7 February 2022 00:06 (two years ago) link
Also the bookshop sketch. Too bad it is not complete.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYlOV7K-xOU
― everything, Monday, 7 February 2022 00:20 (two years ago) link
Cleese posted that "Four Yorkshiremen" video to honor the passing of Barry Cryer, who plays the waiter.
― Tapioca Tumbril (James Redd and the Blecchs), Monday, 7 February 2022 14:54 (two years ago) link
easier to acknowledge a passing waiter than to get one to acknowledge you nest pas
― Ár an broc a mhic (darraghmac), Tuesday, 8 February 2022 02:30 (two years ago) link
*nudge, nudge, wink, wink*
― Tapioca Tumbril (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 8 February 2022 02:44 (two years ago) link