The Airwaves

But, just in case you don't know, Monty Python generally refers to a British comedy troupe which came into existence two or three decades ago. Originally consisting of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and Terry Gilliam, this crew were responsible for the half-hour television show Monty Python's Flying Circus. The Circus had nothing to do with a circus. Instead, it consisted of short, generally unrelated and very cleverly mixed skits and sketches. Who can forget the Ministry of Silly Walks, the Spanish Inquisition ("Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"), and Scott of the Antarctic?

With only a handful of support characters, Carol Cleveland appearing the most frequently, Monty Python put out several seasons worth of shows, which can now only be seen on video tape. Later, the group went into movies and came up with such gems as Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail, Monty Python's Life of Brian and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. The most notorious of these was, perhaps, Life of Brian which poked fun at religious zealotry (Judeo-Christianity, in particular) and, thus, was branded as heretical and blasphemous by certain religious groups.

In addition to the show and movies, Monty Python also produced a number of record albums (remember when comedians would do that?). Mostly, these consisted of silly songs like I Like Traffic Lights. Monty Python has also spawned a couple of computer games. Two other projects involved the Monty Python cast, although I'm not certain to what extent. One was a documentary of a band called The Ruggles, a very funny spoof of the Beatles. The other was a movie called Jabberwocky in which Michael Palin goes in search of the mythical beast.

What makes Monty Python so funny, in my opinion, is the combination of totally silly low-brow humor with, risqué and intelligent biting sarcasm. They appeared in drag before drag became trendy. They did skits about giant flesh-eating extra-terrestrial dessert custards who were involved in a conspiracy to win Wimbledon. They poked fun at priests and politicians and the upper class to no end (it's the Upper Class Twit of the Year Show!).

While the Circus was often sexist and racist (as much so as other shows of that era were), it was still amazingly funny. And it paved the way for such shows as Kids in the Hall (which shares a lot of similarities with Monty Python). They are the progenitors of a number of cliché lines, perhaps most notably "And now for something completely different."

Internal strife broke up the crew and eventually sent them their merry own ways. John Cleese was the first to leave and did not appear in the show's last season. He since went on to do his own television show, Fawlty Towers, a hoot in its own right, and has done a number feature films such as Clockwork, A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures. Eric Idle has also done a few movies (Missing Pieces and one, I think, about nuns), although his have been less successful than John's. Michael Palin, who is good friends with John Cleese, also appeared in A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce Creatures. More notably, however, Michael did a couple of travelog series for PBS or The Discovery Channel. One, I think, was called Around the World in 80 Days, or something like that, while the most recent one is called Circles or Cycles, I think. Terry Gilliam, who did the animations for the Flying Circus, has achieved notoriety by directing the feature films Brazil and Twelve Monkeys.

	And now... a man with three buttocks (43KB)
	I fart in your general direction! (32KB)
	Oh, running away, eh?... (76KB -- a great exit WAV)
	Know what I mean?... (5KB)
	You're a looney?... (35KB)
	Message for you, sir... (33KB -- a good e-mail notification WAV)
	Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! (67KB)
	Victory is mine! (54KB)

MONTY PYTHON LINKS