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"Monty Python's Flying Circus" (1969)

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60 comments in total

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29 out of 36 people found the following comment useful :-
Six blokes getting paid for being silly (oh yes, and changing comedy forever), 6 May 2001
Author: fatglyn from Plymouth, England

With hindsight, it seems possible that we can praise the Pythons too much. But you have to look at what they did in the context of its time.

They blew a massive hole in the conventions of not only television comedy, but television itself. They used (and abused) the medium to what was then the limit of its potential: no thirty-second "blackout" skits, no contrived punchlines (except in the name of self-mocking irony), performers falling out of character and addressing the audience, skits being intruded by characters from a previous sketch, or even an entirely different episode (so you had to pay attention!), stream-of-consciousness animated links, absurd props (the 16 ton weight)... and they claim they merely threw it all together when the BBC approached them to make a "satirical sketch show" in the vein of "The Frost Report" or "TW3".

Not only that, but they have influenced probably every comedy writer and performer of note ever since.

The Pythons are either authentic, top-drawer geniuses, or the six luckiest opportunists who ever lived - probably a bit of both! They caught the BBC with its knickers down and took advantage.

OK, so the shows look their age, and much of the material is rambling, patchy, hit-and-miss stuff. But we only remember the good bits, and it is those good bits which will ensure the place in television history of Messrs Chapman, Cleese, Gilliam, Idle, Palin and Jones for many years to come.

Lavishing praise on a thirty-two-year-old television series? It all seems a bit silly to me...

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22 out of 23 people found the following comment useful :-
Hilarious, strange, funny, peculiar........, 9 September 2001
Author: watto124 from Savannah

"Monty Python's Flying Circus" is a blast. Plain and simple. Seeing an episode will cause the following symptoms: Laughter, tears, jaw aches, voice-loss(all of above caused by laughter). Most will laugh, some will just sit there at its silliness. Well whoever you are, give it a try. You either love it or hate it. Me? I love it.

10/10

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24 out of 27 people found the following comment useful :-
The Circus is On..., 6 April 1999
Author: Anthony Einsel from Hastings, Nebraska

Monty Python's Flying Circus is a show with great comedy. It's so weird anything could be done in it. Like selling an albatross, or having a knight hit you with a chicken... It's so hilarious, you'll drop right off. It's a very classic show for people with British taste. The movies were good... but it never made a benchmark like the TV series did. People... get off trashy Saturday Night Live and try "Something Completely Different"!

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19 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
Silliness to the extreme!, 30 May 1999
Author: Jeff (spoonjef@aol.com) from L.A. CA

Any episode of Monty Python will reduce one to fits of laughing that will produce bouts of tears that will render the viewer on the ground. Great physical comedy on all parts, but especially John Cleese in the Ministry of Silly Walks sketch, which is his least favorite sketch. Great writing that walks that fine line between genius and silly, and meshes the two. These guys also knew when and how to start end a sketch. Still funny thirty years later, wish the same could be said about Saturday Night Live. Too bad there wasn't some knight who could hit Lorne Michaels with a chicken.

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14 out of 15 people found the following comment useful :-
Pure brilliance !!!!!!!, 15 September 1999
Author: Adam Morrison (dvd53@hotmail.com) from Bathurst,New Brunswick

I first started Watching this television show about a month ago and I completely love this show.The entire is cast is wonderful especially Eric Idle.The movies are also hilarious.Every week I look forward to this show.The funniest joke I seen yet is the man with a tape recorder up his nose.

A true gem.

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16 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
How can anyone not like Monty Python?, 20 January 2001
Author: wishkah7 from Brooklyn, NY. (Where I'm from originally.)

Monty Python's Flying Circus is superb British humor at it's best! All the Monty Python movies were excellent, too! My favorite actors in this are John Cleese and Eric Idle. I have my older brother to thank for getting me into this show! I got into Monty Python at the ripe old age of 11. My brother was watching it one day, and I asked him if I can watch too. He gave me his okay, and after I saw the delirious humor of this, I quickly became a fan! And watched it everytime it came on.

I also own some Monty Python cassette tapes and my brother has some on vinyl! I have far too many favorite Monty Python bits to name,some of my faves are "The Lumberjack Song", "It's the Mind", and "The Bishop"! And who can forget that caveman who can only say, 'its'? Also, anyone remember that one about the self-defense class involving a 'Poi-ted stick'? Pure timeless classic! Monty Python cracks me up all the time! Even if you're not in a good mood, watching this will put you in one!

I highly suggest this to anyone who is a stickler for British humor. Also, watch their movies: The Holy Grail, And Now for Something Completely Different, and The Life of Brian. I give Monty Python's Flying Circus 5 out of 5 stars! Watch it if you can!

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10 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Monty Python's and their unique brand of humor, 7 September 2005
Author: manoj agrawal (agrawalmannu@hotmail.com) from USA

A gentleman (John Cleese) enters a pet shop and wants to register a complaint that the parrot that he had bought from that very boutique just half an hour ago was in fact a 'dead parrot'. The owner (Michael Palin) tries to convince him that the Parrot, a Norwegian Blue, was not really dead and was just resting. The argument continues and gets sillier and sillier until an army colonel (Graham Chapman) pops out of nowhere and stops the sketch abruptly because it was getting very silly. If this kind of humor doesn't interest you, read no further and plan on watching something else. But if it does and if you have not seen Monty Pythons Flying Circus you haven't seen nothing yet.

Monty pythons pretty much invented and perfected their unique brand of humor which can be categorized as 'surreal'. One can argue that 'the Goon Show' was the archetype for Monty pythons, which is true, but then Monty Pythons took it to territories that had never been explored before. They created a world where you can get a government grant for silly walks or buy an argument in an argument clinic. A world in which a father and son could have the age old "romantic vs. a simple coal miner" argument, just that in this world the son is a regular coal miner whereas it's the father whose head is full of useless novels and poems. Just like the Beatles they took something and created something completely new out of it. The comparison is valid because Monty Pythons at their peak enjoyed the status of any of the rock stars in those days (including groupies) and the Beatles, George Harrison in particular, were their biggest promoters.

Terri Gillian's stream of consciousness art work is pretty bizarre and holds all the sketches together. John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Eric Idle and Terry Jones play all the characters (including women's) themselves with dead seriousness. This is insane humor at it's brilliant best.

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5 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
even when you think you know all of what the show is about, a surprise comes round the bend, 24 November 2006

Author: Filmjack3 from United States

I still need to see more of Monty Python's Flying Circus to make my un-official official declamatory mandated professional amateurish stated opinion on this, but this is quite the nifty little show they put on back in merry old England. A lame joke I tried for at Python humor, but really, once you see the show, and see at least a few episodes, you'll know whether it's the right kind of intelligently un-hinged absurdity for you. I didn't warm up to it at first, I thought it was maybe too smart, in a way, through its silliness to be taken much seriously, as the jokes are not of the common kind. But after getting in through the films, and seeing many a varied skit with the guys, I'm looking forward to seeing (and being able to quote to other people) the best they got.

It's partly a stream-of-consciousness style show thanks to Terry Gilliam's spectacularly crude animations (through cut-outs mostly, and spoofing either classical paintings, architecture, movies, and of course dancing teeth), part social satire through various skits of people going into shops (Parrot), jobs, arguments (want to argue about an argument), the police, criminals, movies, sports, old ladies, politics, and other sorts of good diddies on all things in life. There's also the most random bits of comedy ever to come out of the 20th century, and I can only think of the basic things that might have you wanting to check it out. I love short skits, like the classic fish-slapping bit (there comes the BIG fish, heh), and over-the-top voices (Michael Palin, I think, does some of the best ones, like an introduction he does to a skit that reminded me of one of the voices in the Holy Grail trailer), and deranged costumes, and the richness of the silly dialog. Sure a skit might not hit the mark, but then I could them come back to it days later and be laughing about things not laughed at the first time around.

There aren't too many, if much at all, conventional punchlines- the brilliant stuff comes in the random barbs that shoot up in the lines and the deliver, in a look that Cleese or Chapman might give at one point or another, or the lack of something that ends up coming around later in the bit, or maybe not. There's absolutely no shame in how tasteless some of this can get, be it with topical issues or just the little things everyday we tend to take for granted, but a tasteless sensibility without any net to fall on that's appealing. And, of course, the Lumberjack song and ministry of silly walks and . Bottom line, if there could ever be one with Flying Circus, if you think it's just stupid little goofy gags and skits going on, watch out for how rich the words fly out (err, in Circus-like fashion) the mouths of the Pythons. It's the mightiest heap of the inspiration-turned-ludicrous comedy to be found on any TV show. Other favorite skits: 'Most Awful Family in Britain', 'Self-Defence Class', 'Word Problem', and 'Kilimanjaro Expedition' among others.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Side splittingly funny!, 16 September 2002
Author: Registered_User

Where to begin! Every inch of this show is good, from the surreal settings and randomness of it all to Terry Gilliam's great animation. John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle--they're all hilarious comedians with their own trademark character. I've always loved The Funniest Joke In the World, The Spanish Inquisition, Bicycle Repairman and the gumbies, just to name a few. This is British humor at it's best. I'm a little bummed that there were only four seasons. If I had my way, the show would still be running (however, Graham Chapman passed away in '89). Monty Python is MORE than a TV show....it's a way of life for me and thousands of other weird people.

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3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
The First 'Alternative Comedy' Show?, 10 September 2006

Author: ProfessorStahlman from United Kingdom

Strange as it may seem now, I used to be frightened by 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'. It had the look and feel of a nightmare; as all sorts of weirdness took over the airwaves, along with terrible sights such as heads lopped off with razors, people puking their guts out, and human brains consumed with spoons. Of course the latter images were Terry Gilliam animations, but even so it was a brave person who stayed up late to watch this show. The sketches were a mixture of the inspired and not-so inspired, many such as 'The Parrot Sketch', 'The Spanish Inquisition' and 'Ministry Of Silly Walks' have passed into legend. After two excellent seasons, plus a couple of fun German specials, 'Python' went into decline, and John Cleese's departure was the final nail in the coffin. Fortunately, the team reunited to make movies which, if anything, were funnier than the show. I must squeeze in a quick mention of Carol Cleveland, with whom I was madly in love in the early '70's!

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