Friday, June 19, 2009

Classic Comedy - Monty Pythons Flying Circus

This is the first post about comedy I find funny and inspiring ... there will be many more!

First cab off the ranks is Monty Pythons Flying Circus. It is clear to see how modern comedy has been inspired by this show (eg. "Fast Show" and "Little Britain"). They were the masters of silliness, characters changing mid-sketch and themes which flit in and out throughout the episodes. Their punch lines can still be heard around the world (think "nudge, nudge, wink, wink").

I am not going to go into massive and boring details about the history of Monty Python because there are millions of sites around where you can get that information so I will just tell you who's in it and,
"GET ON WITH IT!"
  • John Cleese
  • Eric Idle
  • Michael Palin
  • Graham Chapman
  • Terry Jones
  • Terry Gilliam

I could have included many sketches here including the most famous Dead Parrot sketch ... but I wanted to use 2 that particularly appeal to me, hope you enjoy!

Man Turns Into Scotsman Sketch (Series 1, Episode 7)

I chose this sketch for a couple of reasons. First, cos it is piss funny, second because I have quite a few Scottish friends which adds that extra relevance :)

I particularly love how the inspector tries to determine any scottishness from the mans wife ...
He never got drunk at night or brought home black puddings?



Four Yorkshiremen

This video, recorded live at the Hollywood Bowl, shows the four rich Yorshiremen trying to out-do each other as to how poor they used to be with increasing silliness.

Being a proud Yorkshireman myself how could I not include this one? Enjoy ...



Feel free to share your opinions ...

Cheers ...

Jason



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2 comments:

  1. We used to know the lines off by heart, amd as we had no recording devices in them days bought the LP's to relive the gags and try to outpython each other. As for the cardboard box - well I tell you we used to have to....
    Thought Terry Gilliam's graphics were underated and the lynch pin to the sketches. I loved the scotsman sketch so does Jan - shades of Matrix style in the narrators pitch, wonder where they got that from?

    ReplyDelete
  2. That was from Vincent - not Jan, must be alraedy logged into her account.

    ReplyDelete

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