This is the groundbreaking BBC TV comedy series that introduced the world famous Monty Python. I first heard of the comedy team at a very early age, but wasn't too familiar with their work for a long time. I knew of a few sketches, but really started to get to know Python in 2005, when I was nineteen years old, which was when I first became familiar with all the members of the troupe, watching many episodes of this show and the movies which the comedians made afterwards, and laughing a lot! I have now seen every episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus", originally aired from 1969 to 1974, and some comedy may wear thin on me through time, but that most certainly hasn't been the case with the humour of this particular group!
This is a sketch comedy show featuring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones, the six official members of the Monty Python team. It also features many parodies and bizarre concepts! Five of the group's members regularly appear in sketches, each delivering lots of silliness and insanity, while Gilliam, the British troupe's sole American member, only appears sporadically on screen but is responsible for all the bizarre animated sequences, which are featured in every episode and really fit in with the live action sketches! The show sometimes features guests for smaller roles as well, not always just the Pythons appear, and when the female characters are not played by any of the Pythons in drag, there are real women who play them, most commonly Carol Cleveland, who appears at certain points in the majority of the show's episodes and can be referred to as the seventh Python.
In my experience, I've found that no matter how good a sketch comedy show is, not ALL the sketches can be that great, including this show. For instance, I don't think I've ever found the tape recorder up the nose very funny. However, "Monty Python's Flying Circus" still features enough hilarious sketches to make it a masterpiece, with the man with three buttocks, the dead parrot, the homicidal barber sketch and very famous "Lumberjack Song" that follows it, the job interview, newlyweds trying to purchase a mattress, the Git family, the argument clinic, silly disturbances, and so many others, WAY too numerous to mention! Terry Gilliam's animated sequences can certainly be major highlights as well, and he could sure be creative with those cutouts he used for them, many of which he got from Victorian-era photographs! All official members of the Python troupe showed their amazing talent in this sketch comedy series, and I should also give credit to Carol Cleveland. Even though she wasn't an official member of the team, she kept getting roles in the show due to her comedic talent, which she certainly deserved, and is definitely worthy of the "7th Python" label!
Sadly, one of the legendary Pythons, Graham Chapman, died of throat and spinal cancer in 1989, when he was only 48 years old. This tragic death occurred the day before the 20th anniversary of the day on which the first episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" was originally broadcast! I was only three years old at the time of Chapman's death, so I was obviously unaware of it at the time, but finally learned about it sixteen years later, as I had just discovered how funny Monty Python was. That was when I discovered what a great comedian Chapman was, like the other Pythons, and how understandably missed he is. He contributed a lot to Python's humour with his talent, in a comedy franchise which obviously can't please everyone, as some people have been put off by the troupe's extremely silly style, but the work that the Pythons did together was very influential and has clearly made so many people from different generations laugh, and will hopefully continue to do so for generations to come! Cheers to Monty Python and R.I.P. Graham Chapman!
This is a sketch comedy show featuring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones, the six official members of the Monty Python team. It also features many parodies and bizarre concepts! Five of the group's members regularly appear in sketches, each delivering lots of silliness and insanity, while Gilliam, the British troupe's sole American member, only appears sporadically on screen but is responsible for all the bizarre animated sequences, which are featured in every episode and really fit in with the live action sketches! The show sometimes features guests for smaller roles as well, not always just the Pythons appear, and when the female characters are not played by any of the Pythons in drag, there are real women who play them, most commonly Carol Cleveland, who appears at certain points in the majority of the show's episodes and can be referred to as the seventh Python.
In my experience, I've found that no matter how good a sketch comedy show is, not ALL the sketches can be that great, including this show. For instance, I don't think I've ever found the tape recorder up the nose very funny. However, "Monty Python's Flying Circus" still features enough hilarious sketches to make it a masterpiece, with the man with three buttocks, the dead parrot, the homicidal barber sketch and very famous "Lumberjack Song" that follows it, the job interview, newlyweds trying to purchase a mattress, the Git family, the argument clinic, silly disturbances, and so many others, WAY too numerous to mention! Terry Gilliam's animated sequences can certainly be major highlights as well, and he could sure be creative with those cutouts he used for them, many of which he got from Victorian-era photographs! All official members of the Python troupe showed their amazing talent in this sketch comedy series, and I should also give credit to Carol Cleveland. Even though she wasn't an official member of the team, she kept getting roles in the show due to her comedic talent, which she certainly deserved, and is definitely worthy of the "7th Python" label!
Sadly, one of the legendary Pythons, Graham Chapman, died of throat and spinal cancer in 1989, when he was only 48 years old. This tragic death occurred the day before the 20th anniversary of the day on which the first episode of "Monty Python's Flying Circus" was originally broadcast! I was only three years old at the time of Chapman's death, so I was obviously unaware of it at the time, but finally learned about it sixteen years later, as I had just discovered how funny Monty Python was. That was when I discovered what a great comedian Chapman was, like the other Pythons, and how understandably missed he is. He contributed a lot to Python's humour with his talent, in a comedy franchise which obviously can't please everyone, as some people have been put off by the troupe's extremely silly style, but the work that the Pythons did together was very influential and has clearly made so many people from different generations laugh, and will hopefully continue to do so for generations to come! Cheers to Monty Python and R.I.P. Graham Chapman!