Monty Python
Monty Python, or
The Pythons, is the collective name of the creators of
Monty Python's Flying Circus, a
British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the
BBC on
October 5,
1969. A total of 45 episodes were made over four series. However, the Python phenomenon was much greater, spawning stage tours, a musical, four
films, numerous
albums, and several
books, as well as launching the members to individual stardom.
The television series, broadcast by the
BBC from
1969 to
1974, was conceived,
written and
performed by
Graham Chapman,
John Cleese,
Terry Gilliam,
Eric Idle,
Terry Jones and
Michael Palin. Loosely structured as a
sketch show, but with a highly innovative
stream-of-consciousness approach (aided by Terry Gilliam's
animations), it pushed the boundaries of what was then considered acceptable, both in terms of style and content.
The group's influence upon comedy has been compared to that which
The Beatles had on
music (
George Harrison regarded them as taking over where The Beatles left off and in fact became friendly with the cast). Their influence on the British comedic spectrum has been apparent for years, while in
America it is especially evident in more recent
absurdist trends in television comedy.
The name was chosen simply because they thought it sounded funny. In
1998's
Live at Aspen documentary, the group revealed how it came about. 'Monty' was selected as a tribute to
Field Marshal Lord Montgomery, a legendary British general of
World War II, and the team agreed that it wanted a 'slippery-sounding' name as well. The word '
Python' fit the bill. These explanations aside, some believe that the name of a character in several of humorist
P. G. Wodehouse's books, '
Monty Bodkin', served on some level as an inspiration.
In a
2005 poll to find
The Comedian's Comedian, three of the six members were voted among the top 50 greatest comedians ever by fellow comedians and comedy insiders. Palin was at number 30, Idle was voted 21st and Cleese was at two, just beaten to the top by
Peter Cook.
Palin and Jones first met at
Oxford University, while Cleese and Chapman met at
Cambridge. Idle was also at Cambridge, but started a year after Cleese and Chapman. Cleese met Gilliam in
New York while on tour with the
Cambridge University Footlights revue Cambridge Circus (originally entitled
A Clump of Plinths).
Chapman, Cleese and Idle were all members of the Footlights, which at that time also included the future
Goodies —
Tim Brooke-Taylor,
Bill Oddie and
Graeme Garden — as well as
Jonathan Lynn (co-writer of
Yes, Minister and
Yes, Prime Minister). During the time of Idle's presidency of the Club,
feminist icon
Germaine Greer was also a member. Recordings of these so-called "Smokers" at
Pembroke College include sketches and performances by Idle and Cleese. They are currently kept in the archives of the
Pembroke Players, along with tapes of Idle's performances in some of the college drama society's theatrical productions.
Variously, the Python members appeared in and/or wrote for the following shows before being united for
Monty Python's Flying Circus. In particular,
The Frost Report is credited as first uniting all of the British Pythons and enabling them to develop their particular styles :
*
I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (radio) (1964–1973) [Cleese - writer, cast member]
*
The Frost Report (1966–1967) [Cleese - cast member, writer; Idle - writer of Frost's monologues; Chapman and Palin & Jones - writers]
*
At Last the 1948 Show (1967) [Chapman & Cleese - cast members, writers]
*
Twice a Fortnight (1967) [Palin & Jones - cast members, writers]
*
Do Not Adjust Your Set (1967–1969) [Palin, Jones & Idle - cast members & writers; Gilliam - animation]
*
We Have Ways of Making You Laugh (1968) [Idle - cast member and writer; Gilliam - animation]
*
How to Irritate People (1968) [Cleese & Chapman - writers, cast members; Palin - cast member]
*
The Complete and Utter History of Britain (1969) [Palin & Jones - cast members, writers]
*
Doctor in the House (1969) [Cleese & Chapman - writers]
Several of these also featured other important British comedy writers and/or performers, including
Ronnie Corbett,
Ronnie Barker, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie,
Marty Feldman, Jonathan Lynn,
David Jason and
David Frost.
Following the success of
Do Not Adjust Your Set (originally intended to be a children's programme) among the adult
demographic,
ITV offered Palin, Jones, Idle and Gilliam their own series together. At the same time, Cleese and Chapman were offered a show by the BBC, who had seen them on
The Frost Report, among other programmes. However, Cleese was reluctant to do a
two-man show, for various reasons — including Chapman's supposedly difficult personality. Cleese had fond memories of working with Palin, and invited him to join the team. With the ITV series still in pre-production, Palin agreed, and brought Idle, Jones and Gilliam along. Much has been made of the fact that the Monty Python troupe is the result of Cleese's desire to work with Palin and the chance circumstances that brought the other four members into the fold.
 |
Terry Gilliam's Beware of the Elephants animation |
The Pythons had a very definite idea about what they wanted to do with the series. They were all great admirers of the work of
Peter Cook,
Alan Bennet,
Jonathan Miller and
Dudley Moore on
Beyond the Fringe, and had worked on
Frost, which was similar in style. They also enjoyed Cook and Moore's sketch show
Not Only... But Also. However, one problem the Pythons perceived with these programmes was that though the body of the sketch would be strong, the writers would often struggle then to find a punchline funny enough to end on and this would detract from the overall quality of the sketch. They decided that they would not concern themselves with ending a routine in a traditional manner. Several examples are evident in the Flying Circus series. One scene sees Cleese turn to Idle partway through and say "This is the silliest sketch I've ever been in," with Palin muttering about his part as the waiter as being the most unrewarding. They resolve not to carry on and simply walk off the set. Another sees Chapman confess to a BBC official (played by Cleese) that he does not know the punchline for the sketch. Cleese reads the punchline to himself, laughs and says "That's very good, ah well. Never mind". With this style chosen, the Pythons were, therefore, a little dismayed when they saw one of their collective heroes,
Spike Milligan, recording his series
Q5 (1969). The programme was irreverent and anarchic, with Milligan often giving up on sketches halfway through, and it seemed as though he'd beaten the Pythons at their own game.
The group immediately cast about for a new style to call its own. After much debate, Jones remembered an
animation Gilliam had created for
Do Not Adjust Your Set called "Beware of the Elephants." Having no real theme, it was more of a stream-of-consciousness piece. Jones felt it would be a good concept to bring to the series, allowing sketches to blend into each other. Palin was just as fascinated by another of Gilliam's efforts, entitled "Christmas Cards". "It was absolutely brilliant," he later recalled, "with missiles coming out of church steeples. Gilliam's stream-of-consciousness animation was one of the examples of a way of doing things differently." As a result, the style of Monty Python was born.
The first series of the television show was originally planned as a vehicle for Cleese's career. However, he wanted to work in
collaboration, and so the group was assembled in an organised and disciplined manner. Each day of writing started at 9am and finished at 5pm. Typically, Cleese and Chapman worked as one pair of writers isolated from the others, as did Jones and Palin, while Idle wrote alone. After a few days of working in this configuration, they would all join together with Gilliam, critique their scripts and exchange ideas. Their approach to writing was
democratic. If the majority found the idea to be humorous, it would be included in the show. The casting of
roles for the sketches was a similarly unselfish process, since each member viewed himself as a
writer, rather than an actor who was desperate for screen time. When the themes for sketches were finally chosen, Gilliam had
carte blanche to decide how to bridge them with fanciful animations, armed with his camera, scissors, and airbrush. It is generally said that the sketches of the Oxford-educated writers were more fanciful and visual, while the sketches of the Cambridge graduates were more verbal and based in a kind of demented logic. There were exceptions, of course, and as the show went on the Oxford writers occasionally wrote sketches parodying the excesses of the Cambridge team and vice-versa.
Several names for the show were bandied about before the title
Monty Python's Flying Circus was settled upon. Some of the more memorable were
Owl Stretching Time,
The Toad Elevating Moment,
Vaseline Review and
Bun, Wackett, Buzzard, Stubble and Boot. "Flying Circus" came about when the BBC explained to the group that it had already printed the name in its schedules and had no wish to amend it, leaving the Pythons no choice in the matter. Many variations then came and went.
Gwen Dibley's Flying Circus was named after a woman Palin had read about in the newspaper, thinking it would be amusing if she were to discover she had her own TV show.
Barry Took's Flying Circus was an affectionate tribute to the man who had brought them together.
Arthur Megapode's Flying Circus was suggested, then discarded. Cleese then added "Python", liking the image of a slippery, sly individual that it conjured up. The origin of "Monty" is somewhat confused, but Idle claims it was a popular and rotund fellow who drank in his local pub. People would often walk in and ask the barman, "Has Monty been in yet?", forcing the name to become stuck in his mind.
 |
Graham Chapman as the Colonel |
Flying Circus pioneered some innovative formal techniques, such as the
cold open, in which an episode began without the traditional opening titles or announcements. An example of this is the "It's" man: Palin in
Robinson Crusoe garb, making a tortuous journey across various terrains, before finally approaching the camera to state, "It's...", only to be then cut off by the
title sequence and the
theme song. On several occasions the Pythons would even trick viewers by rolling the
closing credits halfway through the show. They also experimented with ending segments by cutting abruptly to another scene or animation, walking offstage, addressing the camera (breaking the
fourth wall), or introducing a totally unrelated event or character. A classic example of this approach was the use of Chapman's "Colonel" character, who walked into several sketches and ordered them to be stopped because things were becoming "far too silly." Another favourite way of ending sketches was to drop a comical "16-ton" weight on one of the characters when the sketch seemed to be losing momentum, before cutting to the next scene.
The Monty Python theme music is
Liberty Bell march composed by
John Philip Sousa.
The use of Gilliam's
surreal,
collage stop motion animations was another innovative intertextual element of the Python style. Many of the images Gilliam used were lifted from famous works of art, and from
Victorian illustrations and
engravings. The giant foot which crushes the show's title at the end of the opening credits is in fact the foot of
Cupid, cut from a reproduction of the
Renaissance masterpiece
Venus, Cupid, Folly, and Time by
Bronzino. This foot, and Gilliam's style in general, have come to be considered the visual
trademarks of the series.
The Pythons built on and extended the great British tradition of
cross-dressing comedy. Rather than dressing a man as a woman for comic effect, the (entirely male) Python team would don frocks and makeup and play middle-aged women in an entirely straight manner (as in comedic style, rather than sexual preference). Thus a scene requiring a housewife would feature one of the male Pythons wearing a housecoat and apron, speaking in falsetto. The comic effect was accentuated by this, but the comedy itself was based on the role, not the cross-dressing aspect — had a genuine woman played the role, the sketch would still have had great comic effect. In
Monty Python's Life of Brian they took the idea one step further by playing women who impersonated men.
Many of the sketches have endured, being quoted to this day. "The
Dead Parrot", "
The Lumberjack Song", "
Spam", "
Nudge Nudge", "
The Spanish Inquisition", "
Upper Class Twit of the Year", "
Cheese Shop" and "
The Ministry of Silly Walks" are but a few.
The end of Flying Circus
Having considered the possibility since the end of series two, Cleese left
Flying Circus after the end of series three. He claimed he felt he was merely repeating himself, that he had nothing fresh to offer to the series and that many of his sketches in the third series were merely recycled. He was also finding Chapman, who was at that point in the full throes of alcoholism, increasingly difficult to work with. According to an interview with Eric Idle "it was on an Air Canada flight on the way to Vancouver, when John (Cleese) turned to all of us and said `I want out.' Why? I don't know. He gets bored more easily than the rest of us. He's a difficult man, not easy to be friendly with. He's so funny because he never wanted to be liked. That gives him a certain fascinating, arrogant freedom."
[Richard Ouzounian, "Python still has legs", Toronto Star, July 16, 2006]The rest of the group carried on for one more series (dropping the
Flying Circus from the show's title and just going by
Monty Python) before calling an end to the programme in
1974. Despite Cleese officially leaving the group, he makes a cameo appearance in the fourth series, and several episodes credit him as a co-writer, because some of the sketches were recycled from scenes which were cut from the
Holy Grail script. In
1975 it was first broadcast in America and soon gained a
cult following.
Films
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974)
The group (including Cleese) reformed in 1974 to write and star in their first feature film of new material (a feature film
And Now For Something Completely Different was produced in
1971 but was comprised entirely of old material, which was re-shot, often shortened, and sometimes slightly changed for the film. The group did not consider this film a success, but it enjoys a cult following today). The film,
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, was based around
Arthurian Legend and directed by Jones and Gilliam, who also drew the film's linking animations and opening credits. Along with the rest of the Pythons, Jones and Gilliam performed several roles in the film, but it was Chapman who took the lead as King Arthur.
Holy Grail was filmed on a budget of only about £150,000, which is roughly £1,000,000 in 2005 when adjusted for inflation. This money was raised in part with donations from
rock groups such as
Pink Floyd and
Led Zeppelin.
The film was shot on location in
Scotland, particularly around
Doune Castle,
Glen Coe, and the privately-owned
Castle Stalker. Because of the small budget, the film had to make do without horses. This led to one of the film's most memorable gags, as every time the script calls for the knights to be majestically riding their steeds, they are actually play-riding along on foot while their squires behind them (also play-riding) carry coconut shells to bang together to imitate the sound of horses' hooves (once a radio sound effect now actually shown on screen for comic effect).[This gag had actually been done previously in the sole surviving episode of the 1956 program
A Show Called Fred, produced by Richard Lester and starring Peter Sellers. As all the British Pythons were fans of Sellers and
The Goon Show, it's probably safe to assume some of them saw it when broadcast.] The chain mail armour worn by the various knights was actually silver-painted wool, whilst the many castles seen throughout the film were either Doune Castle shot from different angles, or cardboard models held up against the horizon. The filming was apparently unpleasant. The weather was poor and the "chain mail" soaked up water, the budget only allowed for low-quality hotels, Gilliam and Jones argued with each other and with the other Pythons, and the extent of Chapman's alcoholism became apparent when he began to suffer from
delerium tremens during the filming. The Pythons recall that the filming of
Holy Grail is the only time any of them can remember the usually amiable Palin losing his temper. This occurred when Jones and Gilliam insisted on consistently re-shooting a scene in which Palin played a character called "the mud eater". The scene was ultimately
cut from the movie.
The film proved a success and in
2000, readers of
Total Film magazine voted
Monty Python and the Holy Grail the 5th greatest comedy film of all time.
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
Following the success of
Holy Grail, a reporter asked Idle what the title of the next Python film would be. It is reported Idle replied "Jesus Christ - Lust for Glory", which soon became the group's stock answer as they realised that it shut reporters up. Though the rest of the group originally laughed the joke off, they soon began to seriously consider a film lampooning the life of
Christ in the same way
Holy Grail had lampooned King Arthur. However, after some research the group decided they could not do this as they felt Jesus was a good person with a solid message. However, they agreed that his followers would be easy to poke fun at, and so
Monty Python's Life of Brian was made.
The focus therefore shifted to a separate individual born at a similar time, and a legend was born. When Jesus does appear in the film (as he does on two occasions â€" in the stable and speaking the Beatitudes (Matt 5:1-48)), he is portrayed according to Christian beliefs. The comedy only begins when members of the crowd mishear his statement 'Blessed are the Peacemakers...' ('I think he said, "blessed are the cheesemakers"'; also, later, there is some debate on whether the 'Greek' should inherit the Earth). With regards to funding, Python again had help from a rock star in the person of
George Harrison, who set up
Handmade Films purely to finance the film. He claims he did so because he simply wanted to see another Python film. The Pythons often joke that it is still the most anyone has ever paid for a cinema ticket.
Learning their lesson from
Holy Grail's unpleasant setting, the team chose to write the film in the
Caribbean (where they were visited by
Keith Moon and Mick Jagger) and film in
Tunisia. In contrast to
Holy Grail, many of the Pythons remember this as their most enjoyable experience working together as a group.
The experiment with co-direction on
Holy Grail proved to be a one-off, as it led to creative friction. Instead, Jones was left to direct by himself. Though Cleese had originally wanted to play Brian, the rest of the group favoured Chapman, whom they considered as the best actor amongst them. Though Chapman only plays Brian and Biggus Dickus, the rest of the cast, between them, play over 40 characters. It also featured cameos from Harrison and Milligan (who just happened to be on holiday in Tunisia at the time). Moon was also set to appear but sadly died before he could film his part.
Upon its release, protests against the film were organised based on its perceived blasphemy, not the least of which because the film ends with a comical song sung by the victims of a mass crucifixion (Idle's "
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"). On its initial release in the UK, the film was banned by several town councils (some of which had no cinemas within their boundaries). The film was also banned for eight years in the
Republic of Ireland and for a year in
Norway (it was marketed in
Sweden as 'the movie that is so funny, it was banned in Norway!'). The film was not released in
Italy until
1990, eleven years after it was made. The film was not shown in
Jersey until
2001. The Bailiff of Jersey, Frank Ereaut's government, wanted it to be watched only by adults, even though the BBFC rated it suitable for those aged 14 or over.
Mary Whitehouse and other campaigners launched waves of leaflets and picketing at and around cinemas that showed the film, ironically boosting the publicity. Shortly after the film was released, Cleese and Palin engaged in a debate over it on the BBC2 discussion programme
Friday Night, Saturday Morning, in which
Malcolm Muggeridge and the Bishop of Southwark put the case against the film. Cleese has frequently said that he enjoyed the debate, since he felt that the film was 'completely intellectually defensible'. Palin, however, was visibly angry. This discussion was later parodied by
Not the Nine O'Clock News with a debate about
The General Synod's Life of Christ, in which a guy named Jesus Christ is mistaken for the Comic Messiah John Cleese.
For their part, the Pythons contend on the DVD commentary that the film is heretical because it lampoons the practices of modern organised religion, but does not blasphemously lampoon the God that Christians worship.
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983)
Python's final film was more like the style of
Flying Circus. A series of sketches loosely followed the ages of man from
conception to
death. Directed again by Jones,
The Meaning of Life is embellished with some of Python's most bizarre moments, and various elaborate musical numbers. At the time of its release the Python's confessed their aim was to offend "absolutely everyone". The film begins with a short film by Gilliam -
The Crimson Permanent Assurance - that was originally planned as a sketch within the film but eventually grew so ambitious that the Pythons felt it needed to be separate from the main film (although the characters from the short do make a brief return to "invade" the main film).
Though a commercial and critical success,
The Meaning of Life is generally not regarded as being of the same quality of its predecessors. Many feel it lacks the structure of
Holy Grail and
Life of Brian. Idle claims it was just "one re-write away from being perfect". The Pythons had originally wanted to do one final re-write introducing one lead character (such as Arthur or Brian) who could be followed through the ages of man. However, Cleese refused as he had grown tired of the already protracted writing process for the film.
Crucially, this was the last project that all six Pythons would collaborate on, except for the
1989 compilation
Parrot Sketch Not Included where we see the Python cast sitting in a closet for 4 seconds, which would be the last time Chapman was filmed on screen with the rest of the Pythons.
Python (Monty) Pictures
The five surviving members of the main Monty Python team are
directors of Python (Monty) Pictures Limited which was
incorporated in
1973 and now manages ongoing activities resulting from their previous work together. In the accounts return, the company describes its activities as the 'exploitation of television and
cinematographic productions'. In the last
financial year for which accounts are available (to
March 2004), the company's turnover was £4.9M (source: Creditsafeuk.com).
When
Monty Python's Flying Circus was shown in the USA by
ABC in their "
Wide World of Entertainment" slot in
1975, the episodes were re-edited, thus losing the continuity and flow intended in the originals. When ABC refused to stop treating the series in this way the Pythons took them to court. Initially the court ruled that their artistic rights had indeed been violated, but it refused to stop the ABC broadcasts. However, on appeal the team gained control over all subsequent US broadcasts of its programmes. The case also led to them gaining the rights from the
BBC once their original contracts ended at the end of
1980 (a unique arrangement at the time).
[BBC Comedy Guide]A driving force behind Python in the late 1970s was the Beatles' Harrison, who not only funded and appeared in
Life of Brian as Mr. Papadopolous (though his voice is dubbed by Palin), but produced a number of their songs from that period, including "The Lumberjack Song"
single. He also made a
cameo appearance in Idle's cult Beatles
parody All You Need Is Cash (aka
The Rutles), which incidentally united (for the most part) the Pythons and
Saturday Night Live, and was co-produced by
Broadway Video, SNL's production company. Harrison once said in an interview, "Monty Python helped me get over the trauma of the breakup of the Beatles."
[Clarkson, M. (1994). Monty Python...Facts and Trivia. Britcomedy Digest 1 (3).] Going solo
Each member pursued other film and television projects after the break-up of the group, but often continued to work with one another. Many of these collaborations were very successful, such as
Fawlty Towers (written by and starring Cleese and
Connie Booth), and
A Fish Called Wanda (1988) (also written by Cleese, and in which he starred along with Palin). The latter pair also appeared in
Time Bandits (1981), a movie written by Gilliam and Palin, and directed by Gilliam. Gilliam also directed and co-wrote
Brazil (1985) and
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), which featured Palin and Idle respectively. Gilliam has now become a cult director; he often struggles to find the money for his work because his films tend to go over-budget and fail at the box-office. Idle had success with
Rutland Weekend Television in the late 70s and in
Nuns on the Run (1990) with
Robbie Coltrane. He also had a UK #3 single with "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life." Palin and Jones wrote the parody series
Ripping Yarns, starring Palin with an assortment of British actors. Palin's BBC travel series have also proved extremely popular as have Jones' historical documentaries. In terms of numbers of productions, John Cleese has had the most prolific solo career, having appeared in 59 theatrical movies, 22 TV shows or series, 23 direct-to-video productions, and six video games.
[IMDB; as of January 2005; includes pre-release items.]The End?
 |
Python reunion, complete with Chapman's urn, in Aspen, Colorado (from left: Terry Jones, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin). |
The Pythons are often the subject of reunion rumours. The death of Chapman in 1989 (on the eve of their 20th anniversary) seemed to put an end to this speculation, but in
1998 the five remaining members, along with what was purported to be Chapman's ashes, were reunited on stage for the first time in 18 years. The occasion was in the form of an interview (hosted by
Robert Klein, with an appearance by
Eddie Izzard) in which the team looked back at some of their work and performed a few new skits. At one point during the event, Chapman's urn was "accidentally" spilled, and the ashes were cleared away with a vacuum cleaner and a broom.
On
9 October 1999, to commemorate 30 years since the first
Flying Circus television broadcast,
BBC2 devoted an evening to Python programmes, including a documentary charting the history of the team, interspersing them with new sketches filmed especially for the event.
In an interview to publicise the
DVD release of
The Meaning of Life, Cleese said a further reunion was unlikely. "It is absolutely impossible to get even a majority of us together in a room, and I'm not joking," Cleese said. He said that the problem was one of business rather than one of bad feelings.
[Monty Python reunion 'unlikely', BBC News, 9 September, 2003] |
The Pythons on the Meaning of Life DVD, using special effects to have a reunion... but not very seriously. |
On the same DVD, they did a sketch spoofing the impossibility of a full reunion, attempting to do so with modern bluescreen/greenscreen techniques.
Idle has said that he expects to see a proper Python reunion, "just as soon as Graham Chapman comes back from the dead." (This echoed a comment Harrison once made: "As far as I'm concerned, there won't be a
Beatles reunion as long as
John Lennon remains dead.")
The 2003 "autobiography", compiled from a series of interviews with the surviving Pythons, reveals that a series of disputes in 1990 over a
Monty Python and the Holy Grail sequel conceived by Idle may have resulted in the group's permanent fission. Cleese's feeling was that
Monty Python's Meaning of Life was both personally difficult and ultimately mediocre, and for other reasons, did not wish to do the film. Apparently Idle was angry with Cleese for refusing to do the film, which most of the remaining Pythons thought reasonably promising. Idle then refused to do what he saw as the Cleese-dominated reunion show a few years later.
March 2005 saw the full reunion of the surviving cast members at the premiere of Eric Idle's musical
Spamalot, based on
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It opened in
Chicago, Illinois and has since played in
New York on
Broadway, and is currently entertaining audiences in Toronto, Ontario. In 2005, it was nominated for 14
Tony Awards and won three: Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical for
Mike Nichols and Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for
Sara Ramirez, who played the
Lady of the Lake, a character specially added for the musical.
Owing in part to the success of
Spamalot,
PBS announced on
July 13,
2005, that the network would begin to re-air the entire run of
Monty Python's Flying Circus, as well as new one-hour specials focusing on each member of the group, called
Monty Python's Personal Best.[EXCLUSIVE NEW "MONTY PYTHON" SPECIALS SLATED TO PREMIERE IN 2006 ONLY ON PBS, PBS, July 13, 2005] Each episode was written and produced by the individual being honoured, with the five remaining Pythons collaborating on Chapman's programme.
Michael Palin
Main article: Michael Palin
Born on
5 May 1943, the youngest Python by a matter of weeks, Palin is often lovingly referred to as "the nice one." He attended Oxford, where he met his Python writing partner Jones. The two also wrote the series Ripping Yarns
together. Palin and Jones originally wrote together, but soon found it was more productive to write apart and then come together and review what the other had written. Therefore, Jones and Palin's sketches tended to be more focused than that of the other four, taking one bizarre, hilarious situation, sticking to it, and building on it. Examples include "The Spanish Inquisition" sketch and the "fish-slapper" in the Fish-Slapping Dance.
These sketches take everyday situations (talking in the sitting room, dining out) but then introduce an unexpected, impossible to predict, rogue element (the Spanish Inquisition, a grotesquely overweight man). From here, Palin and Jones could play around with the newly created environment, taking it to impossible, unbelievably stupid extremes, for example, attempting to torture old ladies with cushions and comfy chairs, or having waiter Cleese feed Mr. Creosote until he actually explodes, showering the other diners in viscera.
In recent years, Palin has starred in a number of documentary travel series for the BBC in which he visits various — usually remote — locales, often along some predetermined route; for example his series Pole to Pole
and the BBC-sponsored Around the World in Eighty Days
, where he followed the route of the fictional journey of Phileas Fogg in Jules Verne's novel of the same name. He also starred in Gilliam's Brazil
and Time Bandits
, and hosted Saturday Night Live'' several times. Palin is one of the most popular personalities in Britain today. He was also voted the best-looking member of the Monty Python group by the public.
Eric Idle
Main article: Eric Idle
Idle was born on
29 March 1943 in
South Shields,
England. When with Monty Python, two writing partnerships were formed — Cleese and Chapman, Jones and Palin. That left Gilliam in his own corner, considered to be a sensible position in view of the arcane nature of his work, and Idle.
Idle was content to be cast as the group loner, preferring to write by himself, at his own pace, although he sometimes found it difficult in having to present material to the others and make it seem funny without the back-up support of a partner. Cleese claimed that, though he often felt his position was unfair, Idle was an independent person and worked best on his own. Idle claimed, "It was easier in a show where there were thirteen in a series than with a film, where stuff was read out all the time, and you had to convince five others. And they were not the most un-egotistical of writers either."
Idle studied at Cambridge, a year behind Cleese and Chapman. He is perhaps best remembered for composing
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, which closes
Life of Brian and which has become something of the group's signature tune.
Since Python, Idle has starred in movies ranging from
South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut to
National Lampoon's European Vacation to
102 Dalmatians to television shows such as
The Simpsons,
MADtv and
Saturday Night Live and even starred in the 1996 "point-and-click" computer game
Discworld, in which he voiced the game's protagonist Rincewind.
Idle is the writer of the three time Tony award-winning Broadway musical,
Spamalot based on the
Holy Grail movie. He also collaborated with
John Du Prez on the music.
Terry Jones
Main article: Terry Jones
|
Jones as Mr Creosote in Meaning of Life |
Jones was born on
1 February 1942 in
North Wales. All the Pythons have an eclectic range of talents, but Jones is particularly hard to compartmentalise. George Perry has commented that should you "speak to him on subjects as diverse as
fossil fuels, or
Rupert Bear, or mercenaries in the
Middle Ages or Modern
China and in a moment you will find yourself hopelessly out of your depth, floored by his knowledge."
However, not everyone considers Jones a "show-off", merely that he has a good-natured enthusiasm. It is this same cheery devotion that has led to his unflagging loyalty to the preservation of the group. As long as there is Jones, there will be, in some way, a Monty Python. Jones' dedication to Python is not a recent occurrence however. As well as writing with Palin, he committed himself to directing the Python films
Monty Python and the Holy Grail,
The Life of Brian, and
Monty Python's Meaning of Life, when it was felt that a member of the group should be in charge. One of Jones' major concerns was devising a fresh format for the Python TV shows, devising a stream-of-consciousness style which abandoned punchlines and instead encouraged the fluid movement of one sketch to another and the cross-referencing of jokes. This allowed the team's conceptual humour and one-line ideas room to realise their full potential which conventional formulas would arguably compromise. Jones also objected to TV directors' use of sped-up film, over-emphatic music, and static camera style. As a film director, Jones finally gained fuller control of the projects and devised a visual style that complemented the humour, and, once again, concentrated on allowing the performers room to breathe; for instance, in the use of wide shots for long exchanges of dialogue, and more economical use of music. His methods encouraged many future television comedians to break away from conventional slapstick or studio-bound shooting styles, as demonstrated by
Green Wing,
Little Britain and
The League of Gentlemen.
Of Jones' innumerable contributions to the show, his parodic, screechy-voiced depictions of middle-aged women are among the most memorable. His humour, in collaboration with Palin, tends to be conceptual rather than situational; the central joke in a typical Palin/Jones sketch tends to be an illustrated idea taken to extremes. Examples of this include the "Mouse Organ" sketch, in which a tuxedoed man (Jones) bashes mice who have been trained to squeak at a select pitch and are then played in the appropriate order to render the "Bells of St. Mary"; cunningly, no laughs are wrung from the violence of the situation but rather from the madness of the idea itself. The crime-fighting bishop sketch also contains many typical conceits, such as a crook that doubles as an emergency telephone.
In 2004, Jones was the presenter and actor for the BBC's miniseries,
Terry Jones' Medieval Lives. He has also directed and starred in
Erik the Viking, and in 2006 presented a series on BBC2 entitled
Barbarians.
Jones is arguably the most underrated member of the group, even by diehard fans. His major contributions were largely behind the scenes (direction, writing) and he often deferred to the other members of the group as an actor. However, recent Python literature has gone some way in reclaiming him as a vital factor in maintaining the group's independence and unity.
Graham Chapman
Main article: Graham Chapman
|
Chapman as Brian Cohen in Life of Brian |
Born in
Leicester, England on
8 January 1941, Chapman was originally a medical student, but changed to theatre when he joined Footlights at Cambridge. Chapman was perhaps best remembered for taking on the lead roles in
The Holy Grail, as King Arthur, and
Life of Brian, as Brian Cohen.
The movie roles were fairly straight, the comedy deriving from the stereotypical lead in bizarre situations, encountering eccentric characters, still being played as serious, and unflinching. These roles, however, were unusual for the Graham Chapman the public had come to know on the
Flying Circus, where he figured as the tall, craggy pipe smoker who gave the impression of calmness, disguising a manic unpredictability as real in his characters as they were in reality. For behind the pipe-smoking, rugby-playing exterior lay an
alcoholic with whom the rest of the Pythons often had trouble dealing. This was one of the reasons that Cleese left the television show after series three.
Chapman particularly had trouble filming
Holy Grail in Scotland, where he got a case of delirium tremens, often called DTs. During his worst alcoholism, he was reportedly consuming two quarts of gin every day.
[Anglin, A. (2004). The Alt.Fan.Monty-Python FAQ. Retrieved Dec. 5, 2004.] However, by the time his definitive role of Brian arose, he was sober and continued to produce some of his best work with the Pythons.
Besides starring in Monty Python features, Chapman starred in movies such as
The Odd Job (he was also the producer) and
Yellowbeard (which he also directed), also making several appearances on
Saturday Night Live. Chapman died of spinal and throat
cancer on
4 October 1989. Thanks to the nature of the other Pythons, he is now lovingly referred to as "the dead one." Cleese also made a point to be the first person to say 'fuck' in a British eulogy, but only because the deceased (Chapman) was the first person to say 'shit' on British television.
Terry Gilliam
Main article: Terry Gilliam
|
Gilliam as King Arthur's trusty servant/steed Patsy in Holy Grail |
Gilliam, born in
Minneapolis, Minnesota on
22 November 1940, is the only non-British member of the troupe. He started off as an animator and strip cartoonist for
Harvey Kurtzman's
Help! magazine, one issue of which featured Cleese. Moving from the USA to England, he animated features for
Do Not Adjust Your Set and then joined
Monty Python's Flying Circus when it was created.
He was the principal artist-animator of the distinctive, surreal cartoons, which frequently linked the show's sketches together, and defined the group's visual language in other mediums. He mixed his own art, characterised by soft gradients and odd bulbous shapes, with backgrounds and moving cutouts from antique photographs, mostly from the Victorian era. The style has been mimicked repeatedly throughout the years: in the children's television cartoon
Angela Anaconda, a series of television commercials for
Guinness, the
JibJab cartoons featured on
The Tonight Show with
Jay Leno, the online comic strip
The New Adventures Of Queen Victoria, and the television history series
Terry Jones' Medieval Lives. The title sequence for
Desperate Housewives and the visits to the land of the living in
Grim Fandango are also highly Gilliamesque. The style of animation used for
South Park was inspired by Gilliam's paper cut-out cartoons for Monty Python's Flying Circus.
Besides doing the animations for the
Flying Circus, he also appeared in several sketches, usually playing parts that no one else wanted to play (generally because they required a lot of make-up or uncomfortable costumes, such as a recurring knight in armour who would end sketches by walking on and hitting one of the other characters over the head with a plucked chicken) and played side parts in the films.
He co-directed
Monty Python and The Holy Grail and directed short segments of other Python films (for instance "The Crimson Permanent Assurance", the short film that appears before
The Meaning of Life). Gilliam has gone on to become a celebrated and imaginative film director of such notable titles as
Time Bandits,
Brazil,
The Adventures of Baron Munchausen,
The Fisher King,
Twelve Monkeys,
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,
The Brothers Grimm and
Tideland.
John Cleese
Main article: John Cleese
Born on
27 October 1939 in
Weston-super-Mare, England, Cleese's surname had originally been Cheese. His father, however, had the name changed to Cleese when he joined the army during
World War II. Perhaps the best known of the Pythons, Cleese attended
Clifton College,
Bristol where he developed a taste for performing by appearing in the house plays. He moved on to Cambridge, where he met his future Python writing partner, Chapman.
His work with Chapman was, aside from Gilliam's animations, perhaps the most surreal of the Pythons' work and almost certainly the most intentionally satirical. Unlike Palin and Jones, Cleese and Chapman actually wrote together, in the same room. Cleese claims that their writing partnership involved him sitting with pen and paper, and Chapman sitting back, not speaking for lengths at a time, but when he did speak, it was often brilliant. Without Chapman's input, the "dead parrot" sketch would have been about the duller subject of a car (it is much harder to imagine Cleese throwing about a car in the same way he threw about the parrot).
Their work often involved ordinary people in ordinary situations, doing incredibly strange and surreal things. For example, Cleese and Chapman transformed the ordinary sight "a civil servant in black suit and bowler hat makes his way to work" into a bizarrely unforgettable scene; the straight-faced Cleese used his physical potential to its full force as the crane-legged civil servant performing an athletic, grotesque, utterly unique walk to his office at the "Ministry of Silly Walks".
This sketch was in fact written by Palin and Jones, but Cleese made it his own, showcasing his talent for physical comedy (also famously used in
Fawlty Towers) and playing characters who could remain serious, even impassive, while doing something utterly ludicrous. His role as Sir Lancelot in
Monty Python and the Holy Grail also showcases this, as he fights his way through a castle to save a damsel in distress, much like, say,
Kevin Costner in films such as
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, although completely oblivious to the fact that he is actually savaging wedding guests.
Another popular device used by the two was highly articulate arguments over completely arbitrary subjects, such as in the "cheese shop", the "dead parrot" sketch or the "argument clinic". All of these roles were opposite Palin, who Cleese often claims is his favourite Python to work with. He played
Q's assistant ("R") and finally the new Q himself in the
James Bond movies. He also has done work for
Shrek 2, and appeared in the first two
Harry Potter movies,
Rat Race, and several
Saturday Night Live episodes.
Cleese has recently had a species of
lemur named after him,
Avahi cleesei (or "Cleese's Woolly Lemur").
[Lemur named after Monty Python star, New Scientist, November 12, 2005] This was in recognition of his promotion of conservation issues after the release of his film
Fierce Creatures, which featured such an animal, and
Operation Lemur with John Cleese, which highlighted their plight on the island of
Madagascar — their natural habitat.
"The 7th Python"
|
Carol Cleveland as the stereotypical "blonde bombshell." |
Commonly referred to as the "Seventh Python," or the "Python Girl," Carol Cleveland was the only important female performer in the Monty Python ensemble. Originally hired by producer/director
John Howard Davies for just the first five episodes of
Monty Python's Flying Circus, she went on to appear in nearly every episode as well as in all of the Python films. Her common portrayal as the stereotypical "blonde bimbo" eventually earned her the sobriquet "Carol Cleavage" by the other Pythons, but she felt that the variety of her roles should not be described in such a pejorative way.
Connie Booth
John Cleese's ex-wife
Connie Booth, who went on to write and star with him in
Fawlty Towers, was probably the only other significant female performer. She appeared in, amongst others, the film version of "The Lumberjack Song" and as the "witch" in
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It has been suggested that she may also have assisted Cleese and Chapman in their writing.
Neil Innes
Neil Innes is the only non-Python, besides
Douglas Adams, to be credited with writing material for the Flying Circus. He appeared in sketches and the Python movies, as well as performing some of his songs in
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. He was also a regular stand-in for absent Pythons on the rare occasions when they appear to re-create sketches. For example, he took the place of Cleese when he was unable to appear at the
memorial concert for George Harrison. Gilliam once noted that if anyone qualified for the title of the "Seventh Python," it would certainly be Innes. He was one of the creative talents in the off-beat
Bonzo Dog Band, appreciated for such nutty compositions as "The Intro and the Outro" and "I'm The Urban Spaceman." He would later portray Ron Nasty of the Rutles and write all of the Rutles' compositions for
All You Need is Cash. By 2005, an unfortunate falling out had occurred between Eric Idle and Innes over additional Rutles projects, the results being Innes' acclaimed but commercially undistinguished Rutles "reunion" album
The Rutles: Archaeology and Idle's undistinguished, straight-to-DVD Rutles sequel
The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch, each undertaken without participation from the other. According to an interview with Idle carried by the Chicago Tribune in May 2005, his attitude as a result of the dispute is that he and Innes go back "too far. And no further."
Eddie Izzard
Stand-up comedian
Eddie Izzard, a devoted fan of the group, also occasionally stands in for absent members. When the BBC held a "Python Night" in 1999 to celebrate 30 years of the first broadcast of
Flying Circus, the Pythons recorded some new material with Izzard standing in for Idle, who was in America. He also hosted a history of the group entitled
The Life of Python (1990) and appeared with them at a festival/tribute in
Aspen, Colorado, in 1998 (released on DVD as
Live at Aspen).
Monty Python casts a considerable shadow over modern comedy. As such, the term 'pythonesque' has become a byword in surreal humour. However, this is perhaps somewhat misleading, since the humour of Monty Python, whilst certainly nonsensical and surreal, is still strongly characterised by a preoccupation with the British
social class system — most notably with British
working class stereotypes. These themes cannot be said to be essential to surrealist comedy as a whole.
Television
Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–1974):The show that started the Python phenomenon. See also
List of Monty Python's Flying Circus Episodes.
Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus (1972):Two 45-minute specials made by
WDR for West German television. The first was recorded in German, while the second was in English with German
dubbing.
Monty Python's Personal Best (2006):Six one-hour specials, each episode presenting the best of one member's work.
Films
There were five Monty Python films:
*
And Now For Something Completely Different (1971):A collection of re-filmed sketches from the first and second series of
Monty Python's Flying Circus.
*
Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975):King Arthur and his knights embark on a low-budget search for the Holy Grail, encountering humorous obstacles along the way. Some of these turned into standalone sketches.
*
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979):Brian is born on the first Christmas, in the stable next to Jesus'. He spends his life being mistaken for a messiah.
*
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982):Live performance of skits directed by
Ian MacNaughton. Anyone for Albatross?
*
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983):An examination of the meaning of life in a series of sketches from conception to death and beyond, from the uniquely Python perspective.
Albums
*
Monty Python's Flying Circus (1970)
*
Another Monty Python Record (1971)
*
Monty Python's Previous Record (1972)
*
The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief (1973)
*
Monty Python Live at Drury Lane (1974)
*
The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
*
Monty Python Live at City Center (1976)
*
The Monty Python Instant Record Collection (1977)
*
Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
*
Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album (1980)
*
Monty Python's Meaning of Life (1983)
*
Monty Python's The Final Rip Off (1988)
*
Monty Python Sings (1989)
*
The Ultimate Monty Python Rip Off (1994)
*
The Instant Monty Python CD Collection (1994)
Monty Python's Spamalot (Broadway version of
Monty Python and the Holy Grail with
Tim Curry as King Arthur) (2005)
*
The Hastily Cobbled Together Album (2006)
Theatre
Monty Python's Flying Circus — between 1974 and 1982 the Pythons made three sketch based stage shows, comprising mainly of material from the original television series.
The first and only authorised stage version of the sketch show to be performed by non-Pythons is currently touring Great Britain, and is highly successful, with Gilliam calling it, 'better than we could manage at the time'. This is despite its twist — the fact that it is being performed in
French. It was originally performed in
Paris where it was successful before being a surprise hit at the
Edinburgh Fringe Festival. With the strapline, 'Et maintenant pour quelque chose complètement différent!'. It is titled for English audiences with similar facilities to those used for
deaf or hearing-impaired.
[[1].]Monty Python's Spamalot (The musical 'lovingly' ripped off from the motion picture
Monty Python and the Holy Grail):Written by Idle directed by Nichols, with music and lyrics by
John Du Prez and Idle, and starring
Hank Azaria,
Tim Curry, and
David Hyde Pierce,
Spamalot is a musical adaptation of the film
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It ran in
Chicago, Illinois from
December 21,
2004 to
January 23,
2005, and began showing on Broadway on
March 17,
2005. It won three
Tonys.* On
May 4 1982, during the
Falklands War, the Royal Navy destroyer
HMS Sheffield was struck by a French-built
Exocet anti-ship missile launched from an
Argentine Air Force jet. As the crew gathered on the burning deck for rescue, they struck up a chorus of "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from
Life of Brian.
* The
September 17 2004 episode of
Jeopardy! featured Python-related category titles in the Double Jeopardy round: 'Monty Python', 'Bring Out Your Dead', '
Spam', 'Summarising Proust', 'I'm a Lumberjack,' and 'Knights Who Say "Ni"!'
* A fossil of a previously unknown species of large prehistoric snake from the
Miocene was discovered in
Riversleigh,
Queensland,
Australia, in 1985. The Australian
palaeontologist who discovered the fossil snake was a Monty Python fan, and he gave the snake the
taxonomic name of
Montypythonoides riversleighensis in honour of the Monty Python team.
[Monty Python - a Brief History, BBC, January 29 2002] (Translated from Latin to English, Montypythonoides means "like Monty Python".)
* The
Python programming language by
Guido van Rossum is named after the troupe, and Monty Python references are often found in sample code created for that language.
* The Monty Python foot icon is used to represent the
slashdot.org post category "It's funny. Laugh."
[Current Topic Categories at slashdot.org]* The term
spam, as used to denote unsolicited email, comes from Monty Python's "Spam" sketch. The
Hormel Company which produces Spam® has been very good-natured about the song and only requires that unwanted junkmail be referred to with a lower case "s".
* The
May 1 2004 release of
OpenBSD 3.5 featured a pair of audio tracks, "CARP License" and "Redundancy must be free", which
parodied the "Fish licence" sketch by Monty Python along with the
red-tape associated with the
IETF.
*
Guinness Stout television advertising in the United States during 2005â€"2006 featured two Irish gentlemen animated in the Gilliam style, with the catchword of the two gents being "Brilliant!"
* A new
Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavour called Vermonty Python was launched in 2006. It includes small chocolate cows, and the carton is illustrated with imagery from
Monty Python and the Holy Grail .
* Each member of Monty Python has an
asteroid named after him (
9617 Grahamchapman,
9618 Johncleese,
9619 Terrygilliam,
9620 Ericidle,
9621 Michaelpalin, and
9622 Terryjones).
*The band
Toad the Wet Sprocket drew its name from the Eric Idle monologue "Rock Notes" on Monty Python's
Contractual Obligation Album, although the name was first featured in a parody of
The Old Grey Whistle Test on
Rutland Weekend Television in 1975.
* The band
Iron Maiden often have a recording of the "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" song played right after they end their performance, as the lights come up and the fans begin to leave.
*
Billie Joe Armstrong sings "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" during one of
Green Day's songs on the
2005 DVD
Bullet in a Bible.
*
Monty Python's Flying Circus*
The Goon Show*
Beyond the Fringe*Chapman, Graham (1997).
Graham Crackers: Fuzzy Memories, Silly Bits, and Outright Lies. Career Pr Inc. ISBN 1564143341.
*Morgan, David (June 1999). Monty Python Speaks; a Spike imprint, Avon Books, Inc., New York, New York. ISBN 0-380-80479-4
From Fringe to Flying Circus — 'Celebrating a Unique Generation of Comedy 1960–1980' — Roger Wilmut, Eyre Methuen Ltd, 1980.
The Pythons: Autobiography by The Pythons — Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Bob McCabe, Orion, 2003.
Footnotes
*
*
Pythonline.com - Monty Python's sort-of official site, actively maintained by Eric Idle
*
DailyLlama.com - Official Monty Python News
*
Monty Python VideoRoll*
Pythonisms: Python quotes as figures of speech*
Monty Python Pages*
The SOTCAA Monty Python Pages*
Monty Python - An Untrue History*
The Rutles home page*
Monty Python's First Visit to America by Michael Dare
*
Video of Monty Python on KERA-TV in Dallas, the day after the premier of Holy Grail
