Slashdot Mirror
Monty Python 40 Years Old Today!
cheros was one of several readers to note that today, Oct 5, in 1969 was the very first airing of Monty Python. Although not every sketch has aged
particularly well, you'd be hard pressed to find a more influential and funny show. Heck, look at the Icon we use here to indicate humorous stories! Who among us can't claim to have viewed the Holy Grail at least
somewhere in the double digits.
This is an excellent opportunity to honor Monty Python by honoring the group's mastery of shock and irreverence and stop quoting, word for word skits and films! The irony is killing me slowly.
Highly apropos XKCD comic on the subject.
This one's tricky. You have to use imaginary numbers, like eleventeen... --Hobbes
This is an excellent opportunity to honor Monty Python by honoring the group's mastery of shock and irreverence and stop quoting, word for word skits and films! The irony is killing me slowly.
Highly apropos XKCD comic on the subject.
I disagree. Because you are quoting something surreal does not make it any less surreal. Monty Python is surreal humor, not original humor. Of course, the shock and awe of seeing it the first time is very effective. But that should in no way prevent you from continually enjoying it. If it being original was a requisite to the innate humor, the very act of placing it statically on a medium would remove the humor from it.
Of course it's quotable in the same way David Lynch is quotable or Salvador Dali's Persistence of Memory is replicated in anything from The Simpsons to T-shirts. I think that XKCD comic has little to no merit in claiming that Python was loved for their mastery of shock or defiance of convention. They were loved for their humor--be it unique, it was still not entirely original. Quoting Monty Python should make no one more depressed than quoting Shakespeare or Homer. Stop fretting about being unoriginal and enjoy it.
My work here is dung.
...at it's best to someone who hasn't seen it or doesn't (but might) get it, show them the Spanish Inquisition episode. It has all the right Python-esque elements put together in a perfect way (for them).
The simple truth is that interstellar distances will not fit into the human imagination
- Douglas Adams
Strangely appropriate for this thread, and really /. in general.
Q: WHAT DO YOU WANT?
M: Well, I was told outside that...
Q: Don't give me that, you snotty-faced heap of parrot droppings!
M: What?
Q: Shut your festering gob, you tit! Your type really makes me puke, you vacuous, coffee-nosed, maloderous, pervert!!!
M: Look, I CAME HERE FOR AN ARGUMENT, I'm not going to just stand...!!
Q: OH, oh I'm sorry, but this is abuse.
M: Oh, I see, well, that explains it.
Q: Ah yes, you want room 12A, Just along the corridor.
M: Oh, Thank you very much. Sorry.
Q: Not at all.
M: Thank You.
(Under his breath) Stupid git!!
And years from now people will quote that comic, word for word. Look how close you are already! Pop culture is incestuous, and to create new works, old works must be cannibalized. When copyrights become no-expiring, creative thought will be a crime.
HEX
Horror & SciFi Erotic Nudes
If history is any indication, Hollywood will be doing an American version any day now--complete with a cast of throw-offs from assorted Comedy Central shows, former SNL cast members, and various improv troupes. It will be bland and not as good as the original, but it will make the stars a lot more money than the original cast ever got and it will run for about 20 years.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
My favs:
DEMETRIUS: Villain, what hast thou done?
AARON: Villain, I have done thy mother.
Shakespeare invents 'your mom'
"Seems random" != "is random"
Big xkcd fan, but that particular one is totally without merit--the Pythons were obsessive rewriters. Every sketch went through multiple drafts, they chose their topics and precise wording very carefully. They put a lot of effort into finding the absolute most effective way of surprising the audience, and they usually succeeded. The brilliance of Python is that they took the kind of humor that doesn't rely on surprise (a la Laurel and Hardy), and made it so surprising that everyone mistakes it for surprise-humor. Most comedy incorporates surprise, but nothing stays surprising forever--the comedy that stands the test of time is the comedy that doesn't depend on it. Take surprise out of Python and you still have some of the best-written jokes the world has ever produced. The most common format for their sketches was essentially to repeat the same joke over and over again with different wording--Dead Parrot, Crunchy Frog, Spam, Spanish Inquisition, Self-Defense, etc. After the first twenty seconds, there's nothing left to surprise you even the first time you see it. The humor is in the flawless execution--and that's why it's so obsessively quoted and rewatched.
The original Howling Frog is a fictional character and has no UID.
I am singularly disgusted and appalled that Google have no Python graphic. Spam them!
Quoting Monty Python should make no one more depressed than quoting Shakespeare or Homer.
D'oh!
and here's to alcohol; the cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems
Lisa, in this house we obey the second law of thermodynamics!
Stop fretting about being unoriginal and enjoy it.
Don't mind if I do.
yes you are.
I reserve the right to have a physical object so I can sell it later, and recover my money.
There is only ONE thing worse than being quoted....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
That's assuming consider the situation comedy the epitomy of humour - I don't. I find those shows pointless, repetive and boring. At best the "humor" [sic] consists of endless trading of insults - at worst it descends into racism, sexism and homophobia.
I hadn't seen either I Love Lucy or The Honeymooners in decades, so I looked up some clips on YouTube and had a look. The result? Not funny. Not funny at all. The prototypes of every sitcom since (a dead, worthless genre, IMHO), plus a healthy portion of nasty dated stereotypes. No thank you!
Not only was Monty Python funny, it changed what we consider funny. It changed what we laugh it. Few other shows can claim to have redefined a genre, but Monty Python did just that. Here's to 40 more years of silly walks, dead parrots and arguments!
...laura
The number of sketches that have not aged well is a very small number. One of the best things about MP was that it stayed as far away from topical subjects as possible. Most MP aged very well (ubiquitous runny cheese jokes).
Where has Monty Python not aged well?
Man did you all miss a load of karma by posting as AC. Oh... wait...
His chief moderation would have been Funny ... Funny and Insightful. Insightful and Funny ...
His two moderations would have been Funny and Insightful ... and Underrated ...
His three moderations would have been Funny, Insightful, Underrated ... and Interesting ...
His four ... no ... Amongst his many moderations would have been such words as Funny, Insightful, Underrated ...
I'll come in again.
There are waves of British sketch comedy shows that are all trying to recapture the vibe of Monty Python, the problem is that so few of them get even close. Little Britain wasn't too far off, but still not a patch on Python.
Is 1563649 a prime number?
That's unlikely here on slashdot. You see, we in nerdom have taken what Python once stood for, and now venerate the group's work in an entirely inappropriate way. We are worshiping the golden calf, not the god. There will be nothing different here, just a parroting of the same lines, over and over, and over.
Long ago, before most slashdotters, Python was funny because they were doing something that NOBODY else had done. They were pushing boundaries. They were making the establishment feel uncomfortable. They were the Rock&Roll of TV, fighting to sail in their own direction. They were giving glimpses of nudity on television, using inappropriate language, naming characters "Biggus Dickus", and other inappropriate things.
In short, Python was great because they were new, they were fresh, they pushed the boundaries of what was considered indecent back, and they didn't resort to the same tired gag over and over and over.
They were the Shakespeare of their day, hiding grossly offensive material under clever linguistics. They took characters from around us, around history, around time, and put them in places they didn't belong. Then they explored that human dynamic. The English-speaking Brian in Roman lands, failing at Latin; The Viking and King Arthur in modern times; The Grannies in biker gangs; The accountant in places of danger and excitement.
They, like Shakespeare, Longfellow, and David Foley before them took us to a place we knew, and then perverted it while we stood there, slack-jawed. They, like Hisenberg and Bohr, kept us continuously uncertain of where we stood. Of where we started, and of where we would end up.
While many books have been written on the social commentary of the themes within Python's works, the one most cited is that of dying cats. From explosions to old women beating them on posts, it was clear that Python had something out for the furry pussy. While most have glossed over this theme as a histamine sensitivity, it clearly ties into their long-running theme of the uncertainty of the human condition. For them, the human condition has been observed. And it is a dead cat.
For that reason, I put off coming here. I knew that all I would find would be anti-Python. A repetition of lines; against all they stood for; all that made them great. While we can treasure the memories of enjoyment that their shows and movies brought us, we should remember the golden calf.
For that reason, I come here not to repeat a line, but to leave a brief message in their honor.
Do not look at the glass - look through the window. And out that window is a dead cat, having been observed by Python.
Velociraptor = Distiraptor / Timeraptor