6 ms·

I just began watching the first episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus (the TV show) for the first time last night (it was released almost 50 years ago today),

I just began watching the first episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus (the TV show) for the first time last night (it was released almost 50 years ago today), and I could not believe how insanely funny it was. I assumed that because of it's age, it would be at least a bit outdated. Perhaps it was just way ahead of it's time?

vnorilo 7y ago
It always blows me away how well it has aged. As for being ahead of its time, we might miss some of the context: at the time, cross-dressing apparently caused some controversy, which doesn't readily occur to me while watching them now.
- ggm 7y ago
  I watched them on original release and I feel the semi constant (ironic) homophobia and women-as-drudge and cross dressing really palls. some days I think python is the original "women aren't funny so we don't have any" meets "dressing up as women us funny because we're men" thing. Some stuff is excellent but not all. It made more sense when the BBC interstitial was contemporary. (Goodies did the same thing with itv ad break intro pattern). The 'fake end of transmission' was also done by Spike Milligan. It got so we'd stay watching ten minutes after broadcast in case something was coming back. One time in 1974 the BBC cancelled the broadcast for pompidou's death and we rang to complain. Outrage! How dare surreal humour be stopped for some french presidents carcass? Given Chapman's homosexuality it has to be ironic. The cross dressing and ooo you are awful mincing stuff: It just doesn't seem funny to me any more. Saw them live in the seventies, they were an excellent ensemble and Niel Innes (rutles) deserves more recognition for his pythyon role (he brought the kings theatre, edinburgh to a standstill reprising Elton John's 'tommy' gig with one chord) Terry Gilliam nude at a piano and John Cleese nude as BBC presenter felt like some of the first male nudity on screen.
  - whenchamenia 7y ago
    Wow, that is a depressing reimagining. Perhaps focus on some nice things instead of being 'palled' at things. The word is 'apalled', and stop being so snooty. You dont appear better by waving your store bought virtue flag, you just come off as an arrogant hipster.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
  - ghaff 7y ago
    I liked but mostly didn't love a lot of the Python silliness. There were some funny skits but I merely enjoyed like Holy Grail. I didn't really go around quoting it all the time. Life of Brian is the Python that really aged well for me because it does have that satirical element that goes deeper than most of the things they did.
  - Nasrudith 7y ago
    I always thought it as a comedy tradition and related to both Shakespearean puritan prudity that women working as actresses are also prostitues advertising and therefore should be banned. Plus the British public school "traditions" based upon good ole imperial anti-decadence as the peak of messed up presenting itself as the peak of morality (see Roman gladiatoral combat and its professed purpose). The concept of the boarding schools were because they worried the compassion of women raising young men would make them too weak. Their whole foundation was frankly of the "so misogynistic it winds up automatically homosexual because women can't be considered people by them". I state homosexual as opposed to gay because it refers to behavior rather than preferences. Surprisingly the majority won't choose celibacy over their preferred gender - so women are subsitited for men despite a preference for them. The crossdressing speaks to both the "boys club" society and the "easy to laugh at" - comedy actors are usually about average or below in attractiveness. Graham Chapman also was very to the "ubermanly men". It could have been a "stop being stereotypical" thing - a "it should be laughed at because the mincing is ridiculous" attitude.
- bhaak 7y ago
  I don't think that cross-dressing for laughs was controversial unless the UK in the 70s was way more conservative than Germany or the US in the 60s. I immediately remembered several movies with Peter Alexander from the early 60s like "Charlys Tante" or Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot". Although in the latter there are several scenes going beyond "men in women's clothes are funny" and homosexual acts are evoked in the viewer's minds (but of course never actually called on screen).
TheRealPomax 7y ago
As historical aside, but possibly relevant, Monty Python was a surrealist reaction to the hopelessness of living in Britain in the 70s. Life was shit, and escapism pretty much a requirement to make it through. It thrived in that ecosystem, and someone would argue we're back in a similar situation today, just under different causes.
- 0xfaded 7y ago
  I've been watching yes minister again and the themes are eeriely familiar. I also found out there was a 2013 relaunch that fell flat. If only they had waited another 6 years!
  - IanCal 7y ago
    If I remember right, they looked at what political issues were the same at the time as some X years before, and those are often then things which still apply, which gives it a beautiful timeless quality.
    - 0xfaded 7y ago
      It was a decade before I was born, but my understanding is that they had high level sources leaking material and were therefore very relevant to what was going on at the time.
      - NeedMoreTea 7y ago
        One of those sources was on PM Harold Wilson's staff. :) They took a lot of ideas and turned them up to absurd. One or two turned out to be actually happening like they thought they'd only imagined. Others were grounded on real events. One of the two writers, Jonathon Lynne I think, went to Oxford or Cambridge, and took part in the debating society. He mentioned something I heard mentioned again recently regarding Boris Johnson and his government cronies university and school days - so perhaps no wonder it seems horribly familiar again. Something roughly along the lines of university debate club being filled with self-important overblown and pompous asses, sure of their right to rule the world, and to be in the right by mere opening of their mouth, endlessly spouting crap and winging it. Yes Minister was born here. :) A decade or two later all those pompous asses were populating the government and opposition benches, spouting the same crap.
mopsi 7y ago
You may also like The Goon Show. [1] It's a BBC radio comedy show that ran in the 1950s, and was way ahead of time. Some episodes make references to then-current events that are little known nowadays such as guerilla war in Malaysia, but many are timeless. Episodes "The Canal" [2], "The Jet-Propelled Guided NAAFI" [3] and "The Whistling Spy Enigma" [4] are among my favourites. They have a very playful style and a refreshing lack of cynicism and profanities. John Cleese has said that the Goon Show "influenced us enormously", and many well-known Monty Python's sketches like "The Funniest Joke in the World" [5] can be traced to the Goon's jokes like dropping 1918 calendars on Berlin to force Germans surrender (in episode "World War One"). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goon_Show https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goon_Show [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-69K1MQ4YJE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-69K1MQ4YJE [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwSQ0CBQuA0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwSQ0CBQuA0 [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nMjk--OVR4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nMjk--OVR4 [5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9FzUI8998U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9FzUI8998U
- ptaipale 7y ago
  Are you also familiar with The Men from the Ministry ? Written by Edward Taylor and John Graham. For some reason, it also made a successful radio show in South Africa, Finland and Sweden. The latter two are translations (but set in UK like the original). Taylor wrote new episodes for Finland even after the show was discontinued in UK.
- IanCal 7y ago
  I think it was the goons that had a lovely little sketch of the 100 metres standing still race. The gun fires and they stand straight up, then it's all done as a stop motion thing.
wil421 7y ago
Seinfeld is another show that aged well like Monty Python. Some situations in Seinfeld wouldn’t happen anymore due to cellphones and new technology. Monty Python is nice because a lot of it is fantasy or general humor not situational like Seinfeld.
- dorchadas 7y ago
  The biggest issue I've heard about Seinfeld is that people claim it's derivative...Not realizing that Seinfeld is actually where a lot of the ideas started.
- ghaff 7y ago
  Cellphones in particular have essentially invalidated so many situations based on not being able to get in touch with someone or having to make advanced arrangements and missing the connection, etc. Heck, most of Connie Willis' earlier books--which I do like but also involve people running around and constantly not being able to locate someone--really don't make sense in a world where people carry phones.

vnorilo 7y ago

It always blows me away how well it has aged. As for being ahead of its time, we might miss some of the context: at the time, cross-dressing apparently caused some controversy, which doesn't readily occur to me while watching them now.

ggm 7y ago
I watched them on original release and I feel the semi constant (ironic) homophobia and women-as-drudge and cross dressing really palls. some days I think python is the original "women aren't funny so we don't have any" meets "dressing up as women us funny because we're men" thing. Some stuff is excellent but not all. It made more sense when the BBC interstitial was contemporary. (Goodies did the same thing with itv ad break intro pattern). The 'fake end of transmission' was also done by Spike Milligan. It got so we'd stay watching ten minutes after broadcast in case something was coming back. One time in 1974 the BBC cancelled the broadcast for pompidou's death and we rang to complain. Outrage! How dare surreal humour be stopped for some french presidents carcass? Given Chapman's homosexuality it has to be ironic. The cross dressing and ooo you are awful mincing stuff: It just doesn't seem funny to me any more. Saw them live in the seventies, they were an excellent ensemble and Niel Innes (rutles) deserves more recognition for his pythyon role (he brought the kings theatre, edinburgh to a standstill reprising Elton John's 'tommy' gig with one chord) Terry Gilliam nude at a piano and John Cleese nude as BBC presenter felt like some of the first male nudity on screen.
- whenchamenia 7y ago
  Wow, that is a depressing reimagining. Perhaps focus on some nice things instead of being 'palled' at things. The word is 'apalled', and stop being so snooty. You dont appear better by waving your store bought virtue flag, you just come off as an arrogant hipster.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- ghaff 7y ago
  I liked but mostly didn't love a lot of the Python silliness. There were some funny skits but I merely enjoyed like Holy Grail. I didn't really go around quoting it all the time. Life of Brian is the Python that really aged well for me because it does have that satirical element that goes deeper than most of the things they did.
- Nasrudith 7y ago
  I always thought it as a comedy tradition and related to both Shakespearean puritan prudity that women working as actresses are also prostitues advertising and therefore should be banned. Plus the British public school "traditions" based upon good ole imperial anti-decadence as the peak of messed up presenting itself as the peak of morality (see Roman gladiatoral combat and its professed purpose). The concept of the boarding schools were because they worried the compassion of women raising young men would make them too weak. Their whole foundation was frankly of the "so misogynistic it winds up automatically homosexual because women can't be considered people by them". I state homosexual as opposed to gay because it refers to behavior rather than preferences. Surprisingly the majority won't choose celibacy over their preferred gender - so women are subsitited for men despite a preference for them. The crossdressing speaks to both the "boys club" society and the "easy to laugh at" - comedy actors are usually about average or below in attractiveness. Graham Chapman also was very to the "ubermanly men". It could have been a "stop being stereotypical" thing - a "it should be laughed at because the mincing is ridiculous" attitude.
bhaak 7y ago
I don't think that cross-dressing for laughs was controversial unless the UK in the 70s was way more conservative than Germany or the US in the 60s. I immediately remembered several movies with Peter Alexander from the early 60s like "Charlys Tante" or Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot". Although in the latter there are several scenes going beyond "men in women's clothes are funny" and homosexual acts are evoked in the viewer's minds (but of course never actually called on screen).

TheRealPomax 7y ago

As historical aside, but possibly relevant, Monty Python was a surrealist reaction to the hopelessness of living in Britain in the 70s. Life was shit, and escapism pretty much a requirement to make it through. It thrived in that ecosystem, and someone would argue we're back in a similar situation today, just under different causes.

0xfaded 7y ago
I've been watching yes minister again and the themes are eeriely familiar. I also found out there was a 2013 relaunch that fell flat. If only they had waited another 6 years!
- IanCal 7y ago
  If I remember right, they looked at what political issues were the same at the time as some X years before, and those are often then things which still apply, which gives it a beautiful timeless quality.
  - 0xfaded 7y ago
    It was a decade before I was born, but my understanding is that they had high level sources leaking material and were therefore very relevant to what was going on at the time.
    - NeedMoreTea 7y ago
      One of those sources was on PM Harold Wilson's staff. :) They took a lot of ideas and turned them up to absurd. One or two turned out to be actually happening like they thought they'd only imagined. Others were grounded on real events. One of the two writers, Jonathon Lynne I think, went to Oxford or Cambridge, and took part in the debating society. He mentioned something I heard mentioned again recently regarding Boris Johnson and his government cronies university and school days - so perhaps no wonder it seems horribly familiar again. Something roughly along the lines of university debate club being filled with self-important overblown and pompous asses, sure of their right to rule the world, and to be in the right by mere opening of their mouth, endlessly spouting crap and winging it. Yes Minister was born here. :) A decade or two later all those pompous asses were populating the government and opposition benches, spouting the same crap.

mopsi 7y ago

You may also like The Goon Show. [1] It's a BBC radio comedy show that ran in the 1950s, and was way ahead of time. Some episodes make references to then-current events that are little known nowadays such as guerilla war in Malaysia, but many are timeless. Episodes "The Canal" [2], "The Jet-Propelled Guided NAAFI" [3] and "The Whistling Spy Enigma" [4] are among my favourites. They have a very playful style and a refreshing lack of cynicism and profanities. John Cleese has said that the Goon Show "influenced us enormously", and many well-known Monty Python's sketches like "The Funniest Joke in the World" [5] can be traced to the Goon's jokes like dropping 1918 calendars on Berlin to force Germans surrender (in episode "World War One"). [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goon_Show https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goon_Show [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-69K1MQ4YJE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-69K1MQ4YJE [3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwSQ0CBQuA0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwSQ0CBQuA0 [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nMjk--OVR4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nMjk--OVR4 [5] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9FzUI8998U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9FzUI8998U

ptaipale 7y ago
Are you also familiar with The Men from the Ministry ? Written by Edward Taylor and John Graham. For some reason, it also made a successful radio show in South Africa, Finland and Sweden. The latter two are translations (but set in UK like the original). Taylor wrote new episodes for Finland even after the show was discontinued in UK.
IanCal 7y ago
I think it was the goons that had a lovely little sketch of the 100 metres standing still race. The gun fires and they stand straight up, then it's all done as a stop motion thing.

wil421 7y ago

Seinfeld is another show that aged well like Monty Python. Some situations in Seinfeld wouldn’t happen anymore due to cellphones and new technology. Monty Python is nice because a lot of it is fantasy or general humor not situational like Seinfeld.

dorchadas 7y ago
The biggest issue I've heard about Seinfeld is that people claim it's derivative...Not realizing that Seinfeld is actually where a lot of the ideas started.
ghaff 7y ago
Cellphones in particular have essentially invalidated so many situations based on not being able to get in touch with someone or having to make advanced arrangements and missing the connection, etc. Heck, most of Connie Willis' earlier books--which I do like but also involve people running around and constantly not being able to locate someone--really don't make sense in a world where people carry phones.