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Monty Python at 50
- wlll 7y ago"…strange references to things like exploding knees…" It is highly likely (I just checked, it is 100% likely: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goon_Show#Monty_Python https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goon_Show#Monty_Python) that Monty Python were heavily influenced by The Goon Show, a BBC radio show released between 1951 and 1960. The quote from the article I called out would be completely at home in a Goon Show script. For anyone who is a Monty Python fan it may be worth checking it out. I grew up listening to Goon Show re-runs on the radio or on CD and absolutely love them. Be warned though, as there is no visuals restricting the writers the shows are even more abstract than Python. They are sometimes re-run on iPlayer, you can buy CDs (I think Amazon and eBay) and it is likely someone has "archived" the shows on the Internet somewhere.
- NeedMoreTea 7y agoAlso Spike Milligan's follow up late 60's TV series, Q5, which ran yearly until Q9. It's very Pythonesque, but is much more hit or miss. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q..._(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q..._(TV_series)
- iggldiggl 7y agoAnd continuing in the other direction, another radio series called The Burkiss Way, which first aired in 1976, also has a Python-inspired feel to it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burkiss_Way https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Burkiss_Way https://archive.org/details/TheBurkissWay https://archive.org/details/TheBurkissWay
- emmelaich 7y agoYes, that's pretty well known. The knees in particular perhaps inspired by "Footo, the wonder boot exploder" http://www.thegoonshow.net/scripts_show.asp?title=svge09_the_internal_mountain http://www.thegoonshow.net/scripts_show.asp?title=svge09_the... Cool fact; the Australian ABC radio station played the Goon show every Saturday around midday for many many years. I think they only stopped around 2005. Was just reminiscing about this last night!
- recuter 7y agoJohn Cleese is currently on tour (aptly named "Last Time To See Me Before I Die") which is a sort of retrospective of his career and has said as much. The other bit of it is that half the pythons worked together on a children's show (Do Not Adjust Your Set) and John and Graham Chapman were literally watching it one day and had the vague notion of pursuing shenanigans together. When they pitched Monty Python to the BBC they had... nothing. Somehow it was green-lit anyway. So the lack of structure and imaginative child like absurdities were sort of built in.
- brlewis 7y agoIs there reason to think it's aptly named? From 5 years ago, same title: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_W1VF6Yj4w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_W1VF6Yj4w
- serf 7y agoHe's 79 years old. The average male life expectancy in the UK is 79.4 [0]. I mean, he's not unhealthy (as far as I know), but it's pretty common place for older folks to commiserate about their impending mortality. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expe...
- caf 7y agoLife expectancy at birth isn't relevant to a 79 year old, though. The UK's life tables say a 79 year old male can expect to live another 9 years ( https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/datasets/nationallifetablesunitedkingdomreferencetables https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde... ).
- enriquto 7y ago> Life expectancy at birth isn't relevant to a 79 year old, though. The UK's life tables say a 79 year old male can expect to live another 9 years This is one of my favorite examples when I have to teach statistics! (the other two being Monty Hall and the observation than outliers in a normal distribution depend mostly on the variance, and are essentially independent of the mean).
- piinbinary 7y agoHas anyone noticed that the Woody and Tinny Words sketch seems to have gone missing?
- zaroth 7y agoIf you like Monty Python, and you own a Tesla, try naming your car after some of the characters, you mind find something hidden...
- mlnj 7y agoCare to enlighten us peasants who are Monty Python fans?
- TheChaplain 7y agoThere are some videos on Youtube that shows the easter egg. Worth it if you're a MP fan.
- zaroth 7y agoI didn’t want to spoil it - some people like the thrill of figuring out the puzzle. It’s eminently Googleable.
- RickJWagner 7y agoTruly revolutionary humor, top notch. I can't wait for the pendulum to swing back the other way and make offending everybody acceptable again, when done for the proper reasons.
- RandomTisk 7y agoWith the morality police drunk with power and so few media conglomerates in control of all advertising dollars, free speech as we once imagined it may be dead.
- cgrealy 7y agoAhh, the old "you can't joke about anything anymore". The laziest excuse for crap comedy ever. Todd Philips- "You can't do edgy comedy anymore! SJW's ruined comedy!" Taika Waititi- "In my next comedy I play Hitler." src: https://twitter.com/NakatomiTim/status/1179121960430776322 https://twitter.com/NakatomiTim/status/1179121960430776322
- coldtea 7y ago>Ahh, the old "you can't joke about anything anymore". The laziest excuse for crap comedy ever. You have it backwards. It was always the best comedians who complained about censorship and how you can't joke about things -- people like Lenny Bruce, Richard Prior, George Carlin and anybody who offended the sensibilities and ideologies of their day, either political, moral, puritan, etc. (I'd add Zappa and other non-comedians). And nothing's more crap than the forced PC-oriented comedy, that reads more like a sermon and doesn't take any chances with the audience... >Todd Philips- "You can't do edgy comedy anymore! SJW's ruined comedy!" Taika Waititi- "In my next comedy I play Hitler." How's that a counter-argument? If anything making fun of Hitler and nazism has been the safest and most easily acceptable comedy trope ever since 1939 or so. It only took guts in the US back when Charlie Chaplin did it...
- crummy 7y agoI think the difference is who you're offending. George Carlin on this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yV8xUorQ8&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8yV8xUorQ8&feature=youtu.be
- MichaelMoser123 7y agoI liked Monty Python and the humor until I saw the final scene in 'the life of Brian'; couldn't find them funny after seeing that scene, as I used to remember that an awful lot of people died at the cross as a means of capital punishment, dying a slow and painful death. Didn't manage to swallow that 'Life's a piece of shit, When you look at it'.
- WilliamEdward 7y agoThat's a weird part to take offence to. I am assuming you saw the opening scenes with all the peasants and had a similar reaction? They suffered too, after all.
- pstuart 7y agoThere was a lot of controversy over that film, much of it rather amusing. A lovely debate with they had back in the day (and utterly win): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ni559bHXDg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ni559bHXDg To each their own, but I'd suggest that your offense taken was not necessary and could have been misconstrued.
- cgrealy 7y agoComedy = tradegy + time. You can absolutely make jokes about even the worst things in history; it all depends on how you approach the subject.
- saghm 7y agoGenuine question: had you never seen the "Spanish Inquisition" skits before seeing that movie? If so, why didn't you have a similar reaction to them?
- MichaelMoser123 7y agoThat one was about ideology, that one was funny. It didnt state categorically that life is shit. To me it didnt cross any boundaries of bad taste. It also didn't tell me what to think about life, the universe and everything else.
- program_whiz 7y agoAnyone else noticed how much comic sensitivity changes? As a kid I thought python was hillarious, now it seems so tame and/or kinda boring (except the very best parts) -- seems like need more and more just to find anything funny.
- wlll 7y agoYeah, I noticed that too. I thought the whole lot was unbelievably funny back when I was a kid, now in the same boat as you.
- thrownear1832 7y agoOriginally-proposed name: It's