Before we get all entangled in politics and other “serious” news this week, take a moment to celebrate an important cultural anniversary. Forty years ago, the first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus first aired on the BBC.
Starring John Cleese, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and animator Terry Gilliam. The show’s influence was enormous — some critics have called Monty Python the Beatles of comedy — and changed the way comedy artists and other performers approach their audiences. Monty Python pioneered the practice of teams of entertainers writing and performing their own material, as well as the acknowledgment, even celebration, of life’s absurdities through sheer, unrestrained silliness and surreal situational comedy.
Boundary-pushers from the get-go, the group’s popularity grew slowly at first, but by the time their syndicated TV show ended in 1974, they were countercultural heroes of a sort, and phrases and skits from the show had become part of the cultural vernacular. Members of Monty Python went on to make films such as Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Life of Brian, inspired the hit Broadway musical Spamalot, and, in Gilliam’s case, became a respected film director. Graham Chapman died of cancer in 1989; during occasional reunions, the other members of the group often come on stage holding an urn that supposedly contains Chapman’s ashes. Rather than go on and on about these comedic and cultural heroes, here are two of their most famous TV sketches. Note: Monty Python has its own YouTube channel.
— John Grooms
This article appears in Sep 29 – Oct 6, 2009.
