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The Merry men of Monty Python and their Flying Circus
My report on the flying circus will give a detailed overview of the television series Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Throughout my paper I will discuss the main players that took part in the circus, the influences and other deciding factors that helped shape the show. I will be looking at the pop culture aspects and the influence on society the Monty python boys had on their audience, and also observe and analyze the unique style of humor, comedic style, and subject matter throughout the Flying Circus. I will also research the staying power of the series and the cultural impact the circus has on media today.
Monty Python’s flying circus was a British sketch comedy show that originally aired all over the United Kingdom in 1969. The series ran four seasons from 1969-1974, and within that period of time it gained a cult like following. The series aired on American television on PBS stations in 1974, and gathered a large and unexpected fan base. The Python boys did not assume their sketch comedy would fit well into American culture, and were shocked when the series was accepted into American pop culture. When ABC got a hold of the Flying Circus series they managed to butcher it into little bits of Python, edited for family viewing, and ABC version of humor. The edited version of Circus resulted in a sketch comedy show that did not flow like it was originally intended to, resulting in the Python boys suing ABC for artistic rights. Over some time the Monty Python players had finally gained control of the United States broadcasting of the Circus. In 2006 Monty Python’s Flying Circus aired on American PBS stations, compiled of the gang’s favorite sketches and a tribute to Graham Chapman throughout the broadcast. In
2009 the cable channel IFC gained the rights to Monty Python’s Flying Circus episodes and airs them throughout the week. The fact that Monty Python episodes are still relevant, culturally significant, and still talked about today is a prime example of the staying power that the Flying Circus has. The Flying Circus boys have discussed their influences and have drawn from each other, past television shows such as That Was The Week That Was, which John Cleese, and Graham Chapman both worked as writers on, and a radio comedy program called The Goon Show. In turn, the Monty Python crew had influenced comedy series like the American sketch comedy of Saturday Night Live, South Park have listed Monty Python as a major influence on their material, In Living Color, Kids in the Hall, Robot Chicken, and Arrested Development were all influenced by Monty Python’s Flying Circus in one way or another.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus has unbelievable evidence of experimentation throughout the entire series. The constant use of cartoons and animation throughout each episode, sometimes right in the middle of a skit, was original, and completely different than anything else on television in that time period. In the Episode titled Owl-Stretching Time, a knight walks into every other sketch in full armor and slaps the main character with a plucked chicken, and then it transitions to the next sketch. Who would think to use unusual transitions like stop motion animation or a knight with a dead chicken to signal the end of a skit? The Monty boys, that’s who! The Flying Circus was a series full of experimentation television.
Monty Python players bring back a version of early television that once was forgotten, and totally transform it into a modern comedic sketch show. There were six key players that made up the boys club, in no particular order Other than alphabetical the first Monty player was the late great Graham Chapman. Graham Chapman was born January 1941 in Leicester England. He along with a few Other Monty boys went to Cambridge University, however Graham was the only one to study medicine, and become a certified physician. While attending Cambridge Chapman had started writing comedy bits with another Monty man John Cleese, who also attended Cambridge. During the pre-python days Graham Chapman is said to have written comedy sketches for the BBC radio series, and television programs. During the Flying Circus years Graham was always credited as a co-writer for the series, and the characters he would play were known to be stern figures even while portraying a woman, but the most memorable characters played usually had him in a military uniform. After the Flying Circus had its run Chapman continued to work with the Monty boys, starring in films such as Monty Python and the Holy Grain and Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Sadly in October of 1989 at the age of 48 Graham Chapman passed away after a battle with throat cancer.
Next on the alphabetical list is John Cleese. “John Cleese, for me, epitomized the figure of the Englishman who was so neat and primly mannered and at the same time bat-shit crazy” (Malamud). John was a major contributor to the Flying Circus, and some say that because of his absence in the fourth season the show suffered in its writing and overall popularity. John Cleese is credited as a co-writer in each episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. John was born in October of 1939 in Somerset, England. John Cleese had studied law at Cambridge University where he was introduced to Graham Chapman, His future python pal. Before the Flying Circus Cleese had some success as a script writer and also worked with the BBC radio. During the flying circus days Cleese was known for hilarious sketches like the man with a dead Norwegian parrot, and one of my personal favorite reoccurring role of him in character sitting at a desk right in the middle another skit and his only line is, “and now for something completely different.” It transitions into the next skit abruptly, but creatively and you cannot help but smile. Tensions were growing between John Cleese and Graham Chapman due to Chapman’s alleged alcoholism and during the fourth season John had left the circus, returning briefly for small appearances, and eventually to help write the Monty Python films. Holy Grail, Life of Brian, and the Meaning of Life, were all Monty Python movies co-written and co-starred by John Cleese.
Terry Gilliam in my opinion was the most creative of the Monty Python boys. Without Terry Gilliam the skits and transitions and all of the clever bits of animation would have made the series significantly less interesting. Terry was born in Minnesota, in November of 1940, he was the only Monty boy born in the United States, but I don’t believe the others held it against him. Gilliam had moved to California in his youth with his family, where he completed high school, and graduated from Occidential College with a major in Political Science. Terry Gilliam started off as a very skilled in animation and a successful cartoonist. Early in his career he had moved to England and started working as an animator on a television sketch series where he met other Monty boys. Once The Flying Circus was on its way Terry Gilliam was praised for his strange and unique ways of mixing stop motion animation and cut outs of Victorian era art as transitions from skit to skit. What started out as transitions eventually turned out to be animated skits in the middle of live sketches. You find yourself looking forward to the next bit of odd animation that will tie the episode together. The idea of mixing live actors in a sketch with bits of cut away animation was genius, and pioneering. Terry Gilliam was also an actor in the series and has been described as the guy who would play characters in uncomfortable costumes which no one else wanted to play. A popular character that Gilliam was known for was the role of a knight that would walk onto a skit mid way through and slap the main character in the head with a dead chicken. Memorable, but at the same time it was unexpected. After the flying circus days Terry Gilliam had co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail with fellow python Terry Jones. Eric Idle was born March of 1943 in South Shields, England. Eric studied English at Cambridge University where he met his future Monty pals Graham Chapman and John Cleese. After Cambridge, Eric became a regular on the television series Do Not Adjust Your Set, where he met the other half of the pythons, Michael Palin, and Terry Jones who were also starring in the series, as well as Terry Gilliam who was doing animation for series. During the Flying Circus Idle was always credited as a co-writer of the series. Eric Idle’s characters are said to be wordy by choice. His writing style and the characters he plays are clever, with a quick wit, and a lot of dialog. One of his most recognizable bits was the “Nudge, Nudge” sketch. Idle was also used as a transition between sketches, while playing guitar and singing about the end of one sketch, or introducing the next scene as another clever use of talent. After Flying Circus, Eric Idle was a part of the Monty Python movies, worked on many other films, and helped adapt the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail into a musical theater production titled Spamalot.
Terry Jones, another member of the Python gang, was born February of 1942 in Whales, U. K. Jones was one of only two members of the python boys to study at Oxford, where he met and started doing comedy bits with the future Monty boy Michael Palin. Jones appeared on the show Do Not Adjust Your Set, where he was introduced to the other Monty boys. Throughout the Flying Circus his most memorable bits were portraying females, in the Spam episode, Jones’ character is a waitress at a restaurant where they serve spam with everything, and there is no avoiding it. Another popular sketch was the tobacconist. After the Circus, Terry Jones co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail, as Well as Life of Brian, and The Meaning of Life.
Michael Palin, the final official member of the Monty Python’s Flying Circus crew was born May of 1943 in England. Michael was the other Python boy to finish his schooling at Oxford University, where he met and started his writing relationship with Jones, which would carry over to their Flying Circus days. Michael Palin did some pre-Flying Circus shows with his writing partner since college; Terry Jones. John Cleese has shown interest in Palin and wanted to develop something with him. It is said that John Cleese had approached Palin with a project that would eventually develop into the Flying Circus. One of the most recognizable and memorable characters that Michael Palin portrayed was called the “its man.” The character would run up to the camera, at the start of the show with long hair and a full beard wearing filthy and ripped clothing and begin to say something the viewer believes to be important, and the credits to begin the show cut him off immediately after he says the word “It’s”. The” It’s” man showed up in many Flying Circus episodes. Palin also starred in the Python Movies after Flying Circus, Holy Grail, Life of Brian, and The Meaning of Life.
Another Monty Python member who was never officially accepted into the group was Carol Cleveland. Carol was born January of 1942 in London,England. Although she appeared in 30 of the 45 Monty Python’s Flying Circus episodes, she was always listed as a guest, and never quite accepted into the boys club of the Pythons. Carol Cleveland also appeared in the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, she played one of the Maidens in the Castle Anthrax. According to Randy Malamud, Carol appeared in each Python movie, and also had a creative hand in the series, so the whispers of the Monty Python bunch being sexist are plausible. Monty Python’s Flying Circus was unbelievably creative. There sketches were one of a kind unusual and hilarious all at the same time. In an early episode of the Flying Circus there is a sketch titled, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, at the start of the skit John Cleese is playing Mozart and the skit is all about famous deaths in history. Nonsense! At the start of the sketch you have no idea where it’s going, and what it will turn out to be.
Another famous sketch from the Flying Circus was a commercial for Whizzo butter, where the python boys are advertising the butter on television, and out in public doing taste tests, and the selling point of the butter was the catch line, “with whizzo butter, you won’t be able to tell the difference between it and a dean crab.” The infomercial then cuts to animation of little angels hovering around a container of whizzo butter, while the announcers voice assures you, you’ll go to heaven if you purchase it. The camera then cuts to a salesman for whizzo butter surrounded by local women, the salesman tells the women they will not be able to tell the difference between whizzo butter and a dead crab, both of which are displayed in front of him, the women all agree, you are unable to tell the difference between a dead crab and whizzo butter, then recognize the man as the whizzo salesman from television, and in an interesting twist the ladies all warn him if he tries to pedal his butter business around their town they’ll slit his throat. Completely absurd sketches that start with a clever idea and never quite end up in the direction you expect them to.
The Sketch called, “It’s the Arts” starts with a host interviewing Sir Edward Ross. Skit starts off by asking if it’s alright to call him Edward then calls him Ted instead, meanwhile the guest is accepting the name changes, The host then tells Edward to call the host Tom, not Thomas, then refers to the guest as eddy baby. Throughout the entire bit you expect the interview to start but the bit itself is entirely about the names versus the interview we were promised and expecting. The host then asks to call the guest sweetie, guest replies no, “can I call you sugar plum?” “No.” “Pussy cat, angel face, frank, can I call you frank; it’s a nice name?” “NO!” “Franny little Franny,” the guest then leaves, and the host promises to stop with the pussy cat nonsense. The guest comes back, begins to promote the movie then the host gets bored and tells him to shut up – end of sketch.
The next bit is another interview that does not turn out to be an interview. The host of the show is interviewing a musician, named Arthur “two sheds” Jackson. The host immediately asks about the two sheds name, and the guest replies it was a nickname given by friends because he once was contemplating the purchase of a second shed. The guest assures the host he does not refer to himself as two sheds, only his friends do. The guest does not like the hosts questions about the nickname and where it came from and finally explains that he was thinking about getting rid of his original shed and not buying the second shed after all, to which the host replies, “then you would be Arthur “no sheds” Jackson.”
Another Classic Sketch was about a joke that was written, and it was so funny than anyone who read it would immediately die. It was in fact, a lethal joke. The scene starts off with the author of the joke, just finishing writing it down on paper, lets out a few hearty laughs, and falls over dead. A woman is in the house, rushes over to the dead man, picks up the note, starts to read it, and laughs and falls down to her death. The police then show up and the crime scene turns out to be a very hazardous environment and safely removing the joke becomes a big event. Coroner is seen from a far laughing next to an open window begins to laugh then dies in the window frame. A police man is interviewed about his task to retrieve the note from inside the home he states that he will be protected by the sounds of somber music in attempt to counteract the humor in the joke, but he ends up reading the joke, and died immediately. The joke is collected by the military, which starts to use it in tests to see accuracy, and how to use it as a weapon of war. The joke is then translated into a language that British soldiers do not know, German in this instance, and when under attack from the German army the soldiers are instructed to recite the deadly joke in German, and it successfully kills the German soldiers. The sketch then switches to a British soldier being held captive by German officials who are hitting him because they want to know the joke, the brit then replies, “I can handle physical pain,” the German officer then pulls out a feather, starts to tickle the British soldiers neck, and the soldier starts reciting the joke in German immediately, and it kills both German officials and the brit escapes. The sketch eventually cuts to a man in an open field next to a headstone that’s engraving says, “Unknown Joke” and the man begins to explain that “joke war” was banned at a special Geneva convention, in 1950.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus was one of a kind. There sketches had everything from hoisting the main characters down into their seats at the start of the show, an entire sketch about grandmothers turning into gangsters. Or a military man entering scenes mid sketch and saying its to silly and asking to wrap it up, a sketch about a Norwegian blue parrot from a pet store, a doctor that’s not a very good doctor. Or the most awful family in the world sketch, sketches about spam, painted people living behind museum paintings, Karl Marx and Che Guevara on a quiz show, a tobacconist, confuse-a-cat sketch, defending yourself against fresh fruit, dropping a 16 ton weight on main characters, to transitions as simple as saying, “and now onto something completely different.” Nothing quite like it has been on television since, which is why it’s a good idea to have the show still on current channels, and available for everyone to experience, and see just how great the Flying Circus was.
Sources:
MALAMUD, RANDY. “Monty Python’s Academic Circus.” Chronicle of Higher Education 57.22 (2011): B12. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 3 May 2011.
Randy Malamud’s article about Monty Python was crucial to my research. It gave me information about the Python boys post-Circus years, and reassured facts for me throughout my research. I didn’t find this source first, so some information I had already researched but there was still a lot of solid information and common knowledge I gathered from this article.
Michael, Palin. “Monty Python’s feuding circus.” Sunday Mail, The (Brisbane) (n.d.):Newspaper Source. EBSCO. Web. 3 May 2011.
This article was very informative. It was dated 2006, one of the newer articles. Also this article was actually written by Michael Palin, an actual member of The Monty Python crew so I consider this a good find, and factual. Reading this helped me clarify facts and clear up stories.
Gary, Strauss. “Nudge, nudge: Monty Python is back.” USA Today n.d.: Newspaper Source.EBSCO. Web. 3 May 2011.
This article was fairly short. Dated 2009 so still fairly recent. Its coming from USA today, so not as scientific as I would have liked, but still cultural and factual. The article basically states that the Monty Python will run on IFC channel, along with a documentary and interviews with the cast.
Python (Monty) Pictures Limited BBC. U.K. 1969-1974 4 May. 2011
These Monty Python’s Flying Circus episodes helped my research more than anything. Being able to actually witness things I was reading about, and having a firsthand account of the skits made this paper possible.
Harrcastle, Gary L., George A. Reisch, et al. Monty Python and Philosophy Nudge, Nudge Think Think! Chicago, Ill, 2006
This was such an important book for my research, especially before I had access to the Python episodes, I was able to read through this book and have specific skits explained well throughout the book, and each chapter was a little different.
Spigel, Lynn, TV By Design: Modern Art and the Rise of Network Television. University of Chicago press Chicago, Ill 2008
TV by design helped me with true TV culture. Being able to read this book section by section throughout the class, and understanding how early television worked, and changed with the times was more than helpful. Perfect time period for my paper.
Miller, Jeffrey S., Something Completely Different: British Television and American Culture. UMP. Minneapolis, Mn 01/1999
The chapter I researched most was chapter five, (Naughty) Bits of Limey Eccentricity: That Was The Week That Was and Monty Python’s Flying Circus, it was a late find, but It did still help me with my research.
Other sources:
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/features/2009/11/monty-python-200911
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/montypython/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carol_Cleveland
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That_Was_The_Week_That_Was
http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/montypython/
