I’m Grateful for Monty Python

Last September, I had the pleasure of seeing it Monty Python and the Holy Grail at the Majestic Theater in downtown Dallas for its 50th anniversary^th annual commemoration. The people in attendance were some of the biggest fans you could imagine, and we had a guest host: none other than John Cleese himself.

This is part of Cleese’s “I’m Not Dead Yet” tour. He took the stage before the film and talked about what led to the film. One interesting tidbit he shared was that the Python crew wrote the original screenplay, then threw about 90% of it in the trash. The remaining 10%? The scene at the beginning of the film about coconuts was written by Michael Palin. Considering the film they presented, I can only imagine what was in the original version.

After the film finished, Cleese came out again and answered questions wearing bunny slippers. As he spoke, he mentioned that Dallas was very special to him because it was here that Python first found its footing in the United States. That got me thinking about how Python has influenced my life (and of course my sense of humor) over the years, let’s see, shall we?

KERA Connection

I was very fortunate to have PBS in my life growing up. sesame road, Electric CompanyAnd 3-2-1 Contact (especially the Bloodhound Gang) were a highlight of my early years. Dallas PBS affiliate KERA was the first to air the episode Monty Python’s Flying Circus in the 70s, thanks in large part to KERA Program Director Ron Devillier.

This led to more and more British television making the leap across the Atlantic, including: Bad Tower, Are You Being Served?, Maintaining Appearance, Black Adder, Yes, Minister, Absolutely Awesome, Dad’s Armyand the list goes on and on.

I watched them all grow up, not to mention Doctor Who. These shows always seem to be around. I didn’t realize how close it came to not happening at all. But it happened, and Monty Python is king of the hill in my estimation. When my father introduced me Holy Grail at the age of seven, I immediately became a fan. Although I was too young to take in many of the jokes, the humorous nature, such as King Arthur riding an imaginary horse to the sound of coconuts being smashed, was not lost on me.

I didn’t like the ending then, and that hasn’t changed over the years. One of the first pieces of fan fiction I ever created was about Arthur, Bedivere, and Lancelot escaping from police custody, ignoring the bobbies, and circling back to Aaaaaaargggh Castle to defeat the French and ultimately retrieve the Holy Grail at last. I even asked God to open his animated cloud window again to give Arthur an attaboy for pulling it off… on quite a poignant note, of course.

When I show Holy Grail for my youngest son, I’m glad to see he finds it cute, but he Also hated the ending. Like father like son, even though we tried to warn him.

Theater of the Absurd

One of my favorite sketches in Flying Circus is the courtroom scene in episode #3. It starts with Eric Idle giving an impassioned speech about freedom for misdemeanor parking violations. After a long-winded diatribe by Graham Chapman, lawyer John Cleese called the (nearly) dead man in the coffin as a witness. It went as well as you’d expect.

Not wanting to be outdone, he then summoned Cardinal Richelieu, played by Michael Palin, as his character witness. After some questions, Graham Chapman reappears as a Scotland Yard Inspector named Dim. The inspector correctly concludes that the witness is not the real Cardinal Richelieu, who died in 1642. In fact, he is Ron Higgins, a professional Cardinal Richelieu impersonator.

At that moment, Inspector Dim starts singing a song saying that if he wasn’t with CID, he would be a window cleaner. The entire courtroom cheered, including Terry Jones as the judge wearing a long traditional wig. The last thing that happened next was what happened next.

After Dim’s song ends, lawyer John Cleese begins his own song about being a train engine driver. It didn’t last long because suddenly everyone in the courtroom looked at him as if the previous song had never happened, as if he was singing the song in the middle of actual court proceedings. Embarrassed, the lawyers sat down, and a knight in full armor sat next to him, who then hit Cleese over the head with a chicken.

Genius.

The sketch takes the relative normalcy of a courtroom and subverts it in at least seven different ways. This sketch is a microcosm of what I love and appreciate about Python: their ability to play something completely straight while the actual substance of the situation makes absolutely no sense.

Another example is the Crocodile sketch. Eric Idle broke the news while reporting on Olympic sports, Man Eaten by Crocodile. This sport involves sprinting sixty yards to a crocodile hole to be the first to be eaten. For me, one of the best lines is about the coach: “Duke’s coached every British team since 1928. It was his combination of gymnastics knowledge, reptile expertise and culinary skills that turned many an appetite-less novice into a feast of crocodiles.”

*Chef’s Kiss*

Essays in Escalation

Of course, Python is renowned for its ability to continually elevate seemingly normal situations into the stratosphere. The one that people are probably most familiar with is the Parrot sketch. While this is a classic, here are three of my favorite examples of this escalation in the workplace:

Cheese Shop: John Cleese walks into a cheese shop run by Michael Palin. Cleese began asking about different types of cheese, going through an impressive catalog of cheese names. Each time, Palin said that they weren’t that breed, they didn’t carry them, or the cat ate them. Palin finally admitted that she had no cheese in her cheese shop and that she was wasting Cleese’s time on purpose. Then Cleese shot him.

Argument: Cleese and Palin fight again when Palin comes into the office to argue. This sketch goes back and forth, exploring what should be an argument when they are actually arguing about whether they are arguing or not. Cleese finally admitted that he could “argue at his leisure”. Brilliant.

Bookstore: Perhaps my favorite, this time Cleese is on the receiving end as a long-suffering bookstore owner. When annoying customers (who have been played by various actors over the years) continually ask for increasingly obscure book titles, Cleese begins to unravel. Bookstore owners began tearing out pages of books to satisfy customers, even offering to buy them when it turned out the customer had no money, checks, or even a bank account. In the final escalation, the customer can’t really read. So, Cleese sat them down and started reading to them.

All of these scenarios are a master class in comedic escalation, and are certainly the backbone of how I approach humor in my own writing.

Roma Returns Home

There’s a scene in it Brian’s Life in which the main character Graham Chapman paints “Romans Go Home” on a building in Latin. He is caught red-handed by an officer played by John Cleese. Cleese immediately corrected the grammar, and forced Brian to write “Romans Go Home” over and over again until he finally got the verb forms and agreement right. While I’ve always found this part funny, it’s much funnier since I studied Latin in college. This underscores the fact that Monty Python’s humor stems from an understanding of history, classics, economics, art, philosophy, and social awkwardness.

These are all hallmarks of British comedy in general, but Python really brings them to the fore in almost every sketch, scene and film. Scene with Dennis entering Holy Grail is another great example of this. Arthur just wants to know who lives in the castle in the distance, but is instead given a socio-political lecture by a farmer who points out the obvious flaws in the Excalibur/Lady of the Lake story. This gives us the immortal line: “Listen, a strange woman lying in a pool handing out swords is not the basis for a system of government!”

I’ve always found British comedy to be much more cerebral and thoughtful than American comedy. Don’t worry, I’m not going completely Anglophile here, I’m just saying that British humor relies on more than just a surface understanding of circumstances and situations, and that appeals to me. To illustrate the difference in approach between the two, here is a commercial starring John Cleese for Schweppes Ginger Ale in the 90s. You’ll see what I mean.

Final Thoughts

I am grateful to have been exposed to Monty Python at such a young age, and I appreciate KERA for hosting it and my father for already being a fan. Of course, no thanksgiving would be complete without a Texas-sized thank you to the members of Monty Python themselves. So, to John Cleese, Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, and the late Terry Jones and Graham Chapman.

Now that my son has seen it, it has been a three-generation problem. If he starts a family of his own, I hope it’s something he’ll pass on again. And that’s what British Humor and Python are specifically about: It gets funnier every time I see it. I appreciated their puns, biting political commentary, classic and historical references, and their courage to challenge social norms in ways no one expected.

See? No one Once expect it.

We have one more blog post coming for December, so stay tuned. And, if you like what we do here, consider joining the Sector M Patreon. In any case, please stay safe on your trip for Thanksgiving, pace yourself, and take plenty of naps. Thanks for reading!