Last week when I appeared on the Bill Dwight Radio Show I was wearing my Monty Python Penguin On The Tele shirt which seemed to make Bill and his producer Jaz Tupelo very happy. Before the show we talked about the skit and when I told them that I had actually interviewed Monty Python member and Penguin ON The Tele co-writer Graham Chapman back in 1981 the plan was to talk about the sketch and the shirt at some point during my interview. Unfortunately, during my interview Bill and I were having too much fun and we ran out of time as Jaz was trying to vain to get Bill and I to talk about my shirt as we went to commercial.  So, here’s the  Penguin On The Telly story that the world, or the Bill Dwight listening audience never got to hear.

Between 1969 and 1974 Monty Python’s Flying Circus produced what is considered to be the best sketch comedy show ever. Produced for the BBC, their half hour show treated the issues and non issues of the day with irreverence, satire, humor and most of all, sarcasim.  For this reported, though, considering my penguin pedigree the pinnacle of their illustrious career was and remains the  timeless “Penguin on the Tele” sketch.  Way back in 1981, as a reporter for WQMC radio at Queens College I had the  good luck and pleasure of interviewing Monty Python member and Penguin On The Telly sketch co-writer / performer Graham Chapman just after he had just finished giving a “chat” at Q.C.  Student Union as part of his 1981 U.S. college lecture tour. The interview, which was undoubtedly the highlight of my college radio tour of duty went on for about 30 minutes and the following is an small excerpt from that interview regarding some incite into the Penguin on the Telly.

Eric: Let’s talk about the penguin on the telly skit. Is that something that you and John (Cleese) wrote?

Graham Chapman: Yes. I’m not sure who came up with the original idea. The penguin was just lying around the prop room. We actually enjoyed doing that one quite a bit.

Eric: Does the penguin on the telly sketch have any underlying social or political criticism or meaning that may not be apparant to Americans?

GC: No. We just liked seeing John in drag. It really was just a silly sketch that we had allot of fun doing. John and I kept cracking up looking at the penguin on top of the TV set. It took innumerable takes to shoot, and we weren’t even that happy with the final take.

Monty Python's "Penguin On The Telly" sketch first aired 11/24/70

Monty Python

Monty Python:
Celebrating 400 Years Of Monty Python (17 Discs)

Mit der Veröffentlichung von “MONTY PYTHON´s 40th Anniversary Boxset Celebrating 400 Years of MONTY PYTHON” feiert das bahnbrechende und unwiderstehlich komische Team des Monty Python’s Flying Circus ein wahrhaft denkwürdiges Ereignis.

Beide Discs sind auf den deutschen Markt bis dato unveröffentlicht und ausschließlich in dieser Box erhältlich! Zum Trojanischen Hasen geht es hier!

Mehrfach ausgezeichnet, erhielten die „Monty´s“ u.a. 1983 den „großen Preis der Jury“ beim Cannes Film Festival oder den Europäischen Filmpreis für ihr Lebenswerk 2001. Das Boxset, bestehend aus 17 DVDs, erscheint anlässlich des 400. Jubiläums von Monty Python (oder ihres 40. Jubiläum, kommt ganz darauf an, aus welcher Sicht man es betrachtet …) und enthält die beliebten Filme der unerschrockenen Truppe, darunter Die Ritter der Kokosnuss, Das Leben des Brian, Der Sinn des Lebens, Die wunderbare Welt der Schwerkraft und Monty Python Live At e Hollywood Bowl.

Erweitert wird die Box durch 2 Bonus Discs: eine über 2-stündige Dokumentation zum FLYING CIRCUS sowie einen 30-minütigen Zusammenschnitt von PERSONAL BESTS! Beide Discs sind auf den deutschen Markt bis dato unveröffentlicht und ausschließlich in dieser Box erhältlich!

Abgerundet wird diese sagenumwobene Box, neben der grandiosen Umverpackung Marke „Trojanischer Hase“ – in Anlehnung an eine Szene aus Die Ritter der Kokosnuss – durch ein kultiges Monty Python Wristband, 4 Monty Python´s Sammler-Buttons sowie ein limitiertes und nummeriertes Senitype (Kunstgrafik aus dem Film Die Ritter der Kokosnuss).

Das Leben des Brian (Disc 1-2)

Brian wird im Jahre des Herrn geboren, allerdings im Kuhstall nebenan. Und die Heiligen Drei Könige, die sich versehentlich zuerst in Brians Stall begeben, bemerken ihren Irrtum schnell, als sie von Brians Mutter angekeift werden: „Der echte Jesus liegt nebenan“.

Auch sonst scheint Brians Lebensweg vorbestimmt: Widerstandskämpfer der Judäischen Volksfront, äh … Volksfront von Judäa, neuer Messias und zum Schluss – Kreuzigung. Aber alles halb so schlimm, am Kreuz stimmen schließlich alle mit ein: „Always Look On ¬ e Bright Side Of Life“ …

Wer ist der wahre Messias? Na klar, Brian, wer sonst? Englands Kult-Komikertruppe Monty Python beweist auch in ihrem zweiten Spielfilm, dass sie wieder mal vor nichts und niemandem Respekt hat, weder vor Bibelverfilmungen noch vor der Heiligen Schrift … Einer der größten Hits des Prittischen Plödelteams.

Die Ritter der Kokosnuss (Disc 3-4)

Im frühen Mittelalter durchwandert König Artus das noch relativ unbewohnte England mit seinen edlen Recken, um das Reich von den einfallenden Franzosen zu befreien und den sagenhaften Heiligen Gral zu erobern. Leider handelt es sich bei seiner Truppe um eine Ansammlung irrer Trottel und sein Unternehmen erleidet schnell zahlreiche Rückschläge …

„Halt! Wer da?“ „Ich bin es, Artus, Sohn des Uther Pendragon, von der Burg Camelot, König aller Briten, Bezwinger der Sachsen, Herrscher über ganz England.“ „Verschwindet!“ Ein Gag- und Nonsensfeuerwerk der Extraklasse vom legendären Monty-Python-Team – ein absolutes Highlight im Schaffenswerk der britischen Comedians!

Bonus:
DISC 3:
• Film
• Das Killer-Karnickel
• Kommentare von Terry Gilliam und Terry Jones, John Cleese, Eric Idle und Michael Palin
• Untertitel: Drehbuch: Lies mit, was du siehst!
• Untertitel: Für alle, die den Film nicht mögen

DISC 4:
• Lieder zum Mitsingen
• Die Suche nach dem Heiligen Gral
• Heilige Relikte • Nicht verwendetes Material
• Extraordinäres: Prüft Euer Wissen über den Heiligen Gral
(für Eingeweihte, Fanatiker und Leute, die den Film nicht mögen…), Monty Python‘s Spamalot, Geheimnisse um den Heiligen Gral

Der Sinn des Lebens (Disc 5-6)

Die sechs verrückten Pythons (John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam und Michael Palin) mit ihren irren Abenteuern sind wieder da!

In diesem Kultfilm der 80er Jahre werden überaus witzig und ohne alle Hemmungen die einzelnen Abschnitte des menschlichen Lebens sehr verzerrt dargestellt, wie das Wunder der Geburt, des Krieges und eines supermodernen Himmels. Wer nach den großen Mysterien unserer Zeit sucht, findet sie in „Der Sinn des Lebens“. 1983 gewann diese irrwitzige Filmkomödie den Cannes Film Festival Special Jury Prize.

Die Wunderbare Welt der Schwerkraft (Disc 7)

Die Wunderbare Welt der Schwerkraft ist Monty Pythons erster Kinofilm – eine urkomische Sammlung der witzigsten Szenen, Sketche und Parodien aus ihrer beliebten TV-Serie. Hier gibt es Oma-Banden, Mörder-Autos und den legendären Papageien-Sketch (er ruht sich bekanntlich nur aus!) sowie wertvolle Tipps zur Selbstverteidigung, falls Ihnen je ein Angreifer mit Obst in der Hand über den Weg laufen sollte.

Da darf der unvergessliche Holzfäller-Song („Ich fäll‘ den Baum, trag‘ Stöckelschuh‘, Strapse und BH …) natürlich nicht fehlen! Auch sind die berühmt-berüchtigten Monty Python-Animationen zu sehen – eindeutig das amüsanteste Comedy-Material seit Ernest Scribbler den komischsten Witz der Welt schrieb und prompt vor Lachen ins Gras biss.

Live at the Hollywood Bowl (Disc

Unflätig und hemmungslos ungeniert mischen die Pythons die legendäre Hollywood Bowl in einer ausverkauften Live-Show auf, die neben ihren wohlbekanntesten Liedern und Sketchen brandneues Material zum Besten gibt, das nie in der Flying Circus-Serie zu sehen war.

Mit seinem digital re-masterten Bild und Ton sieht dieser zum Schießen komische Auftritt nicht nur ganz und gar umwerfend aus, sondern ist dazu noch ein echter Brüller in Sachen Monty Python-Humor. Also nehmen Sie Platz und machen Sie sich seelisch auf ein schlicht unversäumenswertes Komödienerlebnis gefasst.

Flying Circus Season 1-4 plus Bonusdisc (Disc 9-16)

Werter Box-Set Schmökerer, inzwischen kennen Sie die Geschichte: Am Anfang war das Fernsehen öde. Schmerzlich öde. Desillusionierte Zuschauer litten unter Apathie und Verbitterung. Gott hatte ein Einsehen mit ihnen, erschlug die Frevler und schuf Monty Python´s Flying Circus, die unorthodoxeste und urkomischste Comedy-Show aller Zeiten.

Vier sagenhafte Staffeln lang vollbrachten die Pythons mit ihrem hemmungslos einfallsreichen Humor Wunder und ließen das Fernsehen und die Welt in einem freundlicheren, lustigeren Licht erstrahlen. The Complete Series Of the Flying Circus in der englischen Originalfassung mit deutschen Untertiteln.

A TASTE OF MONTY PYTHON’S PERSONAL BEST (Disc 17)

para Daniel Guichard, especulador do sentido da vida

Em outubro de 1969 era inaugurado na TV britânica um novo programa de humor, que contava com talentos como John Cleese, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle e Terry Jones, e que contava com a colaboração de Terry Gilliam nas vinhetas e por vezes, em frente às cameras também. Foi um tremendo sucesso durante as suas quatro temporadas, mas os caras se cansaram e resolveram parar de fazer televisão. Provavelmente eles não sabiam, mas naquela altura eles já eram lendas. O grupo, a quem deram o nome de Monty Python, fez as temporadas da TV e acharam que o formato estava desgastado. O que não os impediu de invadir o cinema, e para a nossa sorte, também com muito sucesso. Fizeram apenas três filmes. Poucos, mas todos viraram clássicos do humor surrealista e inteligente, e abriram as portas para o humor non-sense e irônico vindo da terra da Rainha. Começaram em 1975 com “Em Busca do Cálice Sagrado“, seguido de “A Vida de Brian” em 1979 e por fim, o último trabalho de todos juntos, este que comento agora, “O Sentido da Vida“.

Ao contrário dos anteriores, que tinham uma história e personagens definidos, este filme traz o formado de esquetes, que usavam na TV, contando várias histórias para tentar explicar o motivo da Existência. No fim das contas o filme fala de tudo, menos do sentido da vida propriamente, o que não é nada nada ruim. Não acho que possa ser comparado ao segundo filme deles, que tira sarro do messianismo e da adoração fanática dos religiosos, ou mesmo o primeiro onde sacaneiam a lenda do Rei Arthur (vale lembrar que esses assuntos são quase sagrados na Inglaterra). Mas “O Sentido da Vida” é um humor verborrágico, de sacadas inteligentissimas, mesmo que irregular; há quadros brilhantes como a familia católica com problemas de procriação, que acaba caindo em um dos números musicais mais divertidos do cinema, onde aparece a música “Every Sperm is Sacred”, indicada ao BAFTA de melhor canção original, isso sem falar do Sr. Creosote, da Máquina que Faz Ping, a aula de educação sexual, o momento da morte, as animações em estilo pesadelo de Terry Gilliam, entre outros atrativos. Para quem não conhece, falando assim parece bem desinteressante ou mesmo sem graça, mas acredite: poucas coisas no mundo são mais engraçadas do que esses caras.

Não é uma comédia que todos possam gostar. É preciso muita atenção para perceber a crítica à sociedade em geral e às frescuras britânicas, e à maneira com a qual eles enxergam a vida, a morte e coisinhas relacionadas. Aqueles que gostam de besteirol, comédia escrachada e que gera muita vergonha alheia, passem longe do filme que, aliás, venceu o Grande Prêmio do Júri em Cannes. Infelizmente não se faz mais humor à moda Python, mesmo que praticamente todos os humoristas e grupos que vieram depois tenham se inspirado neles. E seus integrantes, bem… Cleese hoje em dia faz qualquer filme que caia em suas mãos, Chapman morreu, Palin tem um programa de viagem pelo mundo, Idle escreve teatro, Jones escreve livros sobre história e Gilliam é cineasta consagrado (sendo que antes do filme em si há um curta dirigido por ele, com a sua visão da vida, e que é muito divertido, por sinal) sendo o diretor do recente “O Imaginário do Doutor Parnassus“, último filme de Heath Ledger. Cada um tomou o seu rumo, como se vê. Mas a obra que fizeram juntos marcou para sempre a maneira de se fazer comédia, o humor nunca mais foi o mesmo depois deles.

*Hoje não mostro o trailer, mas um esquete retirado do segundo ato do filme, o musical “Every Sperm is Sacred”, para exemplificar o estilo do humor do filme; infelizmente não há legendas, mas ainda assim é muito bom. ;D

Thanks to a link by one of my Facebook contacts (U.S. music journalist Alan Light), I just found a great video of a Monty Python reunion which happened at New York City’s Ziegfeld Theatre a week ago (the action starts after about a minute).
[Update on November 22, 2009: Unfortunately, the video has been removed - but here's a reasonably Python visit with Regis and Kelly on the morning before the Ziegfeld show:]


Wenn der Clip nicht gelöscht worden wäre, hättet ihr das gesehen:

Lustig für deutschsprachige Zuschauer: Nach ca. 21 Minuten reden die Pythons kurz über zwei Folgen von “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”, die unter Federführung des damaligen Redakteurs Dr. Alfred Biolek für den Bayerischen Rundfunk auf Deutsch produziert wurden. Im Ziegfeld Theatre tauschen sie ein paar radegebrochene deutsche Redewendungen aus.

Mich erinnerte diese Passage an ein Interview, das ich irgendwann in den 80er Jahren im Londoner Monty-Python-Büro mit Terry Jones führte, dem Monty-Python-Mitstreiter, der bei den drei wichtigsten MP-Kinofilmen für die Regie verantwortlich zeichnete.

Er berichtete, dass keiner der Pythons Deutsch sprach. Bei der Aufzeichnung der beiden Münchner Folgen mussten sie die deutschen Dialoge in einer phonetisch aufgezeichneten Form ablesen. Terry Jones konnte sich noch sehr gut daran erinnern, dass eine der schwierigsten Herausforderungen das Wort “Ike-Horn-Ken” war (aka “Eichhörnchen”)

Im Monty-Python-Büro traf ich vor dem Gespräch mit Terry Jones kurz seinen Freund Douglas Adams (“The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”), der hinterher mit Terry noch durch die Stadt ziehen wollte.

Eine andere Erinnerung kann ich leider derzeit nicht verifizieren. Ich glaube damals in Londoner Plattenläden ein Monty-Python-Album gesehen zu haben, das wie “Another Monty Python Record” (1971) als Fake-Klassik-LP präsentiert wurde und bei dem als Insider-Gag Dr. Alfred Maria Biolek als Dirigent genannt wurde. Leider ist mir diese Platte seitdem nirgendwo mehr begegnet.

Im amerikanischen Rolling Stone erinnert sich übrigens John Cleese an die Wiedervereinigung von Monty Python:
John Cleese’s Towering Legacy

Eu mais uma vez deixei passar uma data, não é que a soubesse de cor, mas tem a importância de assinalar os 40 anos da genial e constantemente imitada série Flying Circus. Foi à 40 anos que o primeiro episódio deste hilariante série estreou na BBC. Um estilo humorístico que não é apreciado por todos. Completamente non-sense e silly em algumas cenas, humor negro e sarcástico, algo muito inglês , mas que por estes lados não é muito apreciado e confundido com mau gosto. Para mim, não fez nenhuma série a atingir aquele brilhantismo. Um humor intemporal, faz-me sempre rir, nunca se esgota a piada.

Eric Idle, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, os criadores do termo spam (termo adoptado agora na internet para designar as mensagens intrusivas), são capazes de fazer todo o tipo de humor, seja textual ou corporal, com é o exemplo acima do “ministry of silly walks”.

O famoso “the parrot sketch”.

São capazes de invocar escritores, pintores, eventos históricos, etc., e reflectir sobre eles com humor. Coisa que não se vê muito, foram mestres nisso. Ao mesmo tempo que eram hilariantes mostravam um grande nível intelectual, o que é óbvio, pois para fazer humor, é preciso ser-se inteligente.

Finalizo com um sketch particularmente genial, “Mrs. Premise and Mrs. Conclusion visit Jean Paul Sartre”.

Thank God it’s Python!

Argument Clinic

The Parrot Sketch

Silly Olympics

Job Interview

Ministry of Silly Walks

The Black Knight

The French Taunter

The Bridge of Death

Upper Class Twit of the Year

Bring Out Your Dead

Bonus track:

Spam, spam, spam, spam,your word here and spam

I love Monty Python. I know, I know, that’s an easy thing to say. I’m guessing most of the general public knows at least one skit or one punchline, even if they don’t know from whence it came. My problem is, I’m a bit of an obsessive fan. I can’t just watch one skit or one disc. Oh no, if I start I have to watch every. single. episode, plus Live at the Hollywood Bowl, their German episode and Graham Chapman’s “Looks Like a Brown Trouser Job” (hysterical!).

Then I have to watch every single movie. And not just the “official” Python movies, but movies like Jabberwocky, or A Fish Called Wanda, Yellowbeard, Time Bandits and did-you-hear-that-Gilliam-is-breathing-new-life-into-Don-Quixote?! I forced myself to watch Valiant, Shrek 2 and Shrek 3 just for Cleese’s voice. My mind goes all “explodey” when he shows up on Doctor Who!

Still. I’m not done. I have to watch all the extras, all the interviews, all the random things that are placed on the discs. After that I change things up and watch “At Last It’s the 1948 Show”, “The Frost Report” and Cleese’s films he made for … the word and phrase are escaping me now… for businesses, like training videos.

Then I mix it up and watch Fawlty Towers, Palin’s travel shows. Jones, among other things, has a really fun documentary about numbers on youtube.

Michael Palin’s book, “The Michael Palin Diaries” is about a month overdue at the library, but it is so good!

I also really enjoyed watching the backstory of Life of Brian…
(Which I can’t seem to embed but here’s the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDCAJTrF1gg)
which leads me to the original reason I got on this topic…

I had no idea there was a new Python documentary out!! I can’t believe I missed that one. Also seems like I missed a fun water fight. With luck I will be able to watch the documentary tonight and I am very excited. From the sound of the title, “Monty Python: Almost the Truth About the BBC Lawyers”, Palin wrote a bit about it in his diaries, but I cannot wait to learn more.

I know I’m frighteningly obsessive, but I also know I’m not alone in my obsessiveness and amazingly enough, thanks to wacko fans like me, some of the early episodes of MPFC would have been lost.

I want to start an argument

You’re either in or you’re out.

You either get it, or you don’t.

You can either recite the entire sketch by heart – hell, some entire movies by heart – or you can’t.

And if you’re in those latter camps, you’ll just never understand the clandestine language that Monty Python fans share. It’s like a secret handshake – overhear someone dropping a classic line about silly walks, or dead parrots, or Mary, Queen of Scots, and it’s an open invitation to join the conversation and be accepted all in one fell swoop. Skull and Bones never had anything this insidious, this lethal, this great. The Pythons might not have pioneered sketch comedy in Britain, but for reasons I (and they) can’t understand, they crossed The Big Pond and twisted our minds in a different way than Benny Hill or Peter Cook or even Peter Sellers could. What began as a cult is now an inseparable part of the American comedy fabric.

For the past 24 hours, you couldn’t turn on the TV without seeing some combination of John Cleese and Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam and Eric Idle hamming it up with newscasters, talk show hosts and…well, pretty much anyone who would have them. Michael Palin was traveling, but even the late Graham Chapman made an appearance (even though he had ceased to be…)

Why another British Invasion? It’s the fortieth anniversary of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and the surviving members of the troupe are here in the United States to accept an award and to revel in the six part series Almost The Truth (The Lawyer’s Cut). If you missed that ceremony tonight, click here. The six part documentary starts airing on IFC on October 18th.

Better yet? The series is available on DVD just nine days later(a link to my published review will follow in the coming days). This project is not yet another collection of broadcast clips, but a combination of recent interviews and archival footage that follows the troupe from inception to legend, featuring input from several of today’s leading comedic lights. I’s truly special.

So buckle up. And always look on the bright side of life.

Here’s a link to a poor soul who had his mind twisted. As for me…well, I’m a lumberjack and I’m O.K.

Happy 40th Year anniversary Monty Python and its Flying Circus!

“Time is an illusion. Lunchtime doubly so” – The Hitchhiker’s Guide To the Galaxy.

Time was always flexible in the hands of the late Douglas Adams. Well known for his intimate distrust of deadlines (“I love the whooshing noise they make as they fly by”, as he famously once said) and his spectacular bouts of writer’s block, he was thus an incorrigible procrastinator of the first order when it came to writing, and, on occasion, apparently had to be locked into a hotel room in order to complete the final draft of whichever novel he was writing at the time, only to be let out at intervals by his publisher for ’supervised’ walks in case he should try to make a run for it!

He was, however, also a complete and utter genius. And I’m not the only one who reckons so; not by a factor of at least 15 million worldwide – as wildly improbable as that may sound (and, after that, anything you still can’t cope with is therefore your own problem, as Trillian so wisely puts it). His books are held in great affection by people of all ages, all across the galaxy, and have now been translated into more than thirty languages (presumably not including Vogon, as they lack all sense of poetry).

The story of how this rather tall, very funny and, sadly, now equally late genius came to write the cult classic Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy novels, which celebrated their thirtieth anniversary on October 12th, is (unsurprisingly) equally unreliable time-wise. There are several versions of the moment inspiration struck, some which are more true than others. To a given value of true, of course.

The best (and least true) version of this creation myth tells of how the young Douglas had been hitching round Europe sometime in the early 1970s with the aid of a book entitled The Hitch-hiker’s Guide To Europe, which was only of limited help as his language skills weren’t up to much and he couldn’t make himself understood half the time.

Despite this, he managed to get roaringly drunk one night, and – just before he passed out in the middle of an Austrian field – he was suddenly inspired as he watched the stars coming out in the night sky. With classic drunken illogic, it occurred to him that someone ought to write a helpful hitch-hiker’s guide to the galaxy too, because, as he put it later, “then I, for one, would be off like a shot”.

Nice story – but not exactly true, according to his friends.

Whatever the real, actual truth of the matter, it can safely be concluded that the idea for what became The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy occurred to Douglas Adams at some point in the early 1970s, and that it was a slightly silly idea that he rather liked. He had, however, already been responsible for quite a bit of high-quality silliness well before the advent of the original Hitchhiker’s Guide radio series in 1978….

Born in the famous university city of Cambridge in 1952, Douglas Noel Adams (his initials of DNA eventually seemed quite apt, considering his later love of science and environmentalism) was, like many writers, a scribbler from an early age; contributing spoof reviews and more serious stuff to his school magazine as a boy. He applied and was accepted to read English at St John’s College, Cambridge – a choice made for decidedly un-academic and very pragmatic reasons.

Why? Because Douglas wanted to join Footlights, the infamous Cambridge student amateur theatrical company, which was (and still is) famed for producing large numbers of popular and successful actors, comedians, satirists and writers. Apart from Douglas, its alumni include an unfeasibly long list of well-known figures, such as Graham Chapman, Tim Brooke-Taylor, John Cleese, Peter Cook, David Frost, Stephen Fry, Germaine Greer, Eric Idle, Miriam Margolyes, Hugh Laurie, David Mitchell, Griff Rhys Jones, Emma Thompson, Bill Oddie and Sandi Toksvig.

And it was one of these Footlights luminaries who ‘discovered’ Douglas’s comic talents, not long after his graduation in 1974.

Having seen Douglas’s contributions to that year’s Footlights Revue, Graham Chapman of Monty Python fame was impressed enough to ask the young writer to collaborate with him, both on Python and non-Python material. The net result of this (Python geeks, pay attention), was that Douglas became the first and only non-Python ever to receive a writing credit on the show. He also made two fleeting appearances in the fourth series of Monty Python’s Flying Circus; all of which appears to have very much informed his humour and his writing style.

However, it was his next major project that was to change everything for him – and for fans of sci-fi and comedy everywhere.

Although Douglas didn’t know it at the time, the impact of this new project was going to be akin to the effects of drinking one too many Pan-Galactic Gargleblasters on a night out with Zaphod Beeblebrox (and both his heads). This new project was going to be more successful, and become even more legendary than his later stint as a script writer and editor on the BBC’s iconic sci-fi series, Dr Who. This new project was the original radio series of Hitchhicker’s Guide To The Galaxy, which was first broadcast in 1978. The popularity of this, and the subsequent second series, led to demands for a book, which obligingly appeared in October 1979; followed by four more at appropriate intervals (or five, if you count the posthumously published and incomplete novel The Salmon Of Doubt, which had yet to make up its mind whether it was to be a Hitchhiker’s sequel or a new Dirk Gently book).

This ‘trilogy in five parts’  (“a poor grasp of arithmatic”, is how Douglas explained away this strange bit of maths) soon had a loyal cult following, which increased in size with every passing year – and is still attracting new followers three decades on, as each generation discovers its comedy genius.

Hitchhiker’s rapidly became a distinctly multi-media phenomenon (long before this sort of approach was cynically picked up on and manipulated by modern marketing types); the original radio series eventually spawning said novels, plus a TV series, a computer game, a number of stage adaptations, several official towels (for hoopy froods only, of course), and – in 2005 – the long-awaited film, starring The Office’s Martin Freeman as Arthur Dent, and US hip-hop artist Mos Def as Arthur’s best friend, Ford Prefect.

So even Douglas’s death of a heart attack at the ridiculously young age of 49 seems not to have stopped the steady stream of sparkly new Hitchhiker’s goodies, with the latest in this multitude of hoopiness emerging only yesterday.

As part of the thirtieth anniversary celebrations, a brand-new Hitchhiker’s book has been published, written by Eoin Colfer, the Irish author of the hugely popular Artemis Fowl novels for teenagers. Colfer was given the job with the blessing of Douglas’s family, mainly, it seems, because the Adams’ daughter, Polly is an admirer of his books – although it is not going to be an easy job to satisfy all the long-time, passionate, and highly possessive Hitchhiker’s fans out there (like me – I’m making no comment until I’ve actually read the damn thing!).

Although Douglas had often spoken of wanting to write a sixth book in the trilogy, this is not a case of the relatively common literary practice of other writers completing an almost-finished work after its original author’s death – this is a brand, spanking new tale set in the Hitchhiker’s universe; and this time, it features the return of Arthur Dent’s snotty teenage daughter, Random, whose adventures appear to be an attempt to give the series the more upbeat ending its creator had wanted, according to reviews.

It seems that thirty years on from the first novel, and despite Douglas’s unfeasibly early death in 2001, this series of books are clearly as popular as ever. Which begs the question – why? What makes these books so infinitely readable and re-readable? What’s so special about a deeply silly space opera, full of really bad, geeky jokes in base 13, and with a cast list of an Everyman, a chronically depressed robot, several towels, two white mice and a selection of utterly ridiculous aliens who write bad poetry?

In my view, it is at least partially because most of the characters are comfortingly recognisable, almost archetypal – they are immediately identifiable as examples the different types of people we meet and interact with every day. Arthur is your classic, very English ‘man on the Clapham omnibus’, nondescript and ordinary. Ford is trying too hard to be something he’s not, a bit like many human teenagers. Marvin is that one whingy friend everyone has; the one who’s always complaining about something. Zaphod is that egocentric idiot posing down the gym who quite obviously fancies himself. The computer on the Heart of Gold is everyone’s mum – and the Vogons are everyone’s bullying, jobsworth bosses (the petty bureaucrats of the galaxy). I like the fact that even the aliens seem very human; a suggestion that we are all more alike than we may think. You’ll all have met at least one Vogon at some point, at least…

However, Douglas’s female characters suffer from being thoroughly two-dimensional and much less memorable than their male counterparts, which is my only major quibble about this most paradoxically sharp and funny of all comedies. Sure, it has its minor faults and a selection of oddities and strangenesses – for a start, it’s a comedy set in space rather than funny sci-fi, it’s very English and very middle class, the plotting is a bit weak in some of the later books, and every version of the story (radio, books, TV, film) is different, often in some significant ways. I’m also aware of people who consider it to be too smug for its own good, something which, at times, can’t be denied.

But the Hitchhiker’s trilogy is far better than that makes it sound. This is a series that quite clearly manages to be far, far more than the sum of its parts. It skewers life, the universe and everything with a sharp and silly wit, and is not afraid to confront the big issues like intergalactic politics and a sudden lack of dolphins – this is unashamedly part-comedy, part-satire and part-environmentalism. Conservation and environmentalism became crucial, central themes of the books; after all, this is a series that begins with the complete destruction of the Earth, blown to smithereens by an alien road-widening project.

For me, odd as it may sound to some, these are comfort books. I re-read the complete series once every couple of years or so, but the Hitchhiker’s trilogy are also books I can turn to when I need a familiar, funny and much-loved story to cocoon me in its silliness, when I need to escape from the stress and worry of the real world. For a few hours anyway.

Because that’s what the best stories can do.

And the story of Arthur Dent’s attempts to deal with the fact that his home and the Earth have been demolished to make way for a hyperspace bypass (and the fact that he can’t find a decent cup of tea in the whole of the galaxy) is one such good story. It’s a story of an ordinary man finding himself in extraordinary, yet strangely recognisable situations – with the exotic and the mundane placed side by side by Douglas’s overactive imagination. We can all sympathise and identify with Arthur’s bemusement, confusion and understandable sarcasm, all while simultaneously finding the gently familiar but frustrating comedy in his disgruntled and bewildering adventures through a life he just doesn’t recognise any more.

Which is a bit like living on Earth in the 21st century, really…

“In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitch-Hiker’s Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopaedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and secondly it has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover” – The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy.

Jeff Horwich riffs on the recent Letterman “scandal” with a brilliant, Pythonesque ditty.

Speaking of Monty Python, here’s a supremely scary thought: it’s the 40th anniversary of that program. Yikes! Make you seem ancient, or what? So feel free to share your favourite Python sketch in the comments (embed the video if you can). One of my faves is a somewhat obscure one called “Mr. Neutron” (“the most dangerous man in the universe”)…

Skip the last half of it which drags on a bit and just gets altogether too silly, but the opening sequence is wonderfully absurd and Chapman’s deadpan acting is absolutely hilarious.

On October 5 1969 BBC One first broadcast a quirky little show called “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.”

The title of my post and the above exerpt are taken from an online Life Magazine article.  There are some great photos in the piece, which of course Life is known for.  Here is one of my favorite bits, The Argument Sketch.  It’s from the Python’s 29th episode, which aired on November 2, 1972:

Today marks the 40th birthday of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.  Yesterday was the 20th anniversary Graham Chapman’s death.

It’s time for a Python Post.

I can’t say I’ve been a longtime fan of the Pythons.  I grew up a sheltered kid in rural America, and so never even heard of the Monty Python until I made it to college (just a few years after poor Graham Chapman left us).

But once there, I ran into a veritable army of geeks who seemed to speak a different language.  They’d been allowed to go off to Renaissance Fairs when they were teenagers (while I only heard about them on t.v.).  Heck, even my t.v. viewing was limited.  They’d gotten to watch t.v. shows like Mystery Science Theater 3000 (while my family was some of the last hold-outs against cable television).

But nothing made me more isolated than when they spoke this odd language of theirs.  High-pitched fake English accents yipping (sometimes drunkenly)  “We are the Knights Who Say Ni!  Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries.”

Then they’d laugh.

I’d found out over time that the lines were from Monty Python and The Holy Grail.  In college, I’d watched The Holy Grail along with its superior successor, The Life of Brian.  I liked The Life of Brian, but didn’t know what the fuss was about.  What was it that led people to be so devoted to this stuff that they memorized the lines?

I thought the Python fans were just a brood of geeky histrionics united by their broken sense of humor.

Fast forward to this past summer.  My husband bought a boxed set of the BBC’s Monty Python’s Flying Circus (1/2 off at our local bookstore).

This was what the big deal was all about.

When I watched Flying Circus, I realized that I was enjoying an absurdist’s banquet.  I don’t want to take anything away from the Pythons later work (much of which I’ve yet to sample, to be honest).  But I’ve found that Flying Circus remains, some 40 years after its debut, the smartest program on television (okay, on DVD on television, but well, you get the point).

Yes, a lot of the humor is lost on me, as an American.  Flying Circus was, at its heart, a satire of the BBC (circa late-60s).  Some of the references must sail over my head.  Yet at its heart, the show was, I think, about taking any sacred cow and exposing it to a high-IQ, low-brow, absurdist roast.

In the world of Flying Circus, Great historical figures abound (often playing soccer football against each other, or competing in game shows, or making odd appearances in courtrooms).  Bishops strut around their neighborhood turf like Mafia dons, surrounded by an entourage of Luca Brasi-esque Priests.  CIA agents have their brains transplanted into dogs to perfect their disguise. Dysfunctional families compete for the honor of being the nation’s “Most Awful” brood, judged by a celebrity panel that would have made “The Gong Show” proud. Pantomime horses face a “life or death struggle” due to an economic downturn.

Skits stop without punch lines.  The fourth wall comes down.  Characters and situations reoccur out of place in the narrative.  Segues between skits blur reality and take storytelling in the fractal direction.  All of this decades before deconstruction became all the rage.

Such was the genius of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

Which brings us to the late, great Graham Chapman.  Fans of Bizarro fiction should take note that it was Chapman’s influence that contributed the quality of high weirdness to much of Flying Circus. Chapman’s contribution to the writing of Python sketches was often to rev up the oddity to such a degree that it stopped being a change of degree and became a change of kind.

I consider Chapman a huge influence on the fiction I’ve begun to write as an author of Bizarro fiction, so I feel the need to give him the space he deserves.  Stay tuned for a Graham Chapman tribute in the next few days.

For more information on what the Pythons are up to these days, check out Python Online

“I’m invincible!”
“You’re a looney!”

From the 1975 movie Monty Python And The Holy Grail, King Arthur (Graham Chapman) teaches the Black Knight (John Cleese) that while bravery and tenacity are all well and good, you really should learn to quit before you are a head…

Monday 5th October 2009 will be the 40th birthday of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. In July 1969 humankind believed it was ushering in a new era when it witnessed the moon landings. What it was instead ushering in was a short-lived era of increasingly pointless strolls across a dusty satellite. What’s the point of playing golf up there if you’re not building the foundations of a colony? Bloody short-sightedness on NASA’s part, if you ask me, all style and no substance. If I had my way I’d kick them in the upper lip with a steel toe-cap…

…Which brings me back to Python. Three months after Neil Armstrong pranced like a transvestite lumberjack across the surface of the moon, the television show Monty Python’s Flying Circus really changed the world. The stream-of-consciousness formula gave a swift kick in the unmentionables to the stale sketch shows prevalent at the time, and made international stars of most of the Python team.

At the time I was a little too young to know what it was all about, or even to be allowed to watch. But I was formerly introduced to Monty Python through a record my brother owned: Matching Tie and Handkerchief. The cover showed what you would expect, given the name of the disc, but Gilliam’s front sleeve illustration could be pulled out from the cover itself, revealing that the snazzy tie and the handkerchief were actually attached to a blue-faced man hanging from the gallows. Macabre, oh so wrong, and extremely funny – exactly how I would describe the Python style of humour. People point to the slapstick element – the silly walks, the fish slapping dances – or to the surrealism of the lumberjack song and the parrot sketch. But what cannot be ignored, and what drew me in when I was seven or eight years old and unable to understand the socio-political aspect of their work, was the ridiculous offensiveness of the Pythons. Eric Idle is immensely proud of any sketches which still offend to this day, and he has every right to be as they were not allowed to utilise the bad language that most modern sitcoms and sketch shows routinely throw in rather than make thier material funny.

The genius of the Pythons was that they adapted their material to various media. Thus the records pushed the boundaries of sound recordings at the time, just as the TV show threw things at its audience that no programme had tried before. Similarly, their books were stuffed with excellently crafted nonsenses and parodies of the literary world. The films were delightfully postmodern before stuff-shirted academics had even begun to bandy the term around.

Matching Tie and Handkerchief’s genius lay not just in the sketches, silly voices and sound effects, but was apparent in the grooves of the disc itself. In olden times, of course, vinyl records had single grooves on either side, into which the sound recording had been imprinted. One side of Matching Tie and Handkerchief, however, had been cut with two grooves each containing different sketches, so that when you put it on, you were never entirely sure which material you would hear. So simple yet utterly fascinating.

I am not going to go through favourite sketches or even snippets – think of your own. Or, if you have never listened to or seen any Monty Python, for heaven’s sake go out and find some. I guarantee you that an hour spent in the company of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam will change your perspective on comedy entirely, and will probably make you see that most of today’s tired sketch shows and dreary sitcoms are an insult to the intelligence of the audience.

It was never just about favourite sketches for me, it was about becoming immersed into an entirely different world, one in which the customs and moral codes of an often still too pompous Britain are debunked, debagged, and hopefully destabilised. Once I’d been hooked by Matching Tie and Handkerchief I used to sneak down the stairs at nine o’clock once a week to watch BBC2 reruns of the television series through a crack in the sitting room door. If I was really lucky I was allowed to sit in with the rest of the family, but only if I made it clear that of course I did not understand a word of the innuendo or any of the two or three uses of ‘adult language’ they were permitted per series.

In a way, then, I grew up with Python. My father took my brother and I to see Monty Python and The Holy Grail at the cinema, possibly lying about my age to get me in. I bought records of my own – Live at Drury Lane stands out. I watched The Life of Brian three times at the local Odeon and remember sitting around at a friend’s house with the script and several of us acting out all the parts. I always wanted to read the Michael Palin parts, he was my favourite Python, and still is. I was slightly disappointed by The Meaning of Life when it came out, but some of it was gloriously dark and savage, and the rest has grown on me with time. I cried manly tears when Graham Chapman died, not just because he was possibly the most genuinely insane of the six of them, but because it meant that there would be no more Python: just like McCartney, Harrison and Starr working on Lennon’s demo of ‘Free as a Bird’, and releasing it as a Beatle’s song, anything that came after would be akin to the remaining Pythons shagging the corpse of their departed friend. Had they tried, I like to imagine Chapman would have appeared before them, dressed in his Colonel’s uniform, shouting ‘Stop that, it’s NOT silly.’

This is, of course, something of a love letter to Monty Python. Without them I might have taken the world rather more seriously, might have failed to notice the contradictions and inanities inherent to British culture. I am eternally grateful to these six wonderfully madcap men for ensuring that my life would never steer me towards the pinstripe suit and the bowler hat. Happy birthday, Python. Cue Terry Jones playing a Hammond Organ naked with his buttocks flopping disgustingly over the sides of the stool.

The remaining Pythons gather to receive a special BAFTA in October 2009

Esattamente 20 anni fa, il 4 ottobre 1989 moriva Graham Chapman, uno dei membri del gruppo inglese Monty Python – il più straordinario esempio di british humor “di gruppo” mai realizzato. Serie televisive e poi film, persino premiati a Cannes, ne decretarono il successo planetario. Anche in Italia dove furono penalizzati dalla bizzarra idea di doppiare le loro gag con fortissime inflessioni dialettali.

Piuttosto che mettere uno dei moltissimi video di sue  gags che si trovano in rete, ho pensato di inserire la breve sintesi dell’orazione funebre tenuta “live on BBC” nel dicembre del 1989. Nell’apparente contraddizione del ridere a crepapelle nel ricordo dell’amico morto è tutta la staordinarietà del “britsh sense of humor” in cui non esistono tabù od argomenti intoccabili come la morte, essendo il buon gusto (che uno ha o non ha) il solo discriminante.

Io, ad essere sincero, tutte quelle risate post mortem – un pochino – gliele invidio.

Arrr! Damn ye, yellow-bellied sapsuckers, I’m a better man than all of ye milksops put together.

Tyrone Power em O Cisne Negro (The Black Swan, Henry King, 1942)

Burt Lancaster em O Pirata Sangrento (The Crimson Pirate, Robert Siodmak, 1952)

Matthew Modine & Geena Davis em A Ilha da Garganta Cortada (Cutthroat Island, Renny Harlin, 1995)

Sean Flynn em O Filho do Capitão Blood (Il figlio del capitano Blood, Tulio Demicheli, 1962)

Jason Isaacs & Richard Briers em Peter Pan (P.J. Hogan, 2003)

Steve Reeves em O Rei dos Piratas (Morgan il Pirata, André De Toth/Primo Zeglio, 1960)

John Matuszak em Goonies (Richard Donner, 1985)

Errol Flynn & Basil Rathbone em Capitão Blood (Captain Blood, Michael Curtiz, 1935)

Graham Chapman em O Pirata da Barba Amarela (Yellowbeard, Mel Damski, 1983)

Robert Newton em Barba Negra, O Pirata (Blackbeard - The Pirate, Raoul Walsh, 1952)

Lisa Gastoni em Le Avventure di Mary Read (Umberto Lenzi, 1961)

Douglas Fairbanks em O Pirata Negro (The Black Pirate, Albert Parker, 1926)

Johnny Depp em Piratas do Caribe (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Gore Verbinski, 2003)

Kabir Bedi em Corsário Negro (Il Corsaro Nero, Sergio Sollima, 1976)

Gene Kelly em O Pirata (The Pirate, Vincente Minnelli, 1948)

Rod Taylor em O Pirata Real (Il Dominatore dei Sette Mari, Rudolph Maté/Primo Zeglio, 1962)

Anthony Michael Hall em Piratas da Informática/Piratas do Vale do Silício (Pirates of Silicon Valley, 1999)

Oops! Estilo errado.

Hoje é dia para graças.

Do funeral de Graham Chapman (Monty Python).

(Tiago, obrigado pelo envio.)

Todas las temporadas, todos los sketches. La serie de televisión más importante del humor británico en una sola colección de 16 dvds.

The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus, 16 discos, $37.000.-

John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin y Terry Gilliam, una tropa de actores que definió las características del humor británico e influenciaron a generaciones alrededor del mundo durante décadas. Desde el sketch del loro muerto a la performance que redefinió la palabra SPAM, la inquisición española y la cancion del leñador, absolutamente todo está en esta colección imperdible. Incluye presentaciones en vivo, un episodio completamente en aleman y la celebración de los 20 años de Monty Python.

Realmente una joya, por un precio increíble. Y junto a ella, puedes adquirir “The Monty Python’s Holy Trinity” el box set que incluye en formato digital las tres películas que convirtieron a Monty Python una compañía de culto.

Monty Python's Holy Trinity, Box Set, $29.000.-

6 discos, 3 películas y mucho material extra. “The Life of Brian” , “The Holy Grail” y “The Meaning of Life” tres películas extraordinarias en un box set de lujo.

Aprovecha esta oportunidad para tener todo Monty Pyhton en tu poder. Consulta por rebajas y facilidades de pago a kthulu.store@gmail.com

Y si aun no sabes quienes son, Kthulu Inc. te los presenta…

Cheers!