Monty Python's Flying Circus
While all of the Pythons excel at comic acting, Michael Palin was regarded by the other members of the troupe as the one with the widest range, equally adept as a straight man or wildly over the top character. He portrayed many working-class northerners, often portrayed in a disgusting light (see “The Funniest Joke in the World” sketch, or the “Every Sperm Is Sacred” segment of Monty Python's The Meaning of Life). On the one hand, he played weak-willed, put-upon men such as the husband in the Marriage Guidance Counsellor sketch, or the boring accountant in the “Lion Tamer” sketch. However, he was equally at home as the indefatigable Cardinal Ximinez of Spain in The Spanish Inquisition sketch. Another high-energy character that Palin portrays is the slick TV show host, constantly smacking his lips together and generally being over-enthusiastic (see the “Blackmail sketch") but with an underlying hint of self-revulsion (as when, in one sketch, he wipes his oily palms on his jacket, makes a disgusted face, and then continues). One of his most famous creations was the shopkeeper who attempts to sell useless goods by very weak attempts at being sly and crafty, which are invariably spotted by the customer (often played by Cleese) because the defects in the products are inherently obvious (see the “Dead Parrot”, the “Cheese Shop"); his spivvy club owner, Luigi Vercotti, in the “Piranha Brothers” and “Army Protection Racket” is another classic variant on this type. Palin is also well known for his leading role in the The Lumberjack Song. He also often plays foreigners (mostly French (as in "La marche futile") or German ("Hitler in Minehead")), mostly along with Cleese, who, of course, have a very heavy accent when speaking English. In one of the last episodes, he even delivers a full speech, first in English, then in French, then in German (sadly with an even heavier accent). Palin is the Python who surely played the fewest female roles. This is perhaps due to the fact that Palin in drag was a rather convincing woman (Among his most convincing portrayals of women are: the queen in the Michael Ellis Episode, Debbie Katzenberg the American in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life or as an idiot's wife in the Idiot in rural society sketch)
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Most famous sketches
The troupe’s best-known sketches[citation needed] include:
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The ‘lost’ sketches
John Cleese was reportedly unhappy with the use of scatological humour in Python sketches. The final episode of the third series of the show included a sketch called ‘Wee-Wee Wine Tasting’, which was censored following the BBC's and Cleese’s objections. The sketch involves a man taking a tour of a wine cellar where he samples many of the wine bottles' contents, which are actually urine. Also pulled out along with the ‘Wee-Wee’ sketch (for reasons unknown) was a sketch where Cleese had hired a sculptor to carve a statue of him. The sculptor (Chapman) had made an uncanny likeness of Cleese, except for that his nose was extremely long, almost Pinocchio size. The only clue that this sketch was cut out of the episode was in the “Sherry-Drinking Vicar” sketch, where, towards the back of the room, a bust with an enormously long nose sits. It is unlikely that these sketches will be released on DVD or broadcast on television, although copies of the script for these sketches can usually be found on the Internet. And, there are clues as to what was deleted in the episode. For example, the clue for the 'Wee-Wee' sketch is when Michael Palin is seen popping his head out of a barrel and spitting out liquid. The clue for the 'Revolting Cocktails' sketch was a strange animation link by Terry Gilliam in where forest animals (and a nude man) were slaughtered and made into a Safari Snowball.
Some material originally recorded went missing later, mostly because of censorship. Sometimes it was just part of a sketch, such as the use of the word “masturbating” in the Summarize Proust sketch or “What a silly bunt” in the Travel Agent sketch, first muted, later cut out entirely.
Some sketches were deleted in their entirety and were only recently recovered. One such sketch is the Political Choreographer Sketch, wherein a Conservative Party spokesman (Cleese) delivers a party political broadcast before getting up and dancing, being coached by a choreographer (Idle), and being joined by a chorus of spokesmen dancing behind him. The camera passes two Labour Party spokesmen practicing ballet, and an animation featuring Edward Heath in a tutu. Once deemed lost, a tape of this sketch, broadcast from a Buffalo, NY TV station, has turned up and can be seen on YouTube.
Another is the "Satan" animation following the "Cartoon Religion" piece and preceding to "How Not To Be Seen," which had been edited out of the official tape. A single frame of the animation can be seen at the end of the episode, wherein that particular episode is repeated in fastforward. A B&W 16mm film print has turned up showing the animation in its entirety, and can also be seen online.
At least two references to cancer were censored, both during the second season. In the sixth episode (It's A Living or School Prizes), Carol Cleveland's narration of a Gilliam cartoon suddenly has a male voice dub "gangrene" over the word cancer (although the word "cancer" was used and unedited when the animation appeared in the movie And Now for Something Completely Different. Another reference was removed from the Conquistador Coffee Campaign sketch in the second season's eleventh episode How Not to Be Seen.
A restored Region 2 DVD release of Season 1 was released on 16 April 2007, with no additional features.
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Stage incarnations
At several stages during and after the television series, the members of Monty Python embarked on a series of stage shows. These mostly consisted of sketches from the series, but also included other famous sketches such as the Four Yorkshiremen sketch, which subsequently became part of the Python repertoire. The shows also included songs from collaborator Neil Innes.
Recordings of three of these stage shows have subsequently appeared as separate works:
- Monty Python Live at Drury Lane (aka Monty Python Live at the Royal Theatre, Drury Lane), released as their fifth album in 1974
- Monty Python Live at City Center, released in 1976
- Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl, which is the most famous one, released as a film in 1982.
In 2005 a troupe of actors headed by Rémy Renoux, translated and 'adapted' a stage version of Monty Python’s Flying Circus into French. Usually the original actors defend their material very closely, but given in this case the 'adaptation' and also the translation into French (with subtitles), the gang supported this production. The adapted material sticks reasonably close to the original text, mainly deviating when it comes to ending a sketch, something the Python members themselves changed many times over the course of their stage performances. Language differences also (understandably) occur in the lyrics of several songs. For example, ‘sit on my face’ (which, translated into french would be “Asseyez-vous sur mon visage") becomes 'come in my mouth'. Reviews: BBC Online News The Times Online
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The Landing of The Flying Circus
John Cleese left the show after the third series, so he did not appear in the final six episodes that made up series four (other than a brief voice-over for one of Gilliam's animations in episode 41 "Michael Ellis"), although he did receive writing credits where applicable (for sketches derived from the writing sessions for Holy Grail). Neil Innes and Douglas Adams are notable as the only two non-Pythons to get writing credits in the show — Innes for songs in episodes 40, 42 and 45 (and for contributing to a sketch in episode 45), and Adams for contributing to a sketch about a doctor whose patients are stabbed by his nurse, in episode 45. Innes frequently appeared in the Pythons' stage shows and can also be seen in Monty Python and the Holy Grail and (briefly) in Life of Brian. Adams had become friends with Graham Chapman, where they later went to write the failed sketch show pilot Out of the Trees.
Two episodes were produced in German for WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk) — both were titled Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus (the literal German translation of the English title). The first episode, advertised as Monty Python’s Fliegender Zirkus: Blödeln für Deutschland, was produced in 1971, and performed in German. The second episode, advertised as Monty Python’s Fliegender Zirkus: Blödeln auf die feine englische Art, produced in 1972, was recorded in English and later dubbed in German. The original English recording was transmitted by the BBC in October 1973.
Although Cleese stayed for the third series, he claimed that he and Chapman only wrote two original sketches (“Dennis Moore” and “Cheese Shop"), whereas everything else derived from previous material. Nevertheless, the series still contains plenty of memorable sketches. Either the third series, or the fourth series, made without Cleese, are often seen as the weakest and most uneven of the four series, by both fans and the Pythons themselves. However, with the fourth series the Pythons started making episodes into more coherent stories which would be a precursor to their films, and featured Terry Gilliam more.
The final episode of Series 4 was recorded on 16 November 1974 and broadcast on 5 December. That same year, Devillier-Donegan Enterprises syndicated the series in the United States of America among PBS stations, and the show premiered on KERA-TV in Dallas, Texas. It was an instant hit, rapidly garnering an enormous loyal cult following nationwide that surprised even the Pythons themselves, who did not believe that their humour was exportable without being tailored specifically for the North American market.
When several episodes were broadcast by ABC in their “Wide World of Entertainment” slot in 1975 the episodes were re-edited, thus losing the continuity and flow intended in the originals. When ABC refused to stop treating the series in this way, the Pythons took them to court. Initially the court ruled that their artistic rights had indeed been violated, but it refused to stop the ABC broadcasts. However, on appeal the team gained control over all subsequent US broadcasts of its programmes. The case also led to them gaining the rights from the BBC once their original contracts ended at the end of 1980 (a unique arrangement at the time).
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The legacy lives on
- Despite the end of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the Pythons have produced a number of other stage and screen productions together. See Monty Python for a comprehensive list.
- In a list of the 100 Greatest British Television Programmes drawn up by the British Film Institute in 2000, voted for by industry professionals, Monty Python’s Flying Circus was placed fifth.
- In April 2006, MPFC returned to non-cable American television on PBS. To celebrate, PBS brought the group together to take part in Monty Python's Personal Best, a six-episode series featuring each Python’s favorite sketches.
- In a list of the 50 Greatest British Sketches released by Channel 4 in 2005[3], five Monty Python sketches made the list:
- #2 – Dead Parrot
- #12 – The Spanish Inquisition
- #15 – Ministry of Silly Walks
- #31 – Nudge Nudge
- #49 – The Lumberjack Song
Dead Parrot is the number 1 sketch in http://www.nerve.com/dispatches/nerveeditors/50GreatestComedySketches/05/
The Four Yorkshiremen sketch also made the list, at number 46. Though the sketch originated on At Last the 1948 Show, the Pythons have been known to use the sketch during live shows.
- In computing, the terms spam and the Python programming language [2] are both derived from the series.
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Episodes
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See also
- Monty Python
- How to Irritate People
- Q5
- Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus (The German episodes)
- Blancmange (Monty Python TV)
- Tarquin Fin-tim-lin-bin-whin-bim-lim-bus-stop-F'tang-F'tang-Olé-Biscuitbarrel
- At Last the 1948 Show
- Do Not Adjust Your Set
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Further reading
- Landy, Marcia (2005). Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3103-3.
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Footnotes
- ^ The term flying circus first being applied to Baron von Richthofen's Jagdgeschwader 1
- ^ Took: Comedy with a twist
- ^ Channel 4’s 50 Greatest Comedy Sketches
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External links
- The Official Monty Python website
- Monty Python’s Flying Circus at the Internet Movie Database
- Museum of Broadcast Television
- British Film Institute Screen Online
- “Monty Python’s Flying Circus" – Nostalgia Central
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