Monty Python’s 40th Birthday

By John Farrier in Everything Else on Oct 5, 2009 at 11:24 am


(YouTube Link)

Monty Python’s Flying Circus debuted 40 years ago today. Marc Lee writes in The Daily Telegraph about the origins and development of the troupe:

Four decades on, the image of John Cleese’s increasingly hysterical pet-shop customer — pacamac buttoned up, hair plastered down, vowels strangulated — remains one of the most memorable in television history. No other comedy series has seared itself into the national consciousness quite like Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

And, if the sketches were ever to be placed in order of popularity, Cleese’s confrontation with the chirpily evasive Michael Palin — the shopkeeper who simply will not admit that the inert “Norwegian blue” is dead — would undoubtedly come top. Indeed, when Channel 4 counted down the 50 greatest comedy moments, the “Dead Parrot” sketch perched at number two, just below the, frankly, far inferior “Lou and Andy at the swimming pool” sketch from Little Britain.

The video above is of the classic sketch “Argument Clinic” — my favorite. What’s your favorite Monty Python sketch?

Link via Megan McArdle | Official Site | History of Monty Python | YouTube Channel


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  1. Edward
    Oct 5th, 2009 at 11:48 am

    Besides being the best Monty Python sketch, only “Who’s on First” surpasses it on the all time list. (Well, my all time list, anyway.)

  3. sybann
    Oct 5th, 2009 at 12:35 pm

    “Oh dear, the radio’s exploded…

    Well, see what’s on the television then.

    It looks like a penguin.”

  4. mishelley
    Oct 5th, 2009 at 12:59 pm

    “Shut up! Bloody Vikings! You can’t have egg bacon spam and sausage without the spam.”

  5. Johnny Cat
    Oct 5th, 2009 at 12:59 pm

    As far as sketches go, my favorite has to be Upper Class Twit of the Year.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqObJtGrKaA

  6. Maarten Max
    Oct 5th, 2009 at 1:02 pm

    The Hitler in England one,
    still get to me everytime i see it. XD

  7. Bonnie L.
    Oct 5th, 2009 at 1:18 pm

    I’ve always love the barbershop sketch that dissolves into the lumberjack song.

  9. myleti
    Oct 5th, 2009 at 1:30 pm

    My favorite one is actually one that they didn’t do on the show. The History of Jape is definitely on my list. The Penguin on the Telly, Lumberjack song, Gumby Brain Surgery ["no no, the brain in my head!"], Anne Elk, brackets miss brackets.

    :D

  10. Pas Richard martineau
    Oct 5th, 2009 at 2:47 pm

    Youtube is barred from work so I cant link, but

    the Merchant banker
    ( search it!)
    is my favorite python sketch…
    It cracks me up all the time!

  11. Godwal
    Oct 5th, 2009 at 3:01 pm

    Not much of a cheese shop, is it?

  12. tripleX
    Oct 5th, 2009 at 3:08 pm

    Don’t forget Terry Gilliams animations. They always make me laugh.
    And the Fish Slapping Sketch. Gets funnier every time you watch it.
    Ministry of Silly Walks, just thinking about it makes me laugh.

  13. dutchboy
    Oct 5th, 2009 at 4:41 pm

    Those are all mighty great Monty Python sketches but I think you are all forgetting the “2 old ladies snooping” one.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO3iUYnQeSE

  14. Robert
    Oct 5th, 2009 at 7:32 pm

    i always like the sick ones too..the undertaker sketch..”you’re not suggesting we eat my mum?”and the sam peckinpaw parody “salad days” where someone has been impaled by piano keys and he in turn decapitates someone…

  15. whitcwa
    Oct 5th, 2009 at 8:08 pm

    The one where they top each other with stories of how poor they were growing up. “we got evicted from our hole in the ground”

  16. thesledgehammer
    Oct 5th, 2009 at 8:50 pm

    Mine would have to be either Crunchy Frog or Upper-Class Twit of the Year.

  17. Tim Giachetti
    Oct 6th, 2009 at 7:24 am

    Lumberjack song! FTW!!!

  18. GernBlandston2
    Oct 6th, 2009 at 11:35 am

    What is the sketch that has the line:
    I think that all right thinking people are sick and tired with being told that ordinary decent people are fed up with being told that they’re sick and tired.

    It was a kitchen scene with a talk radio thing going on

  19. Foreigner1
    Oct 6th, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    I go with the Fish Slapping Dance, closely followed by The Knights Who Say IeckeTePangZoooooo-Pong.

  20. peach
    Oct 6th, 2009 at 7:27 pm

    Cheese Shop Definitely!

  21. Dude
    Oct 8th, 2009 at 12:39 am

    One of the first things I asked my wife when I first met her, upon finding out that she was from Venezuela, was if there was in fact such a thing as Venezuelan beaver cheese. She had no idea what I was talking about seeing that 1) there is no such thing and 2) she’s not a Monty Python fan. Married her anyway.

    Monty Python’s humour isn’t lost on the newest generation. My twelve-year-old son loves it.


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