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Rewatching Monty Python's Flying Circus

Started by Sydward Lartle, April 25, 2017, 08:45:11 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

McChesney Duntz

Isn't it?  Had to hunt that down a little - the uploader unlisted it, but kept it up, which is more than can be said for the other studio rushes that used to be up on YT (none quite as delightful as this, but still, fucking Python studio rushes...)

One quibble with the OP:

QuoteThe Epilogue wrestling match would have worked better at half the length, get in, do the gag, move on, but as it was they killed it through overexposure

Now see, that's pretty much what they did, though, don't you think?  I mean, it's practically over as soon as it's begun, at almost exactly the length the idea warranted.  (Another interesting thing about that episode - French person aside, Cleese is almost ridiculously subdued throughout.  Even his VO in the titles is barely more than a murmur.)

Catalogue Trousers

That flying sheep rehearsal is brilliant. Palin corpsing is a pure joy.

Serge

I do seem to remember that it's only about halfway through the first series that Python really clicks and you suddenly see their confidence paying off. There is some great stuff before that, but it still feels like a transition from the more traditional sketch shows that had come before to Python as we remember it. There was talk of doing a CaB rewatch of Python on here at one point, which I'd certainly be up for if anyone else was interested?

Sydward Lartle

Since a certain other poster on here[nb]The one who keeps linking to an old news article which makes the bold, staggering and unpredictable claim that Spike Milligan was an unpleasant cove and - gasp! - not very funny, when he's not writing obituaries for a failing broadsheet[/nb] and at least one of his mates have made it abundantly clear that I'm not welcome on this forum, and reporting him to the moderator hasn't done a fart of good, looks like you'll have to do the rewatch without me.

Cheers you lot, it's been real.

^^^ Comedy Chat is about to get a lot less lively again.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Less threads about comedy shows from 40+ years ago, repetitions of well- worn themes and memories of miserable childhood holidays in shit Summer Holiday Camps? I think the forum will survive such a lack of liveliness.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Spike Milligan was unfunny an awful lot more times than he was funny, BTW, and he *did* come out with an awful lot of Thick Paddy/ Comedy p**i shit, while sniggering/ faux- corpsing at his comedy genius.

Kane Jones

Quote from: Sydward Lartle on April 26, 2017, 11:14:24 AM
Since a certain other poster on here[nb]The one who keeps linking to an old news article which makes the bold, staggering and unpredictable claim that Spike Milligan was an unpleasant cove and - gasp! - not very funny, when he's not writing obituaries for a failing broadsheet[/nb] and at least one of his mates have made it abundantly clear that I'm not welcome on this forum, and reporting him to the moderator hasn't done a fart of good, looks like you'll have to do the rewatch without me.

Cheers you lot, it's been real.

No, please don't do this. I'd say 95% of the posters here have welcomed your return.

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on April 26, 2017, 11:36:27 AM
Less threads about comedy shows from 40+ years ago, repetitions of well- worn themes and memories of miserable childhood holidays in shit Summer Holiday Camps? I think the forum will survive such a lack of liveliness.

Shush you.

Jake Thingray

If he could have been prised away from decades-old comedy, his views on the upcoming General Election might have been interesting.

Sydward Lartle

Here's a PM Jake Thingray sent me when I was a member of this board back in 2013. I haven't kept any of his more recent obnoxious messages, but I think this one tells you everything...

Oh, just kill yourself. No-one will miss you. Jem Roberts (and Louis Barfe and, in a lesser way, myself) actually get commissions to write about what they know about, because they're able to write to order and take others' views into account; you just spew out any old rubbish off the top of your head (increasingly, stuff you've posted before, on your blogs that nobody reads) and expect people to call you a genius. If you can't accept that not everyone shares your views on everything, and moderate what you have to say accordingly, you'll remain on benefits and your only outlet will be being tolerated by people who despise you, as on here.
And the Goodies is dreadful.


How can you even begin to reason with someone like that?
I've reported him to the moderator and sent Barry Admin a PM; nothing has worked. So I think it's best that I leave. It's horrible that I've effectively been bullied off the board again - by a filler writer for a failing broadsheet - but he's the one keeping this vendetta alive, not me. All I want is a quiet life. Be warned though, Gavin, if you continue to shadow my internet presence, or if I receive any more unwanted mail at my home address, or indeed anonymous e-mails from people gloating over my past misfortunes, you are very high on the list of suspects and will be dealt with accordingly.

For the record, since this latest saga began, I have received several PMs from people saying 'welcome back', 'please don't go' and 'ignore the naysayers', yet once again, I find myself forced out by one single person with a burning grudge. I thought I might be safe this time now that the usual bunch of cackling opportunistic hyenas are no longer around, but it seems not to be the case.

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

Quote from: Jake Thingray on April 26, 2017, 12:23:59 PM
If he could have been prised away from decades-old comedy, his views on the upcoming General Election might have been interesting.

Seems a bit rich of you to be criticising someone for dwelling on the past.

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

Spare us the self-pity, Sydward ; at least one poster has left this board because of you ( the highly amusing Jemble Fred, whom you continued to taunt on Facebook for a while ).

Kane Jones

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on April 26, 2017, 01:04:07 PM
Spare us the self-pity, Sydward ; at least one poster has left this board because of you ( the highly amusing Jemble Fred, whom you continued to taunt on Facebook for a while ).

If memory serves, I would actually say it was more Biggy who drove Jemble away.

Sydward Lartle

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on April 26, 2017, 11:42:27 AM
Spike Milligan was unfunny an awful lot more times than he was funny

Sorry, not having that.

Where Does It Hurt?

The Irish Noughts and Crosses Championship

Laugh at a Cretin

Idiot Scout Troop

Toupee Epidemic

Musical sandwich

The Cock-A-Knees

Some sketches picked at random. All funny. All of them.

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on April 26, 2017, 01:04:07 PM
The highly amusing Jemble Fred

Ah yes, another fuckwitted so-called 'comedy expert' who described Spike Milligan as 'dreadful', 'deadly dull' and 'excruciatingly unfunny'. Have you seen any of Jem Roberts' stage performances? I saw his Rutles medley and found it so acutely embarrassing, I needed to deploy an industrial strength toe-uncurler afterwards.

Quote from: Kane Jones on April 26, 2017, 01:15:47 PM
I would actually say it was more Biggy who drove Jemble away.

Now! So!

Replies From View

Quote from: Kane Jones on April 26, 2017, 11:46:15 AM
No, please don't do this. I'd say 95% of the posters here have welcomed your return.

Seconded.

Sydward Lartle

Since we're on the subject, I'd say Milligan was also a consistently interesting and frequently hilarious author. Every volume of his war memoirs is a treasure trove - I still get an involuntary fit of the giggles when I remember his description of one of his army colleagues as having 'a face like an unflushed toilet', or someone who was so accident prone that cutting his toenails could easily result in an amputated limb. Puckoon and the Looney are both incredible pieces of comic writing that keep the laughs coming thick and fast, and his serious poetry - far from being 'sentimental' (and if someone can't be sentimental when writing about their own children, when can they be sentimental?) - is frequently haunting.

As for his racism and sexism, I find his occasional use of a buxom glamour stooge, bit of blackface or comedy 'Oirish' / Pakistani accent a hell of a lot less offensive than people like Stewart Lee droning on about the gaping anus of Christ or whatever hobby horse the flat-faced shit-haired twat's on this week, Chris Morris inviting us to sneer at the idiots in the media for actually daring to give a shit about children being raped and abused, or any one of a number of pandering hacks doing 'ironic' material about 'spazzies'.

Quote from: Sydward Lartle on April 26, 2017, 01:29:08 PM
As for his racism and sexism, I find his occasional use of a buxom glamour stooge, bit of blackface or comedy 'Oirish' / Pakistani accent a hell of a lot less offensive than people like Stewart Lee droning on about the gaping anus of Christ or whatever hobby horse the flat-faced shit-haired twat's on this week, Chris Morris inviting us to sneer at the idiots in the media for actually daring to give a shit about children being raped and abused, or any one of a number of pandering hacks doing 'ironic' material about 'spazzies'.

Re the Stewart Lee part of your comment: that's the first I've heard of you having religious sensibilities.


Sydward Lartle

Quote from: Phoenix Lazarus on April 26, 2017, 01:33:18 PM
Re the Stewart Lee part of your comment: that's the first I've heard of you having religious sensibilities.

I don't have any religious sensibilities, I just think he's a deeply smug and entirely misguided arsehole peddling supposedly 'brave' and 'daring' pabulum to an insular audience of self-absorbed narcissists.

Same deal with the 'front row seats for a Sadowitz concert' arseholes. Allow me to insert a quote from seven years back (something Gavin is fond of doing)...

Quote from: thepuffpastryhangman on July 31, 2010, 08:28:57 PM
The search for titilation is pathetic 'oh, I'm gonna see Sadowitz, he's soooo offensive, but I can take it' like some mass wank o'er a snuff movie. He's just giving people what they expect in the same way Jack Whitehall or Michael McIntyre is, 'cept it's nasty.

That post serves as a chilling reminder of how long Jack Whitehall has been on television now.

Jake Thingray

Quote from: Sydward Lartle on April 26, 2017, 12:53:13 PM
Here's a PM Jake Thingray sent me when I was a member of this board back in 2013. I haven't kept any of his more recent obnoxious messages, but I think this one tells you everything...

Oh, just kill yourself. No-one will miss you. Jem Roberts (and Louis Barfe and, in a lesser way, myself) actually get commissions to write about what they know about, because they're able to write to order and take others' views into account; you just spew out any old rubbish off the top of your head (increasingly, stuff you've posted before, on your blogs that nobody reads) and expect people to call you a genius. If you can't accept that not everyone shares your views on everything, and moderate what you have to say accordingly, you'll remain on benefits and your only outlet will be being tolerated by people who despise you, as on here.
And the Goodies is dreadful.


How can you even begin to reason with someone like that?
I've reported him to the moderator and sent Barry Admin a PM; nothing has worked. So I think it's best that I leave. It's horrible that I've effectively been bullied off the board again - by a filler writer for a failing broadsheet - but he's the one keeping this vendetta alive, not me. All I want is a quiet life. Be warned though, Gavin, if you continue to shadow my internet presence, or if I receive any more unwanted mail at my home address, or indeed anonymous e-mails from people gloating over my past misfortunes, you are very high on the list of suspects and will be dealt with accordingly.

For the record, since this latest saga began, I have received several PMs from people saying 'welcome back', 'please don't go' and 'ignore the naysayers', yet once again, I find myself forced out by one single person with a burning grudge. I thought I might be safe this time now that the usual bunch of cackling opportunistic hyenas are no longer around, but it seems not to be the case.

I neither know nor care what your home or email address is, and have never contacted you at either. If you feel like calling in any sort of authority to disprove this, I'm perfectly happy for you to. It's more your sort of thing, really. Better be a writing for a "failing broadsheet" then publicly exposed as a right-wing troll by one such paper, in your one and only moment of national recognition. And as for going on about "pandering hacks doing 'ironic' material about 'spazzies'"-- good grief, you do realise The Mary Whitehouse Experience was over a quarter of a century ago, and David Baddiel is hardly at the forefront of present-day stand-up comedy?

A word of advice -- start liking Ken Dodd. The older comedy audience you seek to connect with love him, more so than Milligan in fact (they tend to prefer the Goons as a whole to Milligan in particular).

Jake Thingray

Quote from: Sexton Brackets Drugbust on April 26, 2017, 12:53:59 PM
Seems a bit rich of you to be criticising someone for dwelling on the past.

I manage to do so without insulting minorities or rehashing previous posts by myself, and others without acknowledgement, though.

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

Quote from: Jake Thingray on April 26, 2017, 01:59:08 PM
I manage to do so without insulting minorities or rehashing previous posts by myself, and others without acknowledgement, though.

But you couldn't leave the past in the past - even after Sydward's admitted to mistakes, and multiple people declared they're enjoying his current incarnation - and had to stir up the hornets' nest.

Jake Thingray

It was bound to happen eventually, it's in his nature. Plus I think he chose his moment by deliberately coming back once Famous Mortimer, Jemble Fred, Ronnie the Raincoat, Hank Kingsley and so on weren't here.

Sexton Brackets Drugbust

Quote from: Jake Thingray on April 26, 2017, 02:10:55 PM
It was bound to happen eventually, it's in his nature. Plus I think he chose his moment by deliberately coming back once Famous Mortimer, Jemble Fred, Ronnie the Raincoat, Hank Kingsley and so on weren't here.

Well it was certainly bound to happen while you're hellbent on the internet equivalent of bear baiting, while you hold onto perceived grudges on behalf of other people.

Norton Canes

I have no idea who 'Sydward Lartle' is and take no interest in the politics of this board and who gets on whose tits etc. but for what it's worth, since he turned up [in this guise] the other week he's started several threads on various comedy shows with fascinating opening posts, and I would love to see him continue to do so, and if people can just let him do that then so much the better.

Thus begins and ends my involvement in this matter.

Autopsy Turvey

#56
Quote from: Norton Canes on April 26, 2017, 02:28:18 PM
I have no idea who 'Sydward Lartle' is and take no interest in the politics of this board and who gets on whose tits etc. but for what it's worth, since he turned up [in this guise] the other week he's started several threads on various comedy shows with fascinating opening posts, and I would love to see him continue to do so, and if people can just let him do that then so much the better.

Thus begins and ends my involvement in this matter.

Hear pissing hear.

Famous Deaths is an oddly low-key way to start a new programme, but Nelson shouting "Kiss me Hardy" as he plummets out of an office window is never going to not be funny.

It's clearly not so much 'foreigners are funny', it's that two manic, absurd, cartoonish stereotypes are responsible for the commercial possibilities of ovine aviation. Besides, Python is crammed with absurd, cartoonish sterotypes, and most are at the expense of the British (bumpkins, city gents, judges, policemen, Northerners), so surely the ethos is more 'everyone is funny'. Sustained French-language gibberish is a bloody brave way to launch a series.[nb]It wasn't in the first episode, but I believe this was the first sketch they recorded in the studio[/nb]


Jake Thingray

When introducing one of the At Last The 1948 Show (ironically, co-written by and featuring Tim Brooke-Taylor, with Bill Oddie in occasional bit parts) compilations on Channel 4's 1992 archive strand TV Heaven, the late and lovely Fwank Muir, when describing it as a breakthrough, termed it "non-jocular". To me, that's a good and distinctive thing about Python, along with Cook and such later ilk as A Bit Of Fry and Laurie, whereas Milligan's stuff, and The Goodies, comes over as too jocular, or "tee-hee nicky-nacky-noo" in approach.

Quote from: Kane Jones on April 26, 2017, 11:46:15 AM
No, please don't do this. I'd say 95% of the posters here have welcomed your return.



I've no idea who anybody is here, but I've enjoyed the trips down comedy memory lane, for a kick-off. Would be a shame to lose that.

Hangthebuggers

Christ - Can we all just be nice please?

Thanks.