
Monty Python at 50 - laurex
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2019/oct/04/monty-python-at-50-a-half-century-of-silly-walks-edible-props-and-dead-parrots
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wlll
"…strange references to things like exploding knees…"

It is highly likely (I just checked, it is 100% likely:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goon_Show#Monty_Python](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goon_Show#Monty_Python))
that Monty Python were heavily influenced by The Goon Show, a BBC radio show
released between 1951 and 1960. The quote from the article I called out would
be completely at home in a Goon Show script.

For anyone who is a Monty Python fan it may be worth checking it out. I grew
up listening to Goon Show re-runs on the radio or on CD and absolutely love
them. Be warned though, as there is no visuals restricting the writers the
shows are even more abstract than Python.

They are sometimes re-run on iPlayer, you can buy CDs (I think Amazon and
eBay) and it is likely someone has "archived" the shows on the Internet
somewhere.

~~~
recuter
John Cleese is currently on tour (aptly named "Last Time To See Me Before I
Die") which is a sort of retrospective of his career and has said as much.

The other bit of it is that half the pythons worked together on a children's
show (Do Not Adjust Your Set) and John and Graham Chapman were literally
watching it one day and had the vague notion of pursuing shenanigans together.
When they pitched Monty Python to the BBC they had... nothing. Somehow it was
green-lit anyway.

So the lack of structure and imaginative child like absurdities were sort of
built in.

~~~
brlewis
Is there reason to think it's aptly named? From 5 years ago, same title:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_W1VF6Yj4w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_W1VF6Yj4w)

~~~
serf
He's 79 years old. The average male life expectancy in the UK is 79.4 [0].

I mean, he's not unhealthy (as far as I know), but it's pretty common place
for older folks to commiserate about their impending mortality.

[0]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expe...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy)

~~~
caf
Life expectancy at birth isn't relevant to a 79 year old, though. The UK's
life tables say a 79 year old male can expect to live another 9 years (
[https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsde...](https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/datasets/nationallifetablesunitedkingdomreferencetables)
).

~~~
enriquto
> Life expectancy at birth isn't relevant to a 79 year old, though. The UK's
> life tables say a 79 year old male can expect to live another 9 years

This is one of my favorite examples when I have to teach statistics! (the
other two being Monty Hall and the observation than outliers in a normal
distribution depend mostly on the variance, and are essentially independent of
the mean).

------
program_whiz
Anyone else noticed how much comic sensitivity changes? As a kid I thought
python was hillarious, now it seems so tame and/or kinda boring (except the
very best parts) -- seems like need more and more just to find anything funny.

~~~
wlll
Yeah, I noticed that too. I thought the whole lot was unbelievably funny back
when I was a kid, now in the same boat as you.

------
piinbinary
Has anyone noticed that the Woody and Tinny Words sketch seems to have gone
missing?

~~~
1_player
I definitely did. There must have been a huge copyright strike a few months
ago, and some brave channels started reuploading the classics recently.

But no sight of the tinny sketch yet.

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RickJWagner
Truly revolutionary humor, top notch.

I can't wait for the pendulum to swing back the other way and make offending
_everybody_ acceptable again, when done for the proper reasons.

~~~
andrepd
By all possible measures you are _more_ free to offend people today than you
were in Monty Python's time, not less. Remember the whole row when Life of
Brian was released (nobody would bat an eye towards such "blasphemy" today),
or that the word "masturbation" or swear words were censored.

~~~
vidarh
I agree. As an example of just how offensive it was seen:

For Norway, Life of Brian represents the last time the country's anti-
blasphemy law was used as justification for censorship (Life of Brian was not
formally banned, but it initially did not get a classification, and so could
not be shown in cinemas, at a time when there were few other options; it was
finally granted classification about 6 months later). The law was finally
repealed in 2015.

From the mid 70's until the law was struck off the Norwegian Heathen Society
have periodically tried to provoke prosecution with the intent of triggering
public opposition to the law, but they consistently failed to get the kind of
reaction Life of Brian got.

Prior to that the last person affected was the poet/writer Arnulf Øverland,
who in 1933 was charged (and acquitted) for the speech "Christianity – the
tenth plague". The last conviction happened in 1912.

For something similar to happen again today would be near impossible - when
the law was removed there had been cross party support for removing it for
many years.

Of course that's one country, but similar secularisation has happened in large
parts of the world, and I can think of very few parts of the world where the
trend has gone in the other direction.

~~~
andrepd
A funny story about that is that it was used in marketing by the pythons: "So
funny it was banned in Norway!"

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zaroth
If you like Monty Python, and you own a Tesla, try naming your car after some
of the characters, you mind find something hidden...

~~~
mlnj
Care to enlighten us peasants who are Monty Python fans?

~~~
TheChaplain
There are some videos on Youtube that shows the easter egg.

Worth it if you're a MP fan.

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thrownear1832
Originally-proposed name: It's

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MichaelMoser123
I liked Monty Python and the humor until I saw the final scene in 'the life of
Brian'; couldn't find them funny after seeing that scene, as I used to
remember that an awful lot of people died at the cross as a means of capital
punishment, dying a slow and painful death. Didn't manage to swallow that
'Life's a piece of shit, When you look at it'.

~~~
tralarpa
You are 1900 years late with your complaint :)

In the first decades after the death of Jesus of Nazareth, the cross was not
widely used as a symbol among Christians. Who wanted to be reminded of the
humiliation of God's own son on the cross? It was the Christians (and their
persecutors) that came after the first generations of followers who slowly
turned it into a pop-art symbol (first in its abstract form, later with the
shape of a human body on it)

~~~
coldtea
> _Who wanted to be reminded of the humiliation of God 's own son on the
> cross?_ For the Christians it was not a humiliation, but the moment of
> triumph of Christ - he chose to be incarnated and sacrifice himself, that's
> part of the whole point.

~~~
amanaplanacanal
Sure that's how people think about it now. They were talking about how it was
seen then.

~~~
hansthehorse
I've always wondered what the christian world would look like if the Romans
had hung jesus.

