Many articles and theses have been written on what made Monty Python unique amongst sketch comedy shows. Often overlooked is their– love? hatred? taste? — for animals. John Cleese and Graham Chapman in particular found animals fascinating and included them (or bits of them,) in many of their works. The…

The famous Parrot Sketch began as a garage mechanic sketch. Cleese and Chapman wrote it for Cleese’s ’68 television special, “How to Irritate People”, based on a conversation Cleese had had with Michael Palin. Customer Chapman is having trouble with his car, and salesman Palin pretends that this is how…

“I was the first Gumby.” — John Cleese The members of Monty Python’s Flying Circus were, first and foremost, writers. They would gather in the Spring with material, all written out and stacked up. They would read through each sketch and assemble the episodes from these piles. They might throw…

“Well, it was coughing up blood last night.” — Terry Jones as Woman. It’s been well over a year since Monty Python hosted the second in their series of deaths. Graham Chapman left us in 1989, lured away by cancer. His demise was seen as tragic, as he was still…

Here’s to Eric Idle — the Keeper of Monty Python’s Naughty Bits! by Craig Sabin They were mostly post-war British kids, pressured to conform to a fiercely patriarchal society. They went to all-boy public schools, then to prep schools and universities that were almost exclusively male. They were British. They…

This is a love story. This is a tragedy. This is about a broken heart, and the creative furor that it can make. This is about the relationship between Michael Palin and John Cleese, the love that could never be. Disclaimer (and where I lose most of the readers…); to…

Yep. I went there. The humble writer is fully aware that he has stepped into the lion’s den. “You can’t call that episode the best episode!” Python fans will scream. “What about — every other episode?!” It gets worse. The episode in question has none of the material we’ve seen reprised in the live…

It can be difficult to tease apart the styles of the Monty Python crew. As they grew in stature, their work became increasingly collaborative. As they grew together as a team, their shorthand with each other became easier and more instinctive. The lads themselves resist such categorization. Eric Idle referred…

I’m not a football fan. I’m American. I say this with full humility. I know that soccer — sorry, football — is truly the world’s sport, in a way that baseball dearly wanted to be. …