Monty Python

By Malcolm

What is Monty Python?

Monty Python was a group of comedic actors comprised of

five English men and one American, all but one linked through

university. Although their comedic roles are foolish and

ridiculous they are all very intelligent people, each one of

them attended a University. They came out with their first

series in 1969. It was called Monty Pythons Flying Circus and

it became a huge hit immediately. The show was based

around a number of comedy skits which later on they became

well known for and put in their movies. You will see an

example of one of these skits in the following slides. Monty

Python is a unique group of comedians in that they were the

first to do something like this. May I remind you that this was

long before Saturday Night Live.

Movies

Monty Python has conducted three feature films; “Monty

Python and the Holy Grail”, “The Life of Brian” and “And

Now for Something Completely Different”(Covers seen

on next page). They made these movies after having

great success and gaining great popularity in the

television business, with comedy show Monty Python’s

Flying Circus. The most well known movie of theirs in

my opinion is the Holy Grail, this is also my favorite of

Monty Pythons movies which are all hilarious. Monty

Pythons films are all comic genius. If you don’t believe

me, watch them for yourself.

Movie Covers

One of Monty Pythons skits

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

To view video, right click URL and press open Hyperlink.

Who was in Monty Python?

There are six men involved with Monty Python. Their names

are John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam,

Graham Chapman and Michael Palin.All of whom are

talented actors and writers who even after Monty Python

went on to be very successful. Cleese, Idle, Jones, Chapman

and Palin, all but one attended either Cambridge or Oxford.

Gilliam,however, is American and attended Occidental

College where he studied physics and the fine arts. The most

well known individual in Monty Python would have to be John

Cleese, John Cleese was the mastermind behind some of

their skits and parts of their movies. On top of this he was

also very good in character, as was demonstrated in the

earlier slide.

Monty Python’s Top 5 Comedy skits

Dead parrot

Monty Pythons #1 rated comedy skit is “The Dead Parrot”. In this skit, John

Cleese poses as a man who has purchased a parrot. Several minutes after he leaves

the store he realizes that the parrot is dead and returns to the pet store to complain.

When he arrives at the pet store the cashier realizes that

the man has discovered that he had purchased a dead parrot and pretends

that he hasn’t even acknowledged his existence in the store. When the man

approaches the counter they begin a hilarious debate on whether the parrot is alive or

not .

The Lumber Jack SongThis is more of a song then a skit but it is fantastically funny so I have chosen it

anyway. The Lumber Jack song is a song written by Eric Idle and starts out like your

everyday Canadian but near the end turns into more of a Monty Python song.

The lyrics go from chopping down trees to more

crude lyrics which I would rather

not describe as you may end up scared for life.

Ministry of Silly Walks

The ministry of silly walks is one of my favorite skits. It involves, as the

title suggests, a ministry of silly walks. This Ministry,however, is not like others as

it is comprised of several people with ridiculous walks. The skit is mainly John

Cleese posing as the head of the Ministry whose job is to interview and employ people

that claim to have silly walks. The majority of the the skit is John Cleese walking in a

ridiculous fashion towards the ministry of silly walks. Once he arrives he interviews a

man that supposedly has a silly walk.

Self Defense against fresh fruit

Self Defense against fresh fruit Is a skit about a military training group that is

focusing mainly on defense against fruit. The trainer (Eric Idle) is teaching

the class defense against the banana, he summons a student to use

as an example. The student is given a banana and told to attack his trainer.

The student is unsuccessful in doing this as the trainer takes out his gun and

shoots him, he then proceeds in asking for another volunteer.

Longest NameIn this skit a a news broadcaster announces that besides Bach Beethoven

and Mozart there is another forgotten great pianist. He then proceeds in telling

the name of the composer which just happens to take about 5 minutes to

say, the screen then goes blank with the words 5 Minutes later in the center of

the screen.When the broadcaster finally finishes the name he says and “now

to an interview live with his only living relative”. Over the course of the

interview the interviewer is forced to say the name several times until finally

the relative of the composer has a tragic heart attack and dies.

Conclusion

Monty Python is a unique group of comedians who gained success

with their many movies and skits. They continue to entertain long

after they stopped producing films.

Bibliography

http://gnews.com/the-life-of-python20-greatest-monty-python-sketches-

03200918105104/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python

http://www.google.ca/images?client=safari&rls=en&q=monty%20python&oe=UTF/