WEBVTT - How Monty Python Worked: SYSK Live from LA Podfest 0:00:01.200 --> 0:00:11.360 Welcome to stuff you should know Roundhouse stuff Works dot com. Hey, 0:00:11.400 --> 0:00:14.120 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and there's 0:00:14.240 --> 0:00:17.880 Charles W. Chuff Bryant and Jerry's not here, but we 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:22.040 are here, live and beautiful Los Angeles, California for the 0:00:22.120 --> 0:00:41.000 Los Angeles Podcast Festivals. Very nice. This crowd is massive. 0:00:43.520 --> 0:00:46.640 Sounds massive. Yeah, you were asking for it too. I 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:48.800 find that when you turn and point at microphone and 0:00:49.520 --> 0:00:53.200 just drive some crazy, they make noise. It's good old trick. 0:00:53.600 --> 0:01:00.480 Walter Cronkite thought us that it's first person I could 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:04.280 think of, the first guy with the microphone that came 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:07.520 to mine. So how do you feel, a man? You're 0:01:07.520 --> 0:01:10.920 feeling good. I'm good and a little sleepy. Uh, but 0:01:10.959 --> 0:01:12.679 I'm not supposed to be honest. I'm supposed to. I 0:01:12.680 --> 0:01:16.600 feel great in charge, right, I'm a little sleepy. So 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:20.840 if I'm not funny, that's why we've got the We 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:22.440 we have a thing, took and I have a thing 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:25.920 literally now because we've encountered so many of them, of 0:01:26.000 --> 0:01:29.920 these kind of table cloths that are like pantyhose and 0:01:30.240 --> 0:01:34.399 to get anywhere in the microphone, right, yeah, but made 0:01:34.400 --> 0:01:36.600 of like nylons, right, so you have to be like 0:01:36.840 --> 0:01:40.120 right up on it and it has this weird kind 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:44.520 of give, but putting kind of feels a little like sexy. 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:48.800 So if we're like sitting here during the show, it's weird. 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:51.920 It's it's this thing. I'm all over the place emotionally 0:01:52.000 --> 0:01:56.960 right now, they're in a tailspin. You're ready, yeah, I'm ready. 0:01:57.080 --> 0:02:00.800 So um, we're talking today about Monty Python, right, and 0:02:00.840 --> 0:02:03.160 if you'll you'll go back with us. We're gonna head 0:02:03.160 --> 0:02:08.919 back to swing in London in nineteen where a group 0:02:09.000 --> 0:02:13.200 of English boys got together and started a little television 0:02:13.200 --> 0:02:16.400 show called How to Irritate People? And it was actually 0:02:16.480 --> 0:02:19.839 a television special and it was hosted by a guy 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:22.639 named John Cleese, Yeah, written by a guy named John 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:26.440 Cleese and a dude named Graham Chapman and um also 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:29.560 starring a guy named Michael Palin. And those were the 0:02:29.600 --> 0:02:33.200 only three members of what would become Monty Python today. 0:02:33.280 --> 0:02:37.079 Spoil it already, but it was written by Clice and 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:39.120 Chapman and the sort of the goal here was to 0:02:39.160 --> 0:02:42.840 do a special and to get Americans primed for this 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:46.440 thing called British humor and sell it to American audiences, 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:49.640 but um, it's sort of failed in that respect. It 0:02:49.680 --> 0:02:53.320 didn't generate a lot of interest among American Uh, I 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:57.000 guess TV executives. Sure, yeah, well it was it was 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:01.320 funny ish, you know. Um, it just wasn't It wasn't 0:03:01.360 --> 0:03:04.240 quite Monty Python. But you could see the seeds in it, right. 0:03:04.280 --> 0:03:07.079 It was starting to grow from this and about a 0:03:07.160 --> 0:03:10.839 year later, Um, the BBC went to John Cleese and said, hey, 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:12.840 we like what you did with How to Irritate People? 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:15.639 Do you want your own show? And cliceaid, sure, I'd 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:17.240 love to have a show, but I don't want to 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:19.600 be the star. I want to be part of an ensemble. 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:24.600 And the BBC said, go put your team together. So uh, 0:03:24.760 --> 0:03:29.560 he spoken to his wristwatch and said Python assemble. And 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:32.320 they all came from different corners of the earth and 0:03:32.440 --> 0:03:34.840 came together and formed a giant robot with a sword, 0:03:37.600 --> 0:03:40.560 the first time Monty Python ever came together. That would 0:03:40.560 --> 0:03:43.280 be amazing. So he said, all right, I have this friend, 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:46.200 Graham Chapman. We went to Cambridge together. He's my writing partner. 0:03:46.240 --> 0:03:48.360 He's definitely in and we just worked with this guy 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:51.120 Michael Palin. He's really funny. So he should be in. 0:03:51.800 --> 0:03:54.000 But he was doing a show called Uh, Do Not 0:03:54.080 --> 0:03:57.520 Adjust Your Set. It was a kid show and uh 0:03:57.720 --> 0:03:59.360 Clice was a fan of that and he said, well, 0:03:59.360 --> 0:04:02.040 that's wonderful. We would love you to come on. He says, well, 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:04.520 I had these other guys on the show I really 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:07.120 like working with. So if you want me, you have 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:10.920 to take this Welshman named Terry Jones, and uh, this 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:14.680 other guy named Eric Idle, and this other weird looking 0:04:14.800 --> 0:04:18.400 American that's this weird looking, weird, weird all around period 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:21.880 named Terry Gilliam. And Clice was game. He said, fine, 0:04:21.960 --> 0:04:24.120 let's just get all of us together. And then there 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:29.000 were six so they came together and Terry Gilliam was 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:32.720 definitely the odd man out here was from Minnesota. Um. 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:36.480 The other five had gone to what's called um Oxbridge, 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:41.200 right Oxford and Cambridge, Yeah, um, where they kind of 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:44.200 have like a lockdown on TV writing in the UK. 0:04:44.880 --> 0:04:47.359 So if you went to Cambridge where you went to Oxford, 0:04:47.360 --> 0:04:49.520 and you want to get into TV writing, especially TV 0:04:49.640 --> 0:04:53.360 comedy writing, um, that's a pretty good place to start out. Yeah. 0:04:53.400 --> 0:05:00.720 Like here in America, it's Rutgers right right, yeah, yeah, 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:03.320 or San Jose State I can't ever always get those 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:08.920 two confused. Um. No, of course it's Harvard, everyone knows that. Um. 0:05:08.960 --> 0:05:11.359 But yeah, over there it's Cambridge and Oxford. And it 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:12.920 turns out if you go to one of those schools, 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:15.240 you're probably a pretty smart, clever person, which is a 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:17.760 good start if you want to be the world's greatest 0:05:17.800 --> 0:05:22.200 comedy troup of all time. In Chuck's opinion, is that 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:24.400 all right? Say that? I think you can share your 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:27.159 opinion on this one. We probably won't get any angry 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:29.760 listening mail on that. How could you say that you 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:32.120 should help homeless people? How dare you say that? But 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:35.599 I do agree, Monty Python is pretty great. You should 0:05:35.600 --> 0:05:39.880 probably explain that. Yes, we did it. Well. We did 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:44.120 an episode on homelessness, and we released it around Thanksgiving 0:05:44.160 --> 0:05:48.479 or Christmas to really kind of like sticking in people's heart, right. Yeah, 0:05:48.480 --> 0:05:51.719 our position was that you should help homeless people. Yeah, 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:54.000 I mean we took a stance on that. Yeah, and 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.240 we got probably more angry listener mail than we've gotten 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.960 for any other episode we've ever released, pretty much about 0:06:01.040 --> 0:06:04.000 like parting like homeless people can all go to hell? 0:06:04.000 --> 0:06:05.960 You know, you know you shouldn't be telling people they 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:08.400 should give them money or all sorts of stuff. They 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:10.960 made decisions. It led to that, right, I think out 0:06:10.960 --> 0:06:16.239 what's coming to so, but but everyone agrees Monty Python 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:21.800 is great. That was the overall point. So they were 0:06:21.839 --> 0:06:25.600 divided up into sort of naturally divided into writing teams 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:27.480 with them. They already had cles and Chapman who had 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:30.919 known each other, and Michael Palin and Terry Jones worked together. 0:06:31.680 --> 0:06:34.320 Eric Idyl was the lone wolf. He wrote by himself, 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:37.320 and Terry Gilliam was has always been in his own 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:40.280 world doing his animation, so he was sort of in 0:06:40.320 --> 0:06:43.240 his own space as well. So they were getting primed 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:45.600 and ready in the BBC said all right, we'll give 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:49.880 you a run of thirteen half hour episodes and um 0:06:49.920 --> 0:06:52.440 and by the way, I've spent the past two weeks 0:06:52.800 --> 0:06:56.800 non stop watching Flying Circuits. It's been amazing. It's like 0:06:56.839 --> 0:06:58.919 when your job is to sit around and watch Monty 0:06:58.920 --> 0:07:01.640 Python and then come and talk about it live, you're 0:07:01.680 --> 0:07:04.800 you're doing pretty well in life. So very lucky guy. 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:07.320 And UM. So they had to come up with a name, 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:10.920 and um Flying Circus was kind of always part of it, 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:15.400 and the BBC, as legend goes, supposedly even said, guys, 0:07:15.440 --> 0:07:17.760 we've already printed, except they said it with a cool accent. 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:22.480 Um we printed flying circus already, So you can't change 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:24.440 that part. But you need to, you know, if you 0:07:24.480 --> 0:07:26.679 have a front to that didn't think of it quick 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:31.600 and uh, I think Clice said what about a python, 0:07:31.720 --> 0:07:34.920 like something kind of slimy and weird. So they said python. 0:07:35.040 --> 0:07:38.560 And then apparently Monty Monty is just like sort of 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:41.680 an English like guy in the pub would be Monty 0:07:41.920 --> 0:07:44.640 just sort of a tired English thing like like Todd 0:07:44.760 --> 0:07:47.960 here in America. So Monty Python was born. They liked 0:07:47.960 --> 0:07:50.200 the ring of it. It literally means nothing. There's no 0:07:50.280 --> 0:07:53.080 significance other than they just thought it sounded cool. Yeah, 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:56.880 and they had other other ideas besides um, Monty Python's 0:07:56.880 --> 0:07:59.360 flying circus. First two they had a horse, a spoon 0:07:59.440 --> 0:08:05.040 in a bass in It's pretty funny owl stretching time. 0:08:06.440 --> 0:08:13.880 I love that, the toad elevating moment, bum wackets, buzzard, stubble, 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:16.960 and boot. I think I think Monty Python's Flying Circus 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:18.920 is the best of the bunch. Well, and then they 0:08:19.000 --> 0:08:21.240 had a couple of things before Flying Circus, even eat 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:27.680 L Moist's flying circus, right, and Will Will Stranglers flying Circus, 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:30.760 which that's pretty good too. Yeah, but that sounds too legit, 0:08:31.320 --> 0:08:35.439 like everyone would be like, who's Will strangling? It Will Strangling, right, 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:37.480 But then you know, once you know it is Monty Python, 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:40.800 you can't imagine anything else, right. It's like a partial 0:08:40.920 --> 0:08:47.480 was called I don't know the explainer raters. It's actually 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:56.320 not bad. Drop that down. Uh sorry, I got lost 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:58.000 with the explain writers. I went to a place. So 0:08:59.240 --> 0:09:02.720 you're like, so, if you ever want to get confused, 0:09:03.200 --> 0:09:07.000 research British television because they don't call season seasons, they 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:10.080 call him series. Right. So Monty Python had their first 0:09:10.120 --> 0:09:12.480 series and then the next year they had their second series, 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:15.760 and I'm like, what is this person talking about? And 0:09:15.800 --> 0:09:17.920 then I finally looked it up after like a couple 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:21.680 of days. Did you really not know that until recently? Okay? Yeah, 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:24.280 And I'm like I knew from anew from context what 0:09:24.320 --> 0:09:26.080 they were talking about, but it was kind of confusing 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:27.839 because by the time they get to the fourth series 0:09:27.880 --> 0:09:32.400 actually changed the name to just That's what got me sure? 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:36.240 So they so they had they actually had four seasons, 0:09:36.240 --> 0:09:38.840 and the first season it was pretty much what you 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:42.320 would expect, right, this is really really brand new, cutting 0:09:42.400 --> 0:09:45.080 edge stuff. And they actually we're not the first to 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:49.000 really kind of experiment with sketch comedy. There was another show, 0:09:49.440 --> 0:09:51.480 um called Q five that was done by a guy 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:57.880 named Spike Milligan who's like this legendary radio surreal comedic genius, right, 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:01.280 and um, they they follow on the footsteps of of 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:03.679 Q five, which had started just a few years before 0:10:03.679 --> 0:10:05.640 Flying Circus. But these guys like took it to a 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:08.560 whole other level and the BBC had no idea what 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.120 they had on their hands, so they would shuffle it 0:10:11.160 --> 0:10:14.320 around late at night. Some some weeks they would just 0:10:14.400 --> 0:10:17.040 like not show it at all. Some entire regions of 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.079 the UK didn't receive it. Um, it was just treated 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.440 pretty pretty poorly. Yeah, and the deal with Q five. 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:25.199 You can go watch some of this on YouTube. It's 0:10:25.240 --> 0:10:27.640 really good. And actually the Pythons were kind of upset 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:30.440 because when they saw Q five they're like, well, man, 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:33.079 it's it's being done. Like that's what we wanted to do. 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:37.160 We wanted to take comedy and give people something unexpected 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:39.360 and turn it on its ear and subvert it and 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:42.440 basically be weird and so I went and looked up 0:10:42.480 --> 0:10:45.720 a little bit of Q five and the one skit 0:10:45.800 --> 0:10:48.720 that I saw was literally like fifteen seconds long, but 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:50.679 it gives you a really good idea of what Spike 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.680 Milligan was doing. And it just opens on a shot 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:57.160 of a man with a a Mona Lisa paint by numbers, 0:10:57.280 --> 0:10:59.559 so half of it is finished, half of it has 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:02.800 the big areas with the little numbers in there, and 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:05.720 I think, well, that's that's funny, that's the joke. And 0:11:05.760 --> 0:11:08.200 so you know, the guy goes to paint and he 0:11:08.240 --> 0:11:11.720 puts on the canvas. He paints another white section and 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:15.760 writes a number. I was like, it got me. I 0:11:15.840 --> 0:11:19.000 was like, man, I didn't see it coming. So that's 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:21.319 what Spike Milligan was doing. And that's what Python was 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:23.920 kind of shooting for, was just to do something that 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:27.240 people hadn't seen. Yeah, So even though they were not 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.080 being treated well, there wasn't a lot of marketing or 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:33.600 pr or whatever behind it. Um it's still kind of 0:11:33.640 --> 0:11:36.040 developed a bit of a cult following, like word of 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:41.040 mouth following UM among I would guess people taking acid 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:42.959 in the sixties in London, you know, yeah, it was 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:45.880 nineteen sixty nine, it was in color, which was kind 0:11:45.880 --> 0:11:48.400 of a different thing. That a deal. Yeah, especially when 0:11:48.440 --> 0:11:52.120 you think about Terry Gilliams animations. You know, like to 0:11:52.160 --> 0:11:53.760 see that in black and white, it's still be great, 0:11:53.800 --> 0:11:55.880 but to see it in color late at night on 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:59.840 acid must have been something else. Sure. Uh so if 0:11:59.840 --> 0:12:02.120 he watched Flying Circus, I mean, did anyone ever watch 0:12:02.160 --> 0:12:07.920 these episodes at all? They're all on YouTube. I encourage you, 0:12:07.960 --> 0:12:13.040 Like they have all fifty I think episodes on YouTube. Uh, 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:15.040 and it's it's really amazing, Like when you when you 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:17.840 watch it, you see the seeds of everything from like 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:22.480 Mr Show, uh too, Tenacious D, Two Kids in the Hall, Uh, 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.280 Like Children's Hospital would not be a TV show if 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:28.360 it wasn't for Monty Python and Flying Circus, like this 0:12:28.440 --> 0:12:32.760 sort of absurdist silliness. Uh. Sometimes they'd make a statement, 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:36.559 sometimes it was physical comedy, sometimes it was clever wordplay. 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:39.320 It was really all over the map with what they 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:44.640 were doing. Um and as we'll see, they really kind 0:12:44.679 --> 0:12:48.080 of permeated pop culture, as everybody knows. But like a 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:50.480 lot of this stuff was just like a one off thing, 0:12:50.559 --> 0:12:55.040 like the Spanish Inquisition. Everybody knows the Spanish Inquisition right now, 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:59.760 and Expects the Spanish Inquisition um and they were on 0:12:59.760 --> 0:13:02.320 one episode that just took place on one episode in 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:05.160 season two, and yet it's like basically one of the 0:13:05.160 --> 0:13:08.920 backbones of like comedy pop culture. And and that's a 0:13:08.960 --> 0:13:13.800 really good point about um Monty Python, that they were 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:17.600 just packing episodes with great idea after a great idea 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:20.880 and like basically zero filler. And that was definitely part 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:23.400 of one of the reasons why they were the seeds 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:25.880 that grew all of these other things too. Yeah, and 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:28.720 one of the reasons why they're often called the Beatles 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:31.640 of comedy because they weren't together that long, but their 0:13:31.720 --> 0:13:34.680 ratio of like great material to stuff and you know, 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:37.640 you watch I guess like Saturday Night Live is probably 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:41.040 the standard in the United States for years, and half 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:44.200 of those sketches each week aren't great. You know, Like, 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:47.360 let's be honest, that's what sketch comedy is. It's like 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:49.680 a risk. You're throwing it out there. Sometimes it works, 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:52.360 sometimes it doesn't. But when you look at Flying Circus 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:55.160 and like the Beatles, like their ratio of great, great 0:13:55.200 --> 0:13:57.880 stuff to things that didn't quite work was just astounding. 0:13:58.240 --> 0:14:04.520 It was amazing. Yea. So one of the other hallmarks 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:07.240 of Monty pytheline is that they played almost every character 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:11.439 amongst themselves. Terry Gilliam played the fewest characters because most 0:14:11.480 --> 0:14:15.560 of the time he was um off doing animations that 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:19.600 ended up proving like really important to to every episode 0:14:19.600 --> 0:14:23.160 and then the show overall. Um So he usually played 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.200 the least, but he also played like the some of 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:28.560 the most memorable ones, usually the just the dirtiest ones, 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.120 like the character in the back. You're like, what's wrong 0:14:31.160 --> 0:14:34.760 with that guy? That was Terry Gillian. Yeah, And he 0:14:34.800 --> 0:14:36.880 felt very much like out of his world. He was 0:14:36.920 --> 0:14:39.000 in all of the other guys. You know, he knew 0:14:39.040 --> 0:14:40.800 he was like, you know, I'm nowhere near you, dude, 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:43.560 So I'll do my weird animations. And if you need 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.000 like a crazy leper in an episode, I'm your guy. 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:51.920 I'm the leper um. Michael Palin is probably my favorite, 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:54.360 but that's kind of like low hanging fruit to say 0:14:54.400 --> 0:14:57.320 Michael Palin's your favorite Python because he was pretty much 0:14:58.000 --> 0:15:00.360 everyone agrees that he was probably the best after on 0:15:00.440 --> 0:15:02.560 the show. Yeah, he was. He was probably the most 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:08.080 broad and accessible comedian with like raw comedic talents and well, 0:15:08.080 --> 0:15:12.320 who did I say last week, Graham Chapman, what's your favorite? Yeah, 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:14.680 I think I've changed my mind. And when you watch 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.080 enough Monty Python, and I think that's kind of the 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:18.640 point that you're going to get through this whole thing. 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:23.480 There's an all star like in every episode, in every sketch, 0:15:23.760 --> 0:15:25.480 and you kind of end up changing your mind a lot. 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.520 But I'm on Eric Idol right now, big yeah, yeah, 0:15:29.000 --> 0:15:35.280 he's people like yeah, man, he was good. Uh still 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:38.280 is so. Um. They're very famous for playing, like you said, 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:40.680 all the characters playing the women. Uh. Some of the 0:15:40.720 --> 0:15:43.280 best laughs you will get watching Flying Circus or when 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:47.680 Terry Jones plays like the great correctly English ladies like 0:15:47.720 --> 0:15:50.480 Brian's mom. Yeah yeah, Life of Brian. Did you finally 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:52.640 watch it? I did. I watched it again this morning. 0:15:53.720 --> 0:15:55.560 I woke up at like seven thirty and watch Life 0:15:55.560 --> 0:16:01.760 of Brian. Right, I can pay for this, Yeah, I 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:05.840 didn't have that moment. Actually ordered room service was wonderful. 0:16:07.400 --> 0:16:09.720 So they all kind of fell into their specialties a 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:12.320 bit though, like Terry Jones would um, he could play 0:16:12.360 --> 0:16:14.880 like the middle class gentleman and the great you know, 0:16:14.920 --> 0:16:17.840 like old English bag lady type. Uh. Cleese and Chapman 0:16:17.840 --> 0:16:20.560 were the tallest. John Cleese was six five, Graham Chapman 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.560 was six too, So they often played like authority figures 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:27.320 or barristers or policeman or you know, sort of the toughs. 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:30.720 They're a little more imposing. Palin could do anything he 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:33.040 wanted at any time. He was probably the most versatile. 0:16:33.440 --> 0:16:36.240 And then Eric Idol he did the feminine ladies really well. 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.920 And um, salesman, he was good at salesman. Yeah, he 0:16:40.000 --> 0:16:42.720 was for me that when it comes to like word play, 0:16:42.760 --> 0:16:45.480 he was kind of the best. But they all had 0:16:45.480 --> 0:16:47.560 their strengths. And and who was it Gilliam that said 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:50.280 they were like a molecule. Yeah, they fit together like 0:16:50.320 --> 0:16:54.000 a molecule, like if you if you take anyone and 0:16:54.000 --> 0:16:57.600 and as we'll see, actually the couple have been taken 0:16:57.680 --> 0:17:01.280 from the group here there over time. Um, it's just 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:04.560 not the same. It's it just doesn't quite work. And 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:06.800 it's not because there was a star or a leader. 0:17:07.040 --> 0:17:09.159 And that's probably one of the strengths of Monty Python 0:17:09.240 --> 0:17:11.439 is there wasn't a star or a leader. It was 0:17:11.520 --> 0:17:15.600 just this random assemblage of guys, including an animator like 0:17:15.640 --> 0:17:17.639 who would have guessed, like, yes, we we've got to 0:17:17.680 --> 0:17:21.119 have the animator to um that came together to formed 0:17:21.119 --> 0:17:23.560 this thing that had never been seen before and really 0:17:23.640 --> 0:17:26.960 hasn't been seen since. Yeah, so it um it ran. 0:17:27.240 --> 0:17:31.760 The Flying Circus ran for four seasons only. Uh Clice 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.240 left after season three, and like we said, the fourth 0:17:34.280 --> 0:17:36.720 season was just called Monty Python. I think it only 0:17:36.720 --> 0:17:40.080 had about half a dozen episodes. And for Python fans, 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:42.080 everyone kind of says, like, yeah, that fourth season, you 0:17:42.080 --> 0:17:44.919 take clease away. It's just not the same. But it 0:17:44.960 --> 0:17:49.159 didn't hit in America until later thanks to syndication, and 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:53.360 in nineteen seventy four, Uh in Dallas, Texas, of all places, 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:58.879 on K E p A Is anyone from Dallas, No 0:18:00.000 --> 0:18:04.240 say K E p A beat away with it? Uh, 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:06.320 That's where debuted in the United States, and then it 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:08.199 got picked up all over the country here and there. 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:12.120 I remember on Georgia on GPTV when I was a kid, 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:14.479 I was like, you know, ten eleven years old, and 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:17.560 I was exposed to British comedy by watching Binny Hill 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:20.960 in Flying Circus, and then later on I got into 0:18:20.960 --> 0:18:23.280 other things like Fawlty Towers and Blackadder and all that 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:26.280 good stuff. But um, yeah, it was all of a sudden, 0:18:26.320 --> 0:18:29.560 Americans caught on, and so they said, well, we should 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:33.800 make movies then and Americans caught on, you said, nineteen seventy, right, Yeah, 0:18:33.840 --> 0:18:36.720 that was the last year that they had a TV show. 0:18:36.760 --> 0:18:39.199 They've been trying to like crack the American market for 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:42.200 years and it just wasn't happening, and they've basically given 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:44.560 up hope. And then once it started to catch on 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:47.040 an American they already had a pretty good cult following 0:18:47.080 --> 0:18:50.919 in the UK. Um. Once that American component came in, 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:52.960 they were like, yeah, we should, we should keep doing this. 0:18:53.160 --> 0:18:55.360 Let's try a movie. They already had one movie under 0:18:55.400 --> 0:18:57.480 their belt. Um, it was called it in Now for 0:18:57.560 --> 0:19:00.400 something completely different, right, yeah, it was. It was a weird. 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:03.880 What they did was they took um literally took sketches 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:05.600 that they had already done in front of the live 0:19:05.680 --> 0:19:09.240 studio audience for Flying Circus. They recreated those sketches on 0:19:09.280 --> 0:19:12.480 a studio stage. Um, and it was a sketch movie. 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:15.080 It was like Kentucky Fried movie or something like that. 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:18.520 And um, you know, it didn't work so great. I 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.080 think their best movies were the ones where they actually 0:19:21.359 --> 0:19:24.080 had a story to the thing. Um, well, we'll get 0:19:24.080 --> 0:19:26.399 to the movies. Everyone knows what they are. Sure it 0:19:26.440 --> 0:19:28.600 didn't do very well. No, it wasn't a huge hit. 0:19:28.680 --> 0:19:31.919 And it was made again for America. Would be like, hey, America, Condie, 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:34.080 just check this out. So it was yet another reason 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:37.360 they'd kind of given up on America. But so America 0:19:37.480 --> 0:19:39.560 comes into the full and they're like, yes, let's try 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:41.879 to make a movie. Yeah, And Clice had left, but 0:19:42.000 --> 0:19:45.400 he was obviously in the movie, so he didn't leave bitterly. 0:19:45.520 --> 0:19:47.560 He said that he was um go and read his 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:49.639 quote here. He said that he wanted to be a 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:51.000 part of the group, but he didn't want to be 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:53.720 married to them because that's what I felt like. I 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:56.280 began to lose any kind of control over my life 0:19:56.560 --> 0:19:59.040 and I was not forceful enough and saying no. And 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:00.919 he also had a couple of things he wasn't wild 0:20:00.920 --> 0:20:03.280 about in the show, and he felt like he wasn't 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.280 being listened to. So he ended up leaving, but was 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:08.119 still like friends with the guys and wanted to do 0:20:08.440 --> 0:20:11.800 the movies for sure. Sure. He also um said that 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:14.200 he was the one who had to work with Graham 0:20:14.280 --> 0:20:19.200 Chapman during um Graham Chapman's alcoholic phase. He said that, Um, 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:22.720 he was writing with Graham Chapman. Um, who I didn't 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:25.240 know this. He was um uh, he was gay and 0:20:25.280 --> 0:20:27.400 he was out and this is like nineteen sixty nine, 0:20:27.440 --> 0:20:30.520 early nineteen seventies hadn't been very long before that the 0:20:30.640 --> 0:20:34.840 UK had chemically castrated Alan touring for being gay and 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:37.600 this guy is out and and for gay rights. Even 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:40.320 actually Graham Chapman that was part of this philosophy. He 0:20:40.359 --> 0:20:42.480 was like, you know what, let's let's put it right 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:46.320 in their faces and see what they think about it. Yeah, exactly. Um. 0:20:46.640 --> 0:20:50.439 So Clice is like he Graham Chapman was. He had 0:20:50.480 --> 0:20:54.120 a huge, huge problem with alcohol. Um uh during the 0:20:54.160 --> 0:20:56.679 time that they were making Monty pipeine and and Clice 0:20:56.720 --> 0:20:58.480 was the one who had to work with them because 0:20:58.720 --> 0:21:01.800 they were buds from the king Ambridge days. Um. And 0:21:01.880 --> 0:21:04.439 he said that, combined with the group not listening to 0:21:04.520 --> 0:21:07.280 him and feeling like they were, it was taking over 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:09.280 his life. He's like, come out. So after the third 0:21:09.320 --> 0:21:13.960 season Clice left, but that was about the time when um, 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:16.000 they decided that they were going to go try to 0:21:16.080 --> 0:21:20.400 make um the Holy Grail, that's right on the Holy Grail. Yeah. 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:27.400 Uh anyone ever seen that little movie. I think joke 0:21:27.520 --> 0:21:31.439 for joke, like Blazing Saddles and Holy Grail are in 0:21:31.640 --> 0:21:34.440 like an eternal race to see, like a pound for 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:37.320 pound with the funniest movie of all times in my opinion. 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:41.280 So you like Holy Grail more than Life of Brian. Yeah, 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:43.480 same here. I mean I love Life of Brian, but 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:46.960 just the sheer amount of laughs and jokes and Holy 0:21:46.960 --> 0:21:50.960 Grail is astounding. It's astounding. So they had a tiny 0:21:50.960 --> 0:21:53.119 little budget for Holy Grail. They you know, didn't have 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:56.360 money being thrown their way. And uh, Terry Jones and 0:21:56.480 --> 0:21:59.320 Terry Gilliam co directed, which is a little weird, and 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:01.480 Terry owns later would say that I think like a 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:05.119 kind of annoyed Gilliam. So we ended up alternating days 0:22:05.560 --> 0:22:08.920