Monty Python's Flying Circus - The Best Of Monty Python's Flying Circus - Vol. 1 (DVD 1969)
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The coming together of the influential Python team is regarded as a milestone for modern absurdist comedy, though each of the six members had been doing similar sketch work prior to this first 1969 se...
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The coming together of the influential Python team is regarded as a milestone for modern absurdist comedy, though each of the six members had been doing similar sketch work prior to this first 1969 series, of whose highlights this video consists. The most revolutionary aspect of Python was its eschewal of punch lines, preferring as they did bizarre, surreal links and quantum leaps into the imagination of animator Terry Gilliam. Inevitably, Python has dated. Sketches such as "The Upper Class Twit of the Year" and the "Wink-wink, nudge nudge" man are worn down by familiarity. There's some clunky stereotyping and "Oo, ducky"-style gay references. That said, much of this still stands up. "Hells Grannies" and the race to find the world's funniest joke are fine, the Eric Idle-driven documentary spoofs are witty while the Batley Townswomen's Guild's re-enactment of Pearl Harbour is intelligently ridiculous. John Cleese, however, stands literally and metaphorically head and shoulders above the rest. His and Chapman's sketches, involving a mountaineering expedition leader with double vision and an arts TV interviewer who can't get past the etiquette of how to refer to his guest ("Eddie baby...") are pursued to their absurd non-conclusions with the remorseless logic of a top-drawer barrister. --David Stubbs
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