Monty Python 10 Things You Didnt Know About The Comedy Troupe

Monty Python: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About The Comedy Troupe

From TV to movies, the influence of Monty Python’s unique brand of comedy can be felt even today. Learn more about them today.

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Talking about Monty Python at this point could very well be redundant since so much has been said about them already. The comedy troupe has been massively influential on modern comedy, to the point where almost every one of the comedians that people admire has a favorite Python sketch in mind at any given time.

They’ve been the reason for a new word in the dictionary used to describe things similar to them in the form of “Pythonesque.” There’s really no end to their influence or to the gifts we have thanks to their films, television, and records (yes, they put out records too).

10 They’re All Very Well-Educated

One thing you might not know about the Pythons if you’ve only seen The Holy Grail or something as silly as the Fish Slapping Dance sketch is that everyone in the group is exceedingly well-educated.

In fact, Graham Chapman, perhaps most well-known as King Arthur or the titular character in Life Of Brian, nearly completed his tenure in medical school when he gave up that life for Monty Python. Others like Cleese attended Cambridge with Chapman or went to Oxford.

9 The Name Really Doesn’t Mean Anything

There are tons of stories about how the name “Monty Python was conjured up from the aether, but not one of them has ever been laid down as the exclusive reason for the name. Some claim that Monty used to frequent the bar that the Pythons would hang out in during their youth, but others disagree and say that they just decided that Monty Python was a perfect name for a sleazy entertainment agent.

Whatever the origin, the name makes sense to describe the group.

8 John Cleese Already Had A Bit Of An Acting Career

Most of the Pythons had acted in local productions or had been a member in a group of players at whatever college they were attending, but none of them really considered themselves to be actors. So instead of vying for the spotlight, they opted to assign whoever felt most appropriate to a certain sketch.

That being said, John Cleese was already a bit established before the Pythons exploded in popularity. They all felt more like writers than stars, but that’s not to say that Cleese is regarded to be the best actor among them, though he did star in some of the troupe’s best works.

7 Terry Gilliam’s Animations Are The Crux Of Their Comedy

Although both Terrys had a good time directing Monty Python and The Holy Grail, Gilliam definitely had more of a knack for it and went on to direct many more feature films afterwards, including the critically acclaimed Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

That being said, he wasn’t without other talents, essentially becoming the glue that held together the stream-of-consciousness whimsy that was Monty Python’s Flying Circus, with his surreal and often violent animations delivering the perfect punchlines.

6 Their Biggest Influence Was The Goon Show

There were a couple of shows on British television that did much to influence the work that the crew did on Monty Python. One notable selection was the fairly subversive show Q, which was one of Cleese’s favorites. The most influential was arguably The Goon Show, which starred and was written by Spike Milligan.

The show began on the radio and explored concepts familiar to people in British life at the time including politics, art, class relationships, and the sexual repression present at the conservative time.

5 They Split Off Into Groups To Write

As mentioned before, there really wasn’t much of a division of labor among the Pythons. Everyone did everything, and no one ever went out of their way to specify that they’d prefer one role over the other. This essentially made the entirety of creating the show a democratic group effort.

That being said, Graham Chapman and John Cleese would generally write as a group, since they knew each other very closely from their time together in college. Everyone else would form their own little creative groups, and each one usually had distinctive styles.

4 The ‘Monty Python’ Name Was Chosen On Accident

While it seems obvious that Monty Python is a perfectly nonsensical name for the group, it was an accident that it became their final name. This was because the group handed the suggestion to the BBC, which assumed it was final and immediately printed it on their schedule — this despite the Pythons explicitly saying that it was just an option.

Some other names that were very heavily considered were Owl Stretching Time, A Horse, a Spoon and a Bucket, Vaseline Review, The Toad Elevating Moment, and Bun, Wackett, Buzzard, Stubble and Boot.

3 The Meta Humor Came From Necessity

While the show is very famous for the meta-comedy approach which bolstered the absurdism of the program, it didn’t exactly do so on purpose. The real reason Monty Python got so meta is that they didn’t want entire sketches to be devalued if the punchline didn’t hit the way it was supposed to. Basically, it was a way to kill the risk of dead air.

When performing sketches, the comedians could do a perfect job but have a punchline that some would find flat, thus ruining everything that came before it. As a workaround, the Pythons would have a knight ride in and kill the characters before they could say the flat punchline, or merely have Cleese step in and shut down production for being too silly.

2 They’re The Reason Email Spam Is Called Spam

There’s one specific sketch that’s particularly famous and influential called The Spam Sketch. The whole joke is that a couple is trying to order breakfast, but the restaurant only has meals with spam in them, which the wife hates. Some of the meals include spam, eggs, bacon, and spam, or spam, spam, spam, sausage, and spam.

This led to the popular phrase “spam,” which is unwanted junk email pops up in the inbox.

1 There’s A Landfill Named After John Cleese

While Monty Python can’t be talked about enough nor can they be considered overrated, there are those who understand their far-reaching influence but still consider comedy as a medium and artform to be long past the days of Monty Python. In fact, John Cleese has famously stated that he thought they were running out of ideas after the second season.

He also talked pretty negatively about a town in New Zealand, leading the townsfolk to name their local refuse dump “Mt. Cleese,” which very well could have been a loving and Pythonesque gesture.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/bbc-monty-python-brit-comedy-facts-trivia/

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