Monty Python - Top 10 Comedy Films
By Chad Koch, Sat Dec 10th
1. Fruit In The Looms 2. Python's Give Live Birth 3. The ToadElevating Moment 4. Mystery Of The Lost Python Sketches 5.Brian's The Life Of The Party 6. Kim Bread Aka John Cleese 7.Around The World In 80 Days 8. Get Yourself To Mars 9. Keep ItReal 10. The 12 Fisher Monkey Kings 11. Parting Shots 1. FruitIn Your Looms Someone once said something along the lines that, Monty Pythonis to 'funny' what chartered accountants are to 'boring'. Whoare we to disagree? 2. Python's Give Live Birth
The legend of Monty Python emerged nobly from the dustycorridors of Oxford and Cambridge universities. All of theBritish Python members had their comedic starts in revue showsput on by these universities. They soon rose to the ranks ofresponsibility within these societies, "In bewilderment we saw anotice board informing us that we are now officers!" recallsJohn Cleese. Their well-received show, A Clump of Plinths, transferred toLondon's West End and later visited New Zealand and New York under the new title Cambridge Circus. Cleese stayed on in New York and during a photo shoot for acomic strip he met American illustrator Terry Gilliam. Terry wassoon folded into the every growing omelet. The BBC, on the advice of producer Barry Took, signed the group- which now included Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam for a 13-showseries. Ah, but what to name the show? 3. The Toad Elevating Moment Owl Stretching Time. A Horse, A Spoon and A Bucket. The ToadElevating Moment were all names in the running. But as planningfor the series became more chaotic, the BBC management began torefer to the team as a 'flying circus', inspired by the RedBaron's World War One fighter squadron. The troupe liked thesound of it and randomly added the term Monty Python from theirgrowing list of alternates. Funny that. 4. Mystery Of The Lost Python Sketches No one knows what happened to them. Oh wait, 3 new sketches ofnever before seen Python material were recently discovered andperformed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The famed sketcheswere written by late Python star Graham Chapman and wereunearthed by a literary executor in Los Angeles. Each sketchlasts four minutes and features a cast of characters including agay parrot and an overworked Messiah. 5. Brian's The Life Of The Party Monty Python's Life of Brian snagged the funniest film of alltime in a poll arranged by Total Film magazine. The film satires the rise of organized religion and caused morecontroversy than a Kevin Smith baptismal when it was releasedback in 1979. It was banned in many parts of the UK and churchleaders accused it of blasphemy. Nothing like bad publicity topush the ratings. Their King Arthur era spoof, Monty Python and the Holy Grail,trailed by only a few spots, landing it at number five. Top 10 Comedy Films 1. Life of Brian 2. Airplane! 3. Withnail & I 4. There's Something About Mary 5. Monty Python and the Holy Grail 6. American Pie 7. Groundhog Day 8. Some Like it Hot 9. Blazing Saddles 10. Planes, Trains and Automobiles 6. Kim Bread Aka John Cleese John Cleese rode a roller coaster of fame during the 1970'splaying the role of stressed hotelkeeper Basil Fawlty in FawltyTowers. He continued his fame with films like Privates On Paradeand Clockwise, then hit worldwide stardom with a A Fish CalledWanda in 1988. The follow-up film, Fierce Creatures faulted togain attention with audiences.
These days audiences know himbest as the new Q in the James Bond films and Nearly HeadlessNed in the Harry Potter films. He will next be seen playingfather to Lucy Liu in Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle and as thevoice Fiona's Father in Shrek 2, Fiona is voiced by Charlie'sAngel's co-star Cameron Diaz. 7. Around The World In 80 Days Michael Palin has also rocketed to fame due to his turn with thetroupe and in 1977 he teamed with Terry Jones to make their owncomedy series, Ripping Yarns. Michael also appeared aside JohnCleese in A Fish Called Wanda, then went on to do a reality showfor BBC TV, called Around the World in 80 Days, where heattempted to literally follow in the footsteps of the JulesVerne literary character, Phileas Fogg, by trying to travelaround the world in the allotted time, but without flying - Bythe way, it's Jules Verne's 175th birthday this week. During thePole to Pole trip, he met up with Python fans in Greece and atesnake in China while struggling to meet his deadline. 8. Get Yourself To Mars Eric Idle continued his stint in the limelight by teaming withNeil Innes to create Rutland Weekend Television, a parody ofregional broadcasting. He later appeared in Graham Chapman'sYellowbeard, Disney's Honey, I Shrunk the Audience and SplittingHeirs. His recent novel titled, "The Road to Mars" is about twocomedians in the 22nd century. Fans most likely know him todayas the voice of Mr. Vosknocker in the animated film, South Park:Bigger, Longer and Uncut. 9. Keep It Real Terry Jones maintained a diversity beyond mere comedy, bywriting about history, presenting documentaries, penningchildren's books and going onto direct the 1996 version of Windin the Willows, starring his old pals - Michael Palin, JohnCleese and Eric Idle. 10. The 12 Fisher Monkey Kings Terry Gilliam lent his talents to the troupe as a director andby creating the very distinct animations that became MontyPython's visual trademark. We soon followed it with his featurefilm debut, Jabberwocky, starring Michael Palin. After helmingthe much loved, Time Bandits, his fame skyrocketed in Hollywood.But his style led to many conflictions in the biz including abig throw down with Universal Studios over his film Brazil andthen problems with backers on the very expensive, Adventures ofBaron Munchausen, which starred Eric Idle and featured RobinWilliams. His real success followed by taking on unconventionalstudio films including the critically acclaimed, The Fisher Kingstarring Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges and the stylisticsci-fi thriller, 12 Monkeys starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pittand the Hunter S Thompson extravaganza, Fear and Loathing in LasVegas starring Johnny Depp and Benicio Del Toro. These sixactors all gave some of the best performances of their career inGilliam's films. 11. Parting Shots "We weren't being satirical because it wasn't the thing thatinterested us," Terry Jones says. "Ours was a slightly moreabstract humor - just being silly really. What satire there is,is more generalized satire." Referring to The Life of Brian - "Comedy is about reminding usof the truth of being human: we all have a body and we all mustdie, and it is okay," reckons Eric Idle. "Monty Python is a great combination of intellect and silly",concludes Robin Williams. About the author:To read more articles by Chad, visit the American Pop CultureEncyclopedia at: http://www.americanpopcultureencyclopedia.com.If you would like to read this article, or others like it, onAmerican Pop Culture Encyclopedia, visit:http://www.americanpopcultureencyclopedia.com/monty%20python.htm |
