strange group of wildly talented, appropriately disrespectful, hugely imaginative, and massively inspirational idiots changed what comedy could be for their generation and for those that followed.
I first discovered Monty Python when I was probably ten years old, and back then it felt like something I shouldn’t be watching. That was already a pretty big appeal. Then I saw Life of Brian in middle school, when a substitute teacher put it on to keep us quiet on a rainy day. I’m not sure he knew exactly what he was showing us, but I’ve always been hugely grateful for the reckless professional mistake he made that day, because I’ve never forgotten how it made me feel.
I think what I’ve always loved about all of Monty Python’s work is that they’ve never been afraid to get into trouble, and Life of Brian is the perfect distillation of that. There was a famous episode of a BBC talk show back in 1979, when John Cleese and Michael Palin were being interviewed alongside the Bishop of Southwark and a writer called Malcom Muggeridge, both of whom were furious about the film. Incidentally, the very name ‘Malcolm Muggeridge’ is so stereotypically English, it’s almost racist. It’s the name of someone who should be looking after the owls at Hogwarts. Anyway, for twenty minutes, Muggeridge told them off like a pair of naughty schoolboys, calling what they’d done a ‘miserable little film,’ ‘a squalid number’ and ‘tenth rate,’ and said it contained laughs that were ‘rather easily procured.’
And while everything he said was titanic nonsense, it was that last part that drove me crazy. Because nothing about what Monty Python did was easy – not their TV show, not their albums, and certainly not Life of Brian. It’s fucking hard to write such incredibly smart, incredibly stupid comedy.
I got to interview all the Pythons after a screening in New York a few years ago. It was total, beautiful chaos. The audience seemed to turn up in reverence of them, but you’re not going to find a group of people less interested in hearing how important they are. So, they took it in turns to try and create mayhem – turning their chairs the wrong way around, walking off stage when they got bored, and sitting with the microphones in their mouths. They treated the evening, each other, and their own legacy terribly, and it felt like a far more meaningful tribute.
That’s why one of the greatest acts of love I’ve seen was the funeral for Graham Chapman. It was a de facto roast. They saw him off in the spirit he would have wanted, with no respect whatsoever. Here’s what John Cleese said about one of his best friends:
‘I guess we’re all thinking how sad it is that a man of such talent, such capability and kindness, of such intelligence should now be so suddenly spirited away at the age of only forty-eight, before he’d achieved many of the things of which he was capable, and before he’d had enough fun. Well, I feel that I should say, “Nonsense. Good riddance to him, the freeloading bastard! I hope he fries. And the reason I think I should say this is, he would never forgive me if I didn’t, if I threw away this opportunity to shock you all on his behalf.”’
With that in mind, I’ll say this to you: Monty Python are a bunch of decaying old men, and they’ll all be dead soon. Their shrivelled testicles will become dust in the wind of history. But people will be laughing hysterically at their work long, long after they’re gone.
I really hope you enjoy this book. After you’re finished, find a ten-year-old who probably shouldn’t have access to it and give it to them. It might change their life.
John Oliver is a stand-up comedian and the host and writer of the Peabody and multi-Emmy Award-winning HBO series Last Week Tonight.
THE PYTHONS
JOHN CLEESE
Cleese escaped a projected career in law when he accepted a job writing jokes for the BBC. Beside Python, his talent made him a valued presence on radio (I’m Sorry, I’ll Read That Again), TV (The Frost Report, At Last the 1948 Show, and Fawlty Towers), in films (Silverado, A Fish Called Wanda, The World Is Not Enough, and the Shrek series), and in a frighteningly long list of commercials. He also penned the autobiography So, Anyway …
TERRY GILLIAM
Born and raised in Minnesota and Los Angeles, Gilliam’s early career as a magazine illustrator and advertising agency copywriter somehow pointed him towards creating animations for British television. As a director his films away from Python include Time Bandits, Brazil, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, and, finally, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote. He also directed the operas The Damnation of Faust and Benvenuto Cellini.
ERIC IDLE
A razor-sharp wit with a poison pen, Idle professes to shun acting for writing and yet has acted in a plethora of non-Python projects (Nuns on the Run, Casper, An Alan Smithee Film: Burn Hollywood Burn, Quest for Camelot, and South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut). He authored the novel The Road to Mars; a Grammy-nominated children’s story; and the Tony Award–winning musical ‘lovingly ripped off’ from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Monty Python’s Spamalot.
TERRY JONES
Most likely of the Pythons to appear in drag, Jones is a noted history buff who has written on Chaucer and hosted the documentaries Ancient Inventions, The Crusades, and Barbarians. He also directed Personal Services, Erik the Viking, The Wind in the Willows, and Absolutely Anything; wrote several fanciful children’s books; and has contributed political op-ed columns.
MICHAEL PALIN
The most innocent-looking of the group (and consequently able to play some of the most subversive parts), Palin starred in The Missionary and A Private Function. He has since become a trusty guide for armchair travellers with his globetrotting series, including Around the World in 80 Days, Pole to Pole, Full Circle, Himalaya, and Sahara. He also wrote the novels Hemingway’s Chair and The Truth.
CO-CONSPIRATORS
BARRY TOOK
A veteran television producer and writer, Took’s credits on radio and television include Round the Horne, The Frost Report, and The Marty Show (with Marty Feldman). It was Took who proposed the teaming of the six members that made up Python to the BBC. He did duty in Los Angeles as a producer of Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In but soon returned to the UK to work as a programming executive, columnist, and comedy writer. (Took died in 2002.)
IAN MACNAUGHTON
A veteran of the BBC’s drama department before being abducted by Light Entertainment and Spike Milligan, MacNaughton was the producer of all of Python’s TV output and director of all but a handful of their shows, as well as the feature And Now for Something Completely Different. He later worked as a television, stage, and opera director out of his home base in Germany. (MacNaughton died in 2002.)
DAVID SHERLOCK
A drama teacher and writer, Sherlock
