There must be SOMEBODY else who doesn't get Monty Python

[Ratty]

I don't mean the movies or the actors who are great, but the original British series. When I was in high school it was all the rage. Everybody was quoting lines and talking like falsetto british housewives ... I could never figure it out. So I started watching and I kept watching but it simply never struck me as funny. It had it's moments, even I will admit that, but by and large I just didn't get it. I used to think it wa sbecause it didn't have any punch lines, that's what I was used to growing up, but watching it again with a somewhat more sophisticated sense of humor I realize I STILL don't get it.

Yes, this will be shocking to most of you. Hard to believe that an individual like me actually exists. I know I know. But in all the 6 billion peopel on earth, or the tens of thousands on DU, or at least the couple of thousand who visit the Lounge or whatever, SOMEBODY else out there must not get it either.

I really despise Zippy the Pinhead too. What a waste of newspaper.

[ret5hd]

1. nope, sorry, we all get it.

you're all alone there, fella.

[Ratty]

2. Waah

:(

[El Fuego]

5. Tis true.

I bet you didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!

Oops, sorry.

[Ratty]

15. I forgot about that one, heh

I bet you didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Yeah, that was funny, I got that one. It reminds me that a lot of things from Flying Circus have become iconic. I admire that.

[warrens]

22. Yup

What's to get? It's hilarious.

[undeterred]

3. Honestly, I think British humor is an acquired taste

but I haven't acquired it yet either. :shrug:

[Ratty]

16. British Humor

Now I'm trying to think of British humor that I have liked. I really like a lot of Mr. Bean stuff, though I've never gotten into, say, Black Adder. Absolutely Fabulous has to be one of my all time favorite series ever, of any genre. But I don't think that really counts as British humor. Red Dwarf: Some of those episodes made me laugh so hard I peed my pants! So I don't think I'm emotionally dead inside as I'm sure some people suspect.

Oh, here's another one that will shock people. I never cared for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or Douglas Adams. I've never understood the appeal of Terry Pratchett (though some of his Witch stuff is wonderful--the rest of it ... meh).

[ret5hd]

32. if you're going to spell it, spell it right...it's humour

and the word for describing hue, tint, and luminosity is "colour"

[Ratty]

34. You're right!!

As Homour Simpson would say: "Douh!"

[Jara sang]

4. Yeah I get it too, is this the new clique?

Pythons vs. nonPythons?

[Blue-Jay]

7. Not much of a clique, I'd imagine.

A nonPython clique of one person couldn't be very enjoyable.

[name not needed]

8. But what if the lone clique member has multiple personalities?

[Webster Green]

6. Sign me up....

I never got it either. I laughed about as much as watching Leno, which is to say, not at all.

Ditto on the pinhead. Idiotic!

Add that lame ass Bizarro comic strip too, will 'ya?

:shrug:

[Ratty]

17. Thank you WG

I don't think anybody likes Bizarro anymore. I vaguely remember it being funny about 10 years ago though.

And ret5hd: :P

[Demit]

9. I have felt that way about Woody Allen comedies, since the 70s

All around me, people were dazzled by his comedic brilliance and I knew if I admitted how I felt they would all be shocked and I would be an outcast forever so I kept it to myself.

Oh but Monty Python, now, they are gods. I worship at their feet. Just goes to show ya.

[tridim]

10. Monty Python.. Good, but not great

Funny, but not hilarious. Definitely above average, but not the "holy grail" so to speak. IMO of course.

I'm a complete nerd, and should be one of those rabid Python fans who can quote every skit and film verbatim. Kids In The Hall was a much deeper and funnier show.

[Swede]

11. And now for something completely different.

The larch. The larch..........

[crispini]

12. Lemon Curry?

[mark414]

13. the larch

[El Fuego]

14. Bring me a shrubbery!

[Twillig]

25. DINSDALE!!!

[evlbstrd]

18. I don't get it.

They don't show it on my teevee so I don't get Python anymore. Except on DVD.

[Sydnie]

19. That's it

It's now time for the penquin on top of your television set to explode.

[newfaceinhell]

20. I've never really got it either, to be honest

Like you, i do like the movies and most of the actors, but I've never really liked the original series all that much. And i've spent half my life in Britain, and love loads of British comedy shows (Black Adder and Red Dwarf are two of my favorite shows of all time, without doubt). Oh well, our loss, I guess...

[tjwmason]

21. We're aLL taught the secret at a young age over here

aLong with the ruLes of cricket and rugby (weLL those are reserved to maLes).

It's actuaLLy part of the post-imperiaL British poLicy. Having ruLed haLf of the pLanet, we couLdn't just settLe into our smaLL isLand just off the coast of Europe, and so decided the baffLe everybody by producing somewhat bizzare comedies such Python.

[RumpusCat]

23. It's OK, because I don't like Seinfeld

And I get the "Waaaaa..?" from everyone I tell that to. Seriously, just the sight of those characters on my tv makes me shudder a bit. And I even live in NYC!

Monty Python -- teh hilarious. But if I don't have to get Seinfeld then you don't have to get MPFC. :D

[redsoxliberal]

24. no. I get it.

sorry

[Abelman]

26. I don't get the Pinhead either

but I love Monty Python.

The very peculiar thing about the world is that everyone has different senses of humor. But thankfully, most of us have one. It's not important what doesn't make you laugh. What is important is what does.

[cleofus1]

27. i never got it

i just watched cause sometimes they would have nekked women in the skits...

now benny hill rules...lol

[joeybee12]

28. Sorry, I REALLY get it! Huge fan here, but I will agree about Zippy...

...never thought that was funny.

[DS1]

29. The trick to comedy is to not force it

If you set out to watch, hear, see something that's hyped up to be funny, then you're not going to find the joke.

See the last Seinfeld, or Dumb and Dumber

[Ratty]

44. Eerie ...

"The trick to comedy is to not force it"

I read your post and then I thought about it, something occurred to me about comedy being forced and hence unfunny. I thought of an example. I returned to this thread to reply to you. Then I noticed your avatar for the first time .... eerie.

[ldf]

30. much ado about nothing

as far as i'm concerned.

not funny at all. i think stupid about sums it up.

:-)

[cleofus1]

31. funny thing is...

i never got it...buti watched it all the time...great insight into the british soul...

[Andy_Stephenson]

33. And now for something completely different

http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/python/Sounds/aiff/and_now.aiff

[El Fuego]

35. Ni

Just "Ni."

[tedoll78]

36. Hmm..

I have a VERY healthy sense of humor. Slapstick, raunchy, shocking, subtle, dry, poopy, nuanced.. I love it all. If scientists were to do a scan of the humor zone of my brain, they'd most probably find it severely over-developed.

But Monty Python? Meh.. I get no real feeling out of it in one direction or another. It's just kinda there. I'll giggle at it for a bit, but the obsession that seems to inflict MP fans.. I seem to be immune to it.

Gimme Strangers With Candy, Dumb & Dumber, Dave Chapelle, The Kids in the Hall, Reno 911, Saturday Night Live, The Gary Shandling Show, MadTV, Family Guy, Roseanne, Tracy Ullman, Seinfeld, Are you Being Served?, Keeping Up Appearances, ... (I could go on and on and on..)

[rene moon]

37. No, I dont either

Never found it funny and frankly, it bores me. My husband loves it but I could careless!

[Joey Liberal]

38. I never understood or enjoyed Monty Python n/t

[BattyDem]

39. If you're looking for an argument. ...

... you want room 12A, just along the corridor. :evilgrin:


The Argument Sketch

[TrogL]

40. Stop trying to 'get it'

(screwed up the formatting)

The whole point is that you can't 'get it'. It's deliberately non gettable. It's similar to the art concept of "dada". It deliberately doesn't make any sense. It's a deliberate intent to insert as much cognitive dissonance into the situation as possible.

I hate to analyze humour but I'll do one or two of my favourite sketches and attempt to explain them (even though I've already admitted that's a contradiction in terms).

The cheese shop. http://www.phespirit.info/montypython/cheese_shop.htm

Man behind counter. A dance troup plays bouzouki music. Why? There is no reason why. It just is.

Man comes into shop, spouts a lot of big words, making himself look like an idiot trying to make the shopkeeper look like an idiot. (note the recursion)

Loop. Name cheese, doesn't have it. Repeat endlessly. (another data structure).

Interruption to scream at the bouzouki players. Why has it taken this long? Who knows. It just is.

More cheese.

Customer shoots vendor. Why this drastic? Who knows. It just is.

The Spam sketch http://www.detritus.org/spam/skit.html

A restaurant. A shrewish waitress. An idiotic cook. Vikings in full dress who sing (why? who knows) whenever anybody says "spam" (which is pretty much the only thing on the menu) (why? know knows). Interally, this situation would hold up fairly well, but now we insert two (relatively) normal people.

Here's another explanation (from http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_mccabe_pythons.html).

The mattress sketch

I don't have a link to the entire thing, but here's the gist of it.

There is a Monty Python sketch which features an enthusiastic newly-wed couple (straight from the church round the corner, if we're to believe the sound effects) in an attempt to buy a bed in an English department store. Unhappily for them, the only salesman authorised to help, while otherwise "perfectly alright", is compelled to place a bucket over his head at the mention of the word "mattress". The difficulties in which this places our hapless hero and heroine can be imagined, particularly as the word which they have been advised to use as a safe synonym for "mattresses" -- "dog kennels" -- elicits from the mattress salesman merely a puzzled request that they visit the pets department on the second floor. It all ends in chaos, the mattress salesmen with his head in a bucket, the other sales staff singing "Jerusalem" in the fish tank -- this being, the couple are assured, the only way of extracting their colleague from the bucket -- and finally, when at last order is restored, another couple appear, utter the dread word, and the whole cycle starts again. All very funny; but it's not at all what we want from a real department store.

(from http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2000/6/18/17428/1579) which contains a long explanation of delusion.

Many Python characters are delusional. They live in their own safe, odd little world. The fun comes from pitting them against each other.

Cliff Furnald of Rootsworld, in his review of a Norwegian group called Tigerlily, noted, 'One of the greatest strengths of the Monty Python comedy troupe was an openness to experimentation so extreme as to breed as much failure as success; a lot of their stuff simply wasn't funny, but fans took this in stride as a modest price for moments of genius.' To a certain extent, what you think of [them] is related to how much you can accept massive amounts of weirdness.

[rene moon]

41. Well, then it's still not funny

Sorry but it blows donkey dong!

[GirlinContempt]

42. Theres a PENGUIN on the TELLY

[Book Lover]

43. If you can find any Spike Milligan

Any at all, try that. The Goon Show was noted by the boys themselves as their main influence (as well as to many others) and may be more palatable.

Sorry, I love Zippy. The only funny that's still funny.

[grasswire]

46. tapes of the Goon Shows are available...

...through a fellow named Dick Baker at http://www.goon.org/

[Book Lover]

48. Hopping up and down! Hopping up and down!

Ten thousand thanks!!! You have made my year :-)

[grasswire]

45. Wewease Wodewick! (eom)

[Maine-ah]

47. eh, nudge, nudge,

wink, wink,...know what I mean...know what I mean....

I do know some people who don't get it. I was raised on Monty Python and Faulty Towers, and still laugh my ass off when ever I watch them. Luckily, my husband loves MP too.