The Good: Hilarious, Replays well, What DVD bonus features there are, Great performing/concepts
The Bad: Light on DVD bonus features
The Basics: Starting high with a first season that created many memorable sketches, Monty Python’s Flying Circus Season One is a masterwork of great comedy!
It is a tough sell to call something truly timeless, but Monty Python’s Flying Circus arguably is a timeless sketch comedy program, if for no other reason than the men of the troupe focused on timeless concepts as opposed to poking fun at political foibles or societal trends that were merely of the moment. As a result, the humor of Monty Python’s Flying Circus (entire series reviewed here!) is worth picking up and watching, even decades later. It all starts with "Season 1" and while Monty Python’s Flying Circus is in no way serialized nor builds upon itself, this is a great place to start. It is worth noting that this is actually a simple bundle pack of "Volume 1," "Volume 2," "Volume 3," and "Volume 4" of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
On DVD, Monty Python’s Flying Circus is presented on four discs, each with only three episodes (save "Volume 4," which has four). The entire first season of the show is comprised of thirteen thirty-minute episodes. For those unfamiliar with sketch comedy, this is most analogous to a talent show style of program: actors appear, perform a skit or routine and after a few minutes, the setting and characters change to something completely different. In other words, while the actors remain constant, they are continually changing the characters they play and there are no consistent characters that grow or change over the course of the episodes or the series.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus originally aired from October 1969 until January 1970 for its first season and it was comprised of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. It is relatively easy to make the argument that Monty Python’s Flying Circus peaked early with this first season set, as almost all of the recognizable sketches are present in this boxed set. The amazing thing about this particular sketch comedy series is the influence it had not only on sketch comedy, but upon pop culture in general. So, for example, it is more than just geeks who have devoted their lives to every tick on this program who know the Lumberjack song (which is performed in this season!).
Truly memorable sketches abound in this boxed set (given that I am doing episode by episode evaluations, if one is looking for that, check out the links at the bottom), include the Dead Parrot sketch wherein a man attempts to return a parrot that was sold to him dead, stapled to its perch and it took him until he returned home to realize it was not "just sleeping!" There is the Upperclass Twit Of The Year contest, the Lumberjack Song, the Crunchy Frog, "Nudge Nudge" and "Albatross" sketches. The troupe illustrates their ability to create universal humor by bits like the "Nudge Nudge" sketch wherein a man attempts to be lewd and in making insinuations to the person he is conversing with, he says all of the suggestive body language.
The men of "Monty Python" (there is no actual "Monty Python") have keen minds which they use to create humor with such reversals as a motorcycle gang comprised of old women who have taken back the night and army officers who treat their jobs like mobsters, offering a protection racket to not attack other countries/people. The humor illustrates how managers take advantage of clients for publicity (poor Ken Shabby!), how Hollywood writers sell out for a mealticket (the 20th Century Vole meeting), and how oblivious men can be (as one is when he and his wife go in for marriage counseling only to have the counselor seduce his wife in front of him).
This is not to say all of the humor is universal or timeless. Terry Gilliam, who produced animations for Monty Python’s Flying Circus often uses stock photography (though the whole notion in one of his bits of a company who sells photographs of other families so one might pretend they are not alone in the world is actually clever and hilarious), often involving prominent European figures of the sixties and before. As a result, some of the jokes rely on quick turns in identifying somewhat more obscure politicians and while the concepts might hold, the specific allusion might not.
Largely, though, the first season of Monty Python’s Flying Circus is made up of six men poking fun at the established order of things. They create sketches with nightmarish job interviews, create and act out ridiculous concepts like "Joke Warfare" and generally deadpan their way through ridiculous notions. So, when a man turns himself in for being Attila The Hun, it is a funny turn when a breathalyzer test proves instead that he is Alexander The Great! Much of the humor is absurdist humor that presents realities in which the odd is treated as normal or normal people (like the miner who has rejected his playwright father's posh way of life) are treated as odd.
As well, there is quite a bit of physical comedy in this first season. Terry Jones, whose career trended more toward the serious - directing and historical documentaries - following his work on Monty Python’s Flying Circus, has an amazing sense of physical comedy and the strip tease he offers as a sketch resulting from a man trying to find a private place to change into his swimsuit is three minutes of solid laughter. Jones is able to pull it off as he can make his body movements loose and ridiculous.
At one point or another, virtually all of the men of Monty Python end up going in drag for sketches. John Cleese and Graham Chapman, for example, arguably play off one another best when they are both adorned in wigs, long coats and speaking in shrill falsettos in order to portray being old, batty British women. Both Cleese and Chapman use their sense of physical comedy to appear upright and serious at other points in this season where a dry wit is required. They pull it off because of their physical stature and their ability to appear perfectly serious when they are anything but.
On the other hand, Eric Idle and Michael Palin almost always look like they are having fun. Idle seems to enjoy the wordplay and Palin delights in assuming different wacky characters, but both seldom are seen on the verge of smiling. The audience understands exactly what they are going through; the shticks they perform make us smile and there is something delightful about their deliveries.
On DVD, the bonus features are a bit sparse, which is disappointing considering how much capacity the DVD medium has. There are no commentary tracks, nor featurettes about the making of the show or how it was developed. Instead, each disc has definitions of Monty Python references, especially to the show as they have passed into popular culture. There are also shots of the pieces Terry Gilliam used to make his famed animations on the show. Each disc also has a live version of one of the sketches performed in the studio on the disc. So, for example, one of the episodes on Volume 2 has the "crunchy frog" sketch and on that disc, it is performed live from one of the tours the troupe did! As well, each disc has a themed set of clips (like "historical personas") which includes clips from the entire series of the men performing within that theme.
Despite the lack of a commentary track, this is a pretty extraordinary season of sketch comedy television and it is a high bar for the men to try to leap over in the subsequent ones! Definitely worth the time, attention, and ownership of anyone who is a serious fan of comedy.
For a more thorough exploration of each of the episodes in this boxed set, please check out my reviews of:
"Whither Canada?," "Sex & Violence," and "How To Recognize Different Types Of Trees From Quite A Long Way Away"
"Owl-Stretching Time," "Man's Crisis Of Identity In The Latter Half Of The Twentieth Century," and "It's The Arts"
"You're No Fun Anymore," "Full Frontal Nudity," and "The Ant, An Introduction"
"Untitled," "The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Goes To The Bathroom," "The Naked Ant," and "Intermission"
10/10
For other television reviews, be sure to visit my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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