The Good: Hilarious, Good use of the medium
The Bad: Could always use more episodes . . .
The Basics: Keeping the standards of comedy high by continually pushing the envelope on the expected, Monty Python’s Flying Circus Volume 4 finishes the first season with riotous humor.
Monty Python’s Flying Circus is well-regarded as a classic of sketch comedy largely because it took risks at the right time. When the series began in 1969, times were changing, at least in Britain. Animations by Terry Gilliam got away with nudity, the troupe that was Monty Python made audiences laugh with simple absurdist humor and their ability to avoid too many dated references. As the first season came to a close, the troupe worked to keep the quality high and they largely succeeded.
On DVD, the final four episodes of the first season are presented with all of their original analog defects. Featuring the episodes "Untitled," "The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Goes To The Bathroom," "The Naked Ant," and "Intermission," the set maintains a high level of sketch comedy by utilizing well the timing and talents of the troupe's members. Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin are comic geniuses who work perfectly in these episodes as a cohesive acting and creative unit. And in these episodes, Terry Gilliam actually gets on-screen!
To better understand why this series is considered great, it helps to see what the men did to create Monty Python’s Flying Circus. These are the four episodes found on this DVD:
Hanging from a meathook looking terrified, the disheveled old man introduces "Untitled" with his trademark "It's . . ." A sketch with a man in a bank robber costume then waits to begin while in a flat, a man gets a letter indicating he has been selected for a walk-on part on the show. The man finally arrives, walks out of the shop and a robber comes in, holding up a lingerie store as if it were a bank. After talking heads declaring this predictable, there is a sketch involving a talk show for trees and wood, which is followed by a truly great sketch wherein a vocational guidance counselor evaluates a painfully boring man who wants to be a lion tamer as a perfect match for chartered accountancy.
Then comes Ron Obvious, a man being exploited for publicity by his manager. After a terribly short attempt to jump the English channel, Mr. Vercotti - Ron's manager - tries to have Ron eat a cathedral, tunnel to Java and ultimately run to Mercury, each with disastrous results. After that is a sketch where a man goes to a pet shop that is stocked with terriers that the owner claims may be converted into virtually any other animal. After a few more talking heads comes an interview where a gorilla is interviewed to be head librarian at a library, which is punctuated by mock letters to the "Mirror." The episode ends with a wonderful sketch where an ordinary housewife is wooed by several international suitors while her husband sleeps beside her.
After crossing the road safely, the disheveled old man is run over by a woman pushing a stroller, which opens "The Royal Philharmonic Goes To The Bathroom." There is a series of bathroom jokes, followed by a program on the "World of History" that is continually interrupted by undertakers. A series of undertaker gags continues throughout the episode, wherein undertakers act as pallbearers, then one dies of exhaustion, so they replace the (live) body from in the coffin they were carrying with the newly dead undertaker! Then follows a murder mystery featuring absurd inspectors who bumble with the order of words.
This is followed by a sketch involving the interview of an especially dim footballer who is opening a boutique and cannot answer the most simple questions posed to him. Then comes "Interesting People" a collection of vignettes of individuals who are crazy or weird, like a man living in a matchbox and a man who puts bricks to sleep with his stare. Then comes a "World Of History Sketch" on social legislation presented by women moving seductively while John Cleese provides their lines. The Gumbys then postulate that the Battle of Trafalgar was fought on dry land. This is followed by British women having a mud fight to simulate the Battle Of Pearl Harbor.
"The Ant, An Introduction" opens with the disheveled old man bouncing off trees as if in a pinball machine. Then comes a pair of accountants who bet on the jumpers coming from floors above them. Then comes a talk show where the very phony host becomes preoccupied with the setups for his features, as opposed to the substance of them. A bed and breakfast then is visited by a couple who speaks at length about the traffic they were trapped in attempting to get to the bed and breakfast. They go into the sitting room to discover Mr. Hilter and his associates who insist they are not famous Nazis. Hilter then has a rally to try to get elected to a minor town position using Nazi rhetoric.
The wonderful "Upperclass Twit Of The Year" sketch follows with various inbred wealthy men going through such tasks as jumping over a line of matchbooks, walking in a straight line, running over a neighbor and driving off, and unhooking the bra off a mannequin. This is followed by Ken Shabby, a disgusting man who cleans out public lavatories and is seeking the approval of the girl he wants to marry . . . or at least have sex with. The episode is capped off with a paid political broadcast that begins normal, until the minister falls down a chasm in the studio and attempts to deliver his address hanging upside down without a script!
"Intermission" starts with the disheveled old man being carried in a coffin by pallbearers, which he opens to announce the show. This episode is broken up by several intermissions which start even before the opening credits. The substance of the episode begins with a restaurant sketch filled with one-liners that are almost completely random. Perhaps the funniest is when the couple coming to dine at the restaurant is told by the concierge that they are not only proud about being a vegetarian restaurant, they are smug about it. The husband in the couple, played by John Cleese refers to his wife saying "I know she may be. . ." and then stringing together several insults before losing himself at anything to say for the inevitable "but . . ."
This is followed by the relatively well-known "Albatross!" sketch, a policeman being solicited by a crime victim and then an absurd wordplay sketch wherein a fragmented sentences utterly confuse a doctor. The show goes into a program involving historical impersonations that tend to be ridiculous, then a newsprogram on the use of the occult by the police force to try to nail criminals using wands and fairies. This quickly devolves into a ridiculous psychiatry sketch where every problem is solved with an expensive operation.
On DVD, this is accompanied by the standard Monty Python’s Flying Circus bonus features, which include the usual biographical information on the Pythons and a trivia game one plays with their DVD remote. There is a collection of Terry Gilliam's animations and a clipshow of various sports related sketches. As well, there is a presentation of the "Albatross!" sketch performed live and a karayoke presentation of "Bruce's Philosopher Song" which fans are pretty much bound to love.
The set is good and the episodes are funny, ending the first season with a sharp, consistent sense of humor that made the earliest episodes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus work perfectly. This is another essential volume for fans of great sketch comedy.
[For a much better value, check out Monty Python's Flying Circus Season 1 on DVD, reviewed here, as it has the complete season, with nothing left to search for!]
10/10
For other television reviews, check out my Television Review Index Page for an organized listing!
© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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