Monty python Not Funny

[Mad Doug Biker]

He's not wrong.

10% of it was hilarious, 10% mildly amusing and the rest was infantile public school humour that was as funny as toothache to everyone else.

THANKYOU!! I am glad I am not the only one who thought half of it was S**t. The films were funny, except for The Meaning Of Life.

Oh lord yes. If you liked cringing with embarrassment, hiding behind the sofa kind of humour. It's incredible how it's remembered and talked about yet having so few episodes (relatively speaking).

As kid I liked it, but I cannot understand why people still bang on about it these days as if it was the best thing ever.
Pah, give me the likes of Yes Prime Minister ANY day!

It was 40 years ago, move on!

Being funny or not is very much being in tune with the time. Any 1960s or 1970s comedy is very out of touch now. Python was new and bold in its day. As it is neither of these now it is out of context.

Not all, as has already been mentioned.

What I see Monty Python as being is a bit like what the likes of Little Britain is today - only occasionally funny but obscenely overrated.

P.S., Am I the only person on the planet who can't STAND the F**king Dead Parrot sketch?? I mean, WTF??

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

It did begin to lose its appeal after you'd heard a load of physic students recite it verbatim in the pub for the hundredth millionth time!

FTFY

 

[Globalti]

Monty Python was funny at the time because it took the piss out of the establishment, i.e. the upper classes and the aspiring middle classes. In that way it was actually the most subversive comedy show ever because it took a prominent role in destroying the last vestiges of any respect anybody may have held for the ruling classes after they had so completely discredited themselves in the first World War.

So a lot of its humour seems dated nowadays and incomprehensible to people who weren't children in the fifties and sixties.

 

[Bman]

I was an 80's child and I found it funny.

Ok its a bit dated now. Buts its classic. Just like (for example) the early episodes of Red Dwarf.

 

[Wigsie]

It was 40 years ago, move on!

Being funny or not is very much being in tune with the time. Any 1960s or 1970s comedy is very out of touch now. Python was new and bold in its day. As it is neither of these now it is out of context.

This is a good point, comedy that relies on edgy or taboo current issues can't ever stand the test of time, its why Life of Brian and Holy Grail were funny because it was mocking periods in history that won't be forgotten or lose importance (presumably).

I am pretty confident that in 40 years time current or recent comedies like 'Little Britain' will be seen as nonsense as it relies on current affairs for the humour, although without Monty Python there may not have been Little Britain.

Quality sitcoms like Fawlty Towers are timeless because it's not reliant on current affairs to be funny.

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

The 2 films mentioned were very good. I preferred Rippings Yarns much more than Python, even though it did not star the full cast. Escape From Stalag Luft 112 B, and Golden Gordon were awesome episodes if I remember rightly.

 

[Fnaar]

I was just a little too young to understand Python at the time (didn't get the satire references) but I found bits of it (the absurd bits, mostly) quite funny. Hit and miss. But no doubt very 'new' and groundbreaking for its time, though like anything it has it's roots in other stuff (Milligan... another hit and miss for me) is often cited.
What I never understood was people my age or a few years older reciting/memorising whole sketches... usually people with little sense of humour of their own, as far as I can tell...

As for Little Britain, never really found that funny or clever... hey, let's all pretend we're mentally handicapped... that'll get a laugh (ad nauseum)

 

[Kirstie]

<Sigh>

Now I'm going to have to get into the fish tank and sing!

And did those feeeeeeet in ancient tiiiiiime....

 

[tyred]

It's a bit before my time but from what I've seen, some of it was funny, most was a load of shoot to be blunt. Good comedy can stand the test of time. I do like Faulty Towers and still find it hilarious, no matter how many times I watch. The same goes for Only Fools and Horses, Dad's Army, The Two Ronnies, Porridge and a few others of the comedy "giants." I love the Two Ronnies but have never found anything remotely funny about Morecambe and Wise (I realise that many people are about to call me a heretic for saying that). Laurel and Hardy at there best were wonderful but they produced some films which weren't really that funny at all (I have a huge collection of L&H on video tape, bought from a car boot sale for a few quid).

 

[Davidc]

Monty Python (or at least much of it) was funny at the time, and its targets relevant. Now vitually all of the subjects of the humour are gone, possibly helped on their way by Monty Python, and when the show reappears it just has nostalgia value and little else.

That type of humour is of its time and for its time, there's humour now which is of this time and for this time and it would be best if it was deleted in 5 years time.

That's my opinion not only of Monty Python but also of many other things over the years, humorous and otherwise. They have their time, and they're good. After their time is up they're not good any more. Forget them, they're as good as a mackerel that's a fortnight past its best-before date and been kept in a warm place. And I was one of those physics students - outnumbered by the medics by the way.

I do like to watch the films, Holy Grail and Life of Brian occasionally though.

 

[Yellow Fang]

Monty Python still holds up IMO. Recently I've been watching some of the better sketches on YouTube. In particular, the philosophers' football match between Greece and Germany, the Bruce sketch set in the philosophy dept of an Australian university, and the Spanish Inquisition sketches. I can't think of any better educated comedy.

I thought Holy Grail was good but patchy, LoB very good with the odd duff scene, but even MoL had some really good scenes.

 

[funnymummy]

Was Fawlty Towers funny?

IMO Hysterical!
I'm a mad FT nut, my car broke down last year, I updated my Facebook status that was waiting for the RAC, by the time I next looked my page had 6 various photos of John Cleese whacking his car with a branch!
It aslo got me into trouble at a school I used to work in - I was bought a "Don't mention the war" Tshirt for my birthday by another teacher - I put it on in the staff room as the Head entered, It did not go down well, she took one look at me & ordered me to her office, as all the classes there are named after countries & she felt it inappropriate for me to wear it to work - I was only trying it on, had no intention of wearing round the school & tried to explain that to her, more people had seen me wearing as i'd walked to her office!! I told her that, ok big mistake - some folk have NO sense of humour!!
and no I don't work there anymore

 

[Over The Hill]

Not all humour dates.

Steptoe & Son, Fawlty Towers and Hancock being examples which would still cut it today. Monty Python was really The John Cleese show, when he left it was truely awful.

Fair point. My mental trawl through the 60s and 70s missed those gems and perhaps Dads army can be added.

Perhaps it was the new and cutting edge type of comedy of its day that is now looking so out of touch.

Classics like Steptoe is more down to the relationship between the two characters and that stands up very well. Peep Show is different but has the same two interdependant characters.

Perhaps a good test is "is it being done today?". The old variety act of "Paddy goes in a bar..." set jokes has gone. Python relied on newness and originality and we have it with Mitchell and Webb in their sketch show to some extent but the joke is more complex and subtle now.

 

[XmisterIS]

I remember being mildly amused by Monty Python, but I didn't find it all that funny. Also, because I watched it as a teenager in the 90's, I didn't get any of the political jokes, being as they referred to the politics of 20 years previously!

Fawlty Towers, on the other hand, still makes me wet myself. Manuel's "que?" has entered the English language!

 

[ColinJ]

Is this the five minute argument or the full half hour?

I already linked to a video of that sketch!