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I make no secret of it. I’m a huge Monty Python fan. Ditto Blackadder. I’m not one of those fans who can recite every line of every episode or film verbatim. But I’m close.
Sing me a song with off-colour lyrics, and I might respond with, “a lovely old hymn, your majesty”. (Black Adder S2E5 “Beer”, paraphrased quote)
Claim that you’re different, or that we’re all individuals, and I’ll invariably say, “I’m not” in a strange, back-of-the-throat voice. (Here, at 0:42)
Reminisce on how tough life was when you were a kid, and something from the Four Yorkshiremen sketch will escape from my mouth. (For Monty Python trivia collectors: the sketch was originally written for an MPFC predecessor programme, “At Last the 1948 Show”, and was performed by its four co-writers, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Tim Brooke-Taylor and Marty Feldman.
Ask me to freshen up an old pantomime script, and I’ll find a way to get at least a couple of Monty Python or Blackadder gags in. Oops! – that sounds like I spend half my life freshening up panto scripts! I don’t; but I’ve done a few, most recently a Cinderella script a few weeks ago, and I managed to slip in “huge tracts of land” (Holy Grail, Swamp Castle ) as well as “You said, ‘Get the door’” (Blackadder S2E5 “Beer” – script available here – search for “get the door” on that page).
Although there are tons of great non-British shows (Cheers, Scrubs, Corner Gas, and M*A*S*H spring instantly to mind), my age and heritage do keep me coming back to vintage British comedy. There were several radio and TV programmes that pre-dated and influenced Monty Python, and which prepared audiences for the style. There were other, earlier programmes that influenced the influencers, and I might write about them one day, but for now, here is a sample of the programmes that influenced me.
I’m Sorry I’ll Read That Again (ISIRTA). A radio show starring John Cleese, all three “Goodies”, and a couple of others whose portfolio, though very important to the history of British Comedy, is less well known. A totally chaotic sketch/music programme. Ran from 1964 to 1973 – unfortunately, I didn’t “find” it until around 1970.
Round the Horne. A radio show that ran from 1965 to 1968, and only ended because its anchor, Kenneth Horne, died suddenly. The show starred a number of people who probably aren’t well-known west of the Atlantic, but who, like the stars of ISIRTA, were significant contributors to the shape of British comedy. I was too young to appreciate it at the time, but came to love it as an adult.
The Goodies. Ran from 1970 to 1982. Starred Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie. Just a silly, silly show.
The writers of these and other shows/programmes were legends. Marty Feldman, Barry Took, Barry Cryer, the Monty Python crew, the Goodies trio – these are some of the people who shaped my sense of humour, and whose styles influence my writing style.
An early 1980s TV programme called “Not the Nine o’Clock News” took homage of Monty Python to new levels when they lampooned the church’s criticism of “Monty Python’s Life of Brian”. They reversed the positions of Python fans and Christianity, imagined that the Python-worshipping church had made a movie about Jesus Christ, and performed a TV interview in which the film’s maker and an ardent defender of Pythonism argue whether or not the movie was an obvious parody of the life of the members of Monty Python. You can watch the sketch here.
I cannot deny that whenever a person named Norman is introduced to me, I’m tempted to yell “Norm!” (from Cheers, for the uninitiated). I have been known to crib Sergeant Schultz’s “I see nothing!” (Hogan’s Heroes). I might even admit to having said “Very interesting; but stupid” (Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-in) a few times, but those shows didn’t really influence me – they’re just catchphrases that stuck. For real-life quotes, nothing, in my opinion, can beat Python and Blackadder.
Mrs. H. and I have been taking more of an interest in the birds that visit our back yard recently, and yes, “remarkable bird – beautiful plumage” has entered our discourse many times!
I can thoroughly recommend la vie Pythonesque – the quotes themselves can be funny, they connect fellow Python fans, and above all, they generate interest in MPFC among new generations. Our two kids and one kid-in-law quote from more current shows – The Simpsons, and Family Guy to name two – but even though they were born in the late ‘80s, they’re as capable as I am of quoting Python and Blackadder, and I’m proud of them!
We may all be individuals, but we need commonality to bind us together within society. It might be a sports team, a hobby, a country, a love of classic comedy, or a dislike of spam; whatever it is, it enables any of us to be the guy that says in a strange, back-of-the-throat voice, “I’m not.”
Your Turn
Convince me. Educate me. Convert me. What newer shows are there that are as quotable as the ones I love? I don’t mean catchphrases – I mean dialogue that fits in to your everyday conversations.