“Huuuuuuge ... tracts of land!”
An oft spoken phrase in our circle of friends. LOL.
Monty Python, I first fell totally for their comedy as a 17 year old, when they showed it on PBS in the seventies, I couldn’t believe ANYONE could be soo great!.
One insight I thought I had was, their comedy is almost always on several levels. Sometimes slapstick at the same time as deeper meaning.
That bit in “holy grail” to me is comedy genius. I’m no comedy expert and if you hate dissecting comedy stop here... I sometimes get really interested into why something is so laugh out loud funny.
Starts with the obviously disappointed father who sees his son as less than a man. So he tries inspiring him with his tale of sheer, stupid, ignorant stubbornness. “They told me I was daft, but I built it, and...it sunk, so I built another one” etc. which is the the perpetual father worried his son is wispy washy or worse. He is trying to show his son how you don’t give in, but in the act of telling him, reveals how stupid that idea is really....you have to build ten castles to get one that is stable, and it isn’t HIM doing all the work, it just so much works on so many levels.
And then it turns to the two guards, where the tough and manly lord tells yeh two idiots to not let his son leave until he gets back. For some reason (anyone else experience this?) those two guards just totally remind me of laurel and hardy. The one guard (I think Eric Idle If i recall correctly) actually has makeup to resemble Stan.
But whatever, it is classic Laurel and hardy, about “so...so..so, we don’t let anyone come in before he leaves?” “NO, NO...just keep him from leaving” and every time the father thinks they have got it, and starts to go on his way, one of them makes a small remark and it lets him no that no...they still don’t get it.
THAT must be what reminds me of Laurel and Hardy, that classic slow burn but it is the father that does the burn. Still the elements are there. To me often it boils down to they take a weirdly specific exaggerated take on something that is universal and true, and just work it.
As I watched their shows, I realized once that some of the bits (like the twit contest) were lowbrow funny but still has an edge, where other of it took me time to catch up to and enjoy, like a small throwaway bit they had about the BBC’s new fall lineup, where they had two bums as main characters, rummaging round in “bins” (which I found out were garbage cans to you and me) and pulling out champagne and roast duck...which I didn’t think so funny until later when I got that it was “written by Lord “whatever”. So a rich lord tried to write about poor people, and assumed they could just get champaign and gourmet food out of garbage cans. Because of course he did, and though it wasn’t funny hah hah...it was very clever. The sketch lasted way shorter than my description, but the idea behind lasted a very long time.
Weird thing for me, I loved their comedy so much I burnt out on it in a way. I can recall all of it that I saw, but can’t sit through it anymore. It’s like they did it so well and I paid so much attention, I got it, and am worn out for going through it again, at least now. Am I making no sense? Eh. The meaning of life? **** off!
too much? Sorry, just love Month Python, or mynty pontoon....whatever they were called.
oh god...I’m a nerd. I just thought it was a healthy interest in what the hell made me love Monty Python so much, laugh so hard. Now I see, I actually am a nerd.
