Biography
And now for something completely different… We uncover the history of offbeat comedy that led to the creation of "Monty Python", and what happened after it
The Basics
For humour that was considered incomprehensible, subversive, even dangerous, when it was first unleashed on the world, "Monty Python" has travelled – and endured – remarkably well. It is for many Americans the touchstone example of English craziness, of our ability not just to laugh at ourselves, but to point out as we do that we are even weirder as a people than it looks at first sight.
The Life and Times of Monty Python
In the summer of 1969, five young English writer-comedians and an American animator were trying to come up with a title for their new BBC comedy series. Among those suggested were "Owl Stretching Time", "The Toad Elevating Moment", "A Horse, A Spoon and a Basin", and - the one chosen - "Monty Python's Flying Circus".
Surreal comedy before Monty Python
The surrealist world of Monty Python may have looked utterly ground-breaking when it first burst on to TV screens in 1969, but it didn’t spring fully formed from nowhere. It grew out of the collaborative efforts of a bunch of friends at Cambridge University, and emerged from a rich tradition of broadcast humour of the offbeat variety.
Monty Python's Influence
Monty Python has had a far-reaching influence on comedy, and despite the team intending their humour to be impossible to categorise, the term “Pythonesque” was invented to define it and has been a label for surreal comedy ever since.
