Comments on: A Field Guide to Literary References in Monty Python’s Flying Circus

By: Ben Smith

Ben Smith — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:00:16 +0000

Ashley–I can’t believe I missed the Oscar Wilde sketch, either–it’s one of my favorites as well. Although, to be fair, it doesn’t specifically mention his books.

Also missed (because I couldn’t find a youtube clip for either) were the “Housing project built by characters from nineteenth-century English literature/M1 interchange built by characters from ‘Paradise Lost’” sketch from episode 35 and the “Bad Ischl Dairy Herd production of The Merchant of Venice” from the first German episode.

By: Ashley

Ashley — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 19:16:16 +0000

What about the Oscar Wilde Sketch?
That one was always one of my favorites!

“There’s only one thing worse than being talked about…”

By: Allison

Allison — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 17:26:42 +0000

As much as I love all of these (Mrs. Premise, Mrs. Conclusion, and burying a cat are institutions in my family), the best literary Monty Python sketch is the Philosophers’ Football Match. Go to youtube and search “philosophers football” and it’ll come up. It’s absolute genius.

By: Fruppi

Fruppi — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:32:25 +0000

Boggy – I hate to be pedantic…wait…no, I really don’t. I enjoy being pedantic. The word you’re looking for is “masturbation.”

That said, I really, really love the Little Red Riding Hood sketch and use it in my German classes after we read the fairy tale.

And I’m fairly sure you could write multiple posts on their Shakespeare references alone…Hamlet isn’t the only one :)

By: Worthy Evans

Worthy Evans — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 14:39:54 +0000

All of those are wonderful, but my favorite came from one of their records (I don’t know if it was on the show): Thomas Hardy’s newest novel. In case no one knows, there’s a pair of sportscasters commentating on Thomas Hardy’s progress on his latest work as he’s writing on a desk in his front yard. “Yes yes, he’s got his pen in hand, he’s putting it on the page and, ohhhh it’s a doodle!” (”It’s a Tess of the D’Urbervilles all over again.”) and later, “It’s ‘The.’ The first word of Thomas Hardy’s novel is ‘The’!”

I haven’t listened to it in decades and I still work it around in my head. Beautiful.

By: ezan

ezan — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:18:49 +0000

Thanks for posting this! I love MP, there’s nothing like it.

By: adrienne

adrienne — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:16:19 +0000

This is an awesome article. Thanks, Ben!

By: Boggy Creek Creature

Boggy Creek Creature — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:29:56 +0000

In the summarizing Proust skit, Chapman’s character is supposed to list three hobbies; the omitted third one being “masterbating”. You can hear the odd spacing and pause before the huge laugh (much bigger than one would think for “animal strangulation”).
They talk about arguing for its inclusion in “Live in Aspen” and it’s well worth a watch. The session apparently included Terry Jones asking one of the heads of the BBC if he masterbated. Lovely.

By: Johnny Cat

Johnny Cat — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 01:36:01 +0000

Monty Python was so inspirational to my growing uphood. Know what I mean? wink wink nudge nudge.