The 10 Greatest Monty Python Sketches
I finally learned how to do Youtube embeds
After all this time, I finally learned how to embed Youtube videos. It’s simple: Copy the link from the Share button in Youtube, and paste it using the <> button from the circle-plus menu of a new line.
This article ought to just be a Youtube “mix” video, but what the heck, I need to show off my new skill. So here they are, in no particular order: the objectively, undeniably greatest Monty Python sketches. With brief commentary.
Spam
This sketch was so well known and loved that a close association formed between Python and Spam. It eventually led to Eric Idle naming his 2005 hit Broadway musical “Spamalot,” which is a musical comedy derived from the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The Spam song does get a reprise in Spamalot. I wonder how Eric worked that in?
Penguin on the TV
If you’ve ever had a penguin on your TV, then you know how it can be. I had to include a sketch featuring Python’s old lady characters.
The Cheese Shop
Shop owner Palin cannot seem to satisfy customer Cleese. A masterpiece. How does Cleese memorize all those lines?!! All those cheeses?
Dead Parrot
Shop owner Palin and customer Cleese are back again, but this time Palin is clearly trying to cheat Cleese.
Slightly homophobic? Or anit-homophobic? In either case, very funny. Python displays a similar attitude in the song that goes, “Men men men, we’re a ship all filled with men…” (“So throw your rubbers overboard, there’s no one here but men.” Of course this was long before the arrival of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s.)
The Spanish Inquisition
I’ll bet you didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition!
Argument
Do you want an argument? Another masterpiece.
The Black Night
From the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975). The movie has plenty of other contenders for greatness including Bring Out Your Dead! (“I’m not dead yet!”), French Soldiers defending their castle (“I fart in your general direction!”), The Knights Who Say Nih! (“Bring me a shrubbery!”), and the much feared vicious killer bunny rabbit. The movie’s budget was so tight that they couldn’t afford horses so they merely clip-clopped coconut shells together in one of the all time great visual jokes.
The People’s Front of Judea
From the movie Life of Brian (1979), which also has many contenders for greatness including the getting up from bed and stretching scene (no spoiler here), Biggus Dickus, and of course the final scene of the crucifixion with Eric Idle’s song Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.
Mr. Creosote
Sorry, this one is quite disgusting. But I had to include it, it is canon. From the Monty Python movie The Meaning of Life (1983). Not my favorite Python movie, but if you have the stomach to watch this sketch, I guarantee that you will never forget it!
The Fish Slapping Dance
This is a bonus sketch for you. It is not well-known and does not achieve greatness, but it is, perhaps, my very favorite. It says so much and provides so many laughs with no words at all and great economy of action.
Afterword
To give credit where credit is due, who is/was Monty Python? They are/were: Englishmen Eric Idle, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman (deceased), and American Terry Gilliam. Together they created probably the most famous, beloved, and funniest sketch comedy troupe ever.
- Gilliam did the animations for the Monty Python’s Flying Circus television show (1969–1974), and only rarely appeared in sketches. He, of course, went on to a very successful career as a quite renowned and eclectic movie director (Time Bandits, Brazil, 12 Monkeys, Who Killed Don Quixote, and many more).
- Chapman was the only gay member of Monty Python, as far as I know. He died in 1988 of cancer. (Really cancer. Not HIV/AIDS.)
- Cleese was highly respected and created and starred in the classic BBC television comedy Fawlty Towers (1975 & 1979). Unfortunately, he has lately become a highly disrespected right-wing wacko.
- Palin and Jones have been making exactly the kind of documentaries Python loved to skewer.
- Idle, ironically perhaps the least idle of the bunch, stayed busy with The Rutles, an incredibly funny Beatles parody band and mockumentary (All You Need is Cash, 1978), the Broadway musical Spamalot, (opened in 2005, ran for 1,575 performances and grossed $175 million) a wide variety of acting, voice acting, and musical roles, and numerous talk show appearances.
The Pythons are all very old now. (Except Chapman. Buh.)
— Lannie Rose, July 2023
preferred pronouns: she/her/hers
GPT-4 (bing.com/new) used heavily for research, but not at all for writing (except as a thesaurus)
