Monty Python’s Flying Circus was a funny, surreal show, where anything was possible. The incredible minds of John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam created a unique show that has influenced many people who laughed at them and loved them. There’s a programming code (python) named after them, and the word spam, as in ads we don’t like in the email, also comes through (as we’ll find out later). Monty Python’s Flying Circus created a new sense of humor; one where anything was allowed, as long as we could laugh about it. Here are the best Monty Python’s Flying Circus sketches, arranged:
9/9 bicycle repairman
One of the funniest ideas the Python had was creating sketches where they flipped some common starting points into their funniest ending. bicycle repairman is one of those sketches, like, in a world where everyone is Superman; the hero needed is a bicycle repairman. The sketch follows all the Superman tropes as the hero hides his identity and must sneak out to change his costume and save the day by fixing a bicycle. Simple, yet hilarious.
8/9 Working-class playwright
Another one of the great ways Python sketches surprised us was by flipping our preconceived ideas, while also making fun of some of the quintessential English art. Working-class playwright parodies the class struggle theater of the time, while giving us a nice premise: what if the class fight between father and son wasn’t about the new generation wanting to be artists and see the world, but vice versa? Each sentence is invaluable as all three, Eric Idle, Graham Chapman and Terry Jones, are 100% committed to this absurd idea. Especially when the father’s writer’s cramp starts acting up.
7/9 Arguments Clinic
An unnamed man (Palin) pays for a five-minute conversation with an argumentation specialist (Cleese). Writing this sketch is very smart, and they know it; because it shows how not to argue while both characters are continuously punching each other verbally. The longer the skit goes on, the funnier it gets as Cleese’s verbal and mental gymnastics get weirder and crazier. Tragically, the argumentation logic of this sketch is now in every social media interaction.
6/9 The Lumberjack Song
Monty Python always loved to sing a good joke, so there are songs in many of their movies and shows. The most famous is “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”, but “The Lumberjack Song” gives it a run for its money. The skit follows the story of a man who wants to become a woodcutter, but the twist is the more he sings, the more he talks about his love of cross-dressing. The nervous responses of the Mounties chorus as they try to carry on with the song are also gold.
5/9 spam
Two customers want to order from a restaurant where almost every dish is spammed in some way. As the customer becomes more and more annoyed with all the spam variants, there is an even more surreal twist, when a group of Vikings (why are Vikings regulars at a British spam-filled restaurant?) break into a chorus to sing: “spam, spam, spam, spam… spammity spam, wonderful spam.” The Pythons wrote this sketch where repeating a word so many times is funny, then it stops being funny and then becomes funny again (see also Sideshow Bob in The Simpsons and his nemesis, the rake). This outline is also the reason we call all junk emails we receive “spam”.
4/9 The Spanish Inquisition
The Pythons were masters of juxtaposition, as perfectly depicted in this sketch, which also breaks the episode’s fourth wall. Every time someone says the sentence “I didn’t expect the Spanish Inquisition!”, (which is used to say someone asks too many questions), three cardinals (Palin, Jones and Gilliam, in one of his rare appearances on- screen, and not just directing, writing and animating) come out of nowhere screaming “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!” While they propose all kinds of torture that are less threatening than they think because they are not as prepared as they think. This silly idea becomes a running gag throughout the episode and gets funnier every time. The Pythons always liked to laugh at historical events, especially in Monty Python and the Holy Grailand The Spanish Inquisition was one of their first successful attempts.
3/9 The Ministry of Crazy Walks
John Cleese was the master of silly acting, he committed 200% to every idea. It’s especially true in this sketch, which in itself is one of John Cleese’s best performances ever. What if there was a branch of government that only deals with stupid walks? That’s the premise, because Cleese, who plays a boring government suit, goes all in and shows how all those crazy walks work as Mr. Putey (Michael Palin) wants some money for his own stupid walk. Cleese’s officer doesn’t think Mr. Putey’s gait is crazy enough and shows him what crazy gait they are looking for. This sketch is one of the weirdest, dumbest ways ever to shed light on how governments decide to fund certain projects while not accepting others.
2/9 Funniest joke in the world
Monty Python’s Flying Circus came firing on all cylinders in this sketch from the start; one of his best and most famous, ends the show’s first episode. The skit begins with a man in his house who writes the funniest joke in the world and dies laughing. In documentary style, the story tells that after his family and the police are also killed in laughter, the government sees the potential and uses the joke as a laughter-destroying weapon, translates it into German and kills every Nazi in their own country. sights. The killer joke is deemed too dangerous and it is decided at the Geneva Convention that it should no longer be used. This sketch was one of the first times we discovered Monty Python, and they already showed how different from anything that came before their ideas. By the way, in the sketch, the killer joke is only told in German, and if you put it in Google Translate, the result is “FATAL ERROR”, which shows that even the tech giants have a sense of humor and that the joke is so good, it can even crash binary code with laughter.
1/9 dead parrot
This is the perfect one Monty Python sketch. It has an absurd premise and two dedicated actors who bring the situation to the most surreal, surprising and fun ending possible. It’s about a disgruntled customer (Cleese) who returns to a pet store because he’s been sold a dead parrot. The shop owner keeps telling him that the parrot is alive, resting, sleeping, stunted, pining, tired, and more absolutely incredible excuses in a verbal fight like Ali vs Foreman that just gets better and better. About the sketch, Michael Palin told Variety: “I loved playing the guy in the sketch “Dead Parrot” or the “Cheese Shop” because you can give them some kind of character – they’re not just someone who says, ‘No, we don’t have this,’ “No, we haven’t.” It’s not just the words; it’s the avoidance and the rank of avoidance, and Why a man should be so evasive, and what goes through his head [that] appeals to me. I really enjoyed mastering such characters, even within a rather short outline…”