Monty Python:

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Monty Python

• And Now For Something Completely Different

Marley Saiko
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Monty PythonAnd Now For Something Completely
Different

• How they met
• What they did
• Television
• Films
• Records
• Where are they now?
• Monty Python Immortalized

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Humble Beginnings

• Monty Python was created in the late 1960s by
  six friends
• Graham Chapman
• John Cleese
• Terry Gilliam
• Eric Idle
• Terry Jones
• Michael Palin

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• The group met in their college years
• John Cleese, Graham Chapman and Eric Idle
  attended Cambridge
• Terry Jones and Michael Palin went to Oxford

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Pre-Python Work

• 1967
• Graham Chapman and John Cleese co-wrote and
  starred in At Last, The 1948 Show with occasional
  guest appearances by Eric Idle

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• 1968
• Eric Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Jones wrote
  and starred in a childrens show called Do Not
  Adjust Your Set (DNAYS)
• Terry Gilliam joined DNAYS to do animations

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• 1969
• Michael Palin and Terry Jones wrote and starred
  in The Complete and Utter History of Britain,
  where they reenacted periods of British History
• John Cleese saw History of Britain, and wanted to
  work with Michael Palin
• Brian Took, a producer at BBC, arranged a meeting
  between Cleese and Palin, and each brought along
  his writing partners (Chapman, Jones, Gilliam,
  and Idle)
• The BBC gave the six of them a budget to produce
  13 episodes of a television show

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Monty Python is Born

• The first episode of Monty Pythons Flying Circus
  was broadcast on October 5, 1969
• The show was on late at night, and was often
  moved around to accommodate other programming
• In spite of this, a following grew by
  word-of-mouth and the BBC commissioned another
  season in 1970
• Flying Circus lasted until 1973, when John Cleese
  decided to move on to other projects

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Films

• In 1970, the Monty Python troupe made And Now For
  Something Completely Different, a movie aimed at
  American audiences
• The film did poorly at the box office
• The group continued with Flying Circus

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More Films

• In 1973, the Pythons filmed Monty Python and the
  Holy Grail on location in Scotland
• The film was a hit both in England and the United
  States

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And More Films

• In 1979, the Python troupe made Life of Brian
• Story of a regular guy who is mistaken for the
  Messiah
• Banned in some places due to its religious
  subject matter
• In 1983, Monty Pythons The Meaning of Life was
  released
• Won Cannes Film Festivals Jury Prize

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Records

• The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief
• Worlds first three-sided record
• Monty Pythons Instant Record Collection
• Fold-out cover assembled to look like a stack of
  record albums

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Where Are They Now?

• Graham Chapman died of cancer in 1989, but still
  managed to make an appearance at a 1998 reunion
  of Monty Python

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• The other five continue to work on their own
  projects
• Eric Idle maintains the official Monty Python
  website www.pythonline.com

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Immortalization Through Pop Culture

• Monty Python can be found in popular culture
• Phrases from sketches entering the English
  language
• Nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more
• Hes an ex-parrot
• The word pythonesque is listed in the Chambers
  English Dictionary
• Pythonesque, adj. of humour, bizarre and surreal,
  as in the BBC television comedy programme Monty
  Python's Flying Circus.

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• Computer scientists have used Monty Python for
  inspiration
• Spam (unsolicitated email) is a reference to a
  Python sketch
• The programming language Python
• In 1985, a large fossil snake was discovered and
  was given the Latin name, Montypythonoides
  riversleighensis

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Fin

• Started out as a group of college students with a
  twisted sense of humour and their own small
  projects
• Created a television show that accumulated a
  cult-like following
• Made movies that were critically and financially
  successful
• Continue to be busy to this day, though saddened
  by the loss of one of their own
• Have become an unforgettable part of popular
  culture in both England and the United States