Posted by The Fool of Spoons on March 30, 2001 at 23:19:19:
In Reply to: Re: Monty Python posted by Cory on March 30, 2001 at 22:30:07:
: : What do you think is the greatest single line from Monty Python? I think it's, "We at the church of the Divine Loony believe in the power of prayer to turn the head PURPLE!! HAHAHAHHAHA!"
: Anything but the stupid over-quoted "We are the knights that go Ni!" shit.
Or "Spam spam spam spam WONDERFUL SPAM"? That was one of the mildly interesting things that they took too far.
: : And to turn this Enneagram related, just so I'll get more responses, what types do you think are most likely to enjoy Monty Python style humor?
: The idiotic, boring, sexually deprived type.
: > If you haven't seen much Monty Python, "The Far Side" cartoons are basically the same style.
: World of difference. The Far Side plays off irony, word plays, and twists the real world around. Monty Python is just NONSENSE. The Far Side is something that deceptively carries a message underneath. Monty Python is just something you should watch as a drinking game or if you want to get high.
Monty Python is NOT all nonsense. Granted, the Knights that say Ni are pretty nonsensical, but no moreso that I am. And much of it is normal humor; for instance, Charlemagne is often painted holding what looks like the Holy Hand Grenade (a cross with a huge bulb at its base). If you want irony, remember that castle with the grail-shaped beacon? I think they entire "crackpot religions" sketch was pretty clever. The one set in the courtroom where the judge reads the accusation that the defendant killed 30-something people from all over the world "on or about 9 o'clock on the morning of November 19, 1974" and the defendant complements everyone in the courtroom on what a good job they are doing is very funny. The sketch about the deadly joke is good. Actually, most of the sketches are good.
The Far Side plays off irony and word plays, yes, but Monty Python twists the real world around as well as The Far Side does. The only reason that Monty Python doesn't use word plays (although it does use irony) is that it isn't written media. And The Far Side can be as absolutely nonsensical as Monty Python is sometimes; remember that one about the ducks? "quack quack quack quack quack quack CHICKEN" then they all duck down as a chicken is thrown overhead, then "quack quack quack quack" and the subtitle is something like "'So, do you ever have trouble coming up with ideas?' the interviewer asked. 'Well, sometimes,' the cartoonist replied." Or the one with the subtitle that goes like, "For a long time, Farmer Jones and his tall chickens enjoyed immense popularity, until one day Farmer Brown got himself a longcow".