As we've mentioned far too many times on these pages, the legacy of Monty Python has yielded a lot of rather silly opinions, the nadir being the smug retrospective denouncement that "only 20% of Flying Circus was any good when you look at it."
But when exactly did this particular cliche come to fruition? Was it present during the show's original broadcasts? Were the sideburned media commentators of 1969 so dismissive (and mathematically precise) about its successes and failures? Or did they dance on the opposite end of the cliche spectrum - immediately recognising the merits and 'surreal genius' of a show which pushed back the boundries of what was possible in TV comedy?
The emergence of 'Python 20%-ers' in the current media climate could be explained quite simply as the following easy-to-remember demographic:
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People who were too young to remember the original TV broadcasts but who, throughout their student days, enjoyed the LPs and films (not to mention being part of the general status that Python and its more familiar sketches have acquired over the years), but who, when confronted with late-80s repeats of the very thing which created the bedrock of that status, were a bit surprised that not every show was a 'greatest hits' collection and who thereafter felt the need to point this out, ad nauseum to people they regard as less intelligent than themselves, as part of the great pub conversation of life. |
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An over-simplistic and dismissive bit of armchair sociology, perhaps, but nicer to read this than to witness the violent slap in the mouth with a huge fish that these people deserve.
The anthropology of the Python fan 'society' throughout history would itself make a marvellous study. Where would the myriad cliches of this particular community sit in relation to each other? And in which particular decade did they each reign supreme? The ubiquitous presence throughout the ensuing decades of squawking women declaring that any bit of random abnormality is "just like something off of Monty Python"? The many generations of stoo-dents who (according to a popular snide observation which is as legendary a cliche as the very thing it describes) 'spend all their time reciting the sketches word for word in pubs'? The bearded comedy fans who
never liked Python and have always, from the word go, cited their presence as nothing more than a poor student revue ripping off Milligan? The 50-something parents who claim to have originally adored the show but now "just don't find it funny"? The website editors?
A multitude of Python 'reactions' which, by nature of its very diversity, provides the sociological context-backdrop to an entire body of work. Fans and commentators as diverse as the six Pythons themselves. American fans of course have their own specific strains and quirks!
With all this in mind, and to begin painting the wider picture, we hereby present the following collection of press articles spanning the years during which the team were most active and beyond. These include reviews and commentaries on the original series. As a window into the developing public and media attitude towards Python's evolving place in history it's quite an eye-opener. And as a collection of interesting cuttings it's pretty damned good too.
As usual this will be an ongoing archive. If you have any interesting cuttings which widen the picture still further, or indeed can furnish us with the odd scrap of missing article then do get in touch.
Comments on the articles are mainly by Squidy who laboriously typed up most of them up.
NEXT WEEK: SOTCAA takes a long and contemptuous
look at peripheral media players who stand around insisting
that The Young Ones has "dated" to anybody who
might be listening...
