Hitler flies a spitfire in the RAF

[Magniac]

Well you are entitled to your opinion, however ,every one I spoke to [old and young] laughed at the suggestion the Goodies were better than Python! As one guy pointed out the Goodies were a product created to replace TV Python when they went over to movies. It was a pale follow on.

Sorry, you're wrong on the second point. I don't even need to look at wiki to tell me that The Goodies first went to air around 1970/72. That's several years before Python stopped doing their TV show (though about the same time they released And Now for Something Completely Different, a movie which was nothing but a repackaging of their existing material).

Okay, the Goodies were not adult-oriented. In fact, Cleese did a cameo on their programme in which his character derides them for being a "kids show!"

(Anyway, why do I get the feeling you were asking for opinions from among Python fanboys? I'm sure Goodies fanboys would agree with what I wrote previously--though I've revised my opinion. Now I would just argue that The Goodies was more much enjoyable than Flying Circus was for people of around my generation in this country.)

No one ever had the creativity and shock value of Cleese and Chapman.

Mate, are you a lock-in with no access to media except Python DVDs? Seriously.

They had the right message at the right place and the right time...kind of like the Beatles in Music. Borrowing/sealing ideas in the arts is the norm and nothing wrong with that. No one ownes any ideas. Its all in the delivery and in that regard Python has no equal.

I will retract what I said about Flying Circus being terribly unfunny. That was unfair. But that television show doesn't stack-up well against the Python movies, or Fawlty Towers, or Ripping Yarns. It's an okay show for its era, not the be all and end all of television comedy history.

I've seen most episodes of the first two series (seasons for Americans), and several of the bits are very good--'Doug and Dinsdale', 'No one ever expects the Spainsh Inquistion', f'rinstance.

But the fact is, like many people in this country, I saw Flying Circus on VCR and cable as a teenager, while I'd already grownup on Goodies repeats on Channel 2 (the Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

I would even say that Python was better than the "Goon show", but that is almost sacrilge to think that way. "Yiiieeeks Neady, have a noodle" Peter Sellers was one of the most creative comedians of his time and Spike was just too wacked out at times , but fit very , very well with Sellers.

Even to this day I can watch Python skits on TV and roar with laughter. Only Black Adder and Red Dwarf can do the same for me, but all roads lead to Python in the real comedy world.

This deserves a non-chat thread of its own.

I've thought about this, and I think I'm right that the inflated reputation of Monty Python is something that needs addressing (if only to salvage the genuinely worthy bits of Python from being suffocated by anoraks).

 

[MrP]

I've thought about this, and I think I'm right that the inflated reputation of Monty Python is something that needs addressing (if only to salvage the genuinely worthy bits of Python from being suffocated by anoraks).

I say you and Thande are long-lost twins.

 

[esl]

Hm, those South Park chaps did rather better on the shock front for a while.

Get back in your time machine!

yep I was thinking that toooo.


Like I said Magniac, your entitled to your opinion . While I still can't find ANYONE who knows who the Goodies even where ["You mean that movie called the Goonies , for the third time NOOOO" ]......... I will say that with the possible exception of the famous "South Park" mentioned above, there is precious little good comedy here in the North American TV market....come to think about it theres precious little of anything good on the North American TV Market. Ohhh maybe I should add our dear beloved "Trailer Park Boys"...got to love Bubbles and company.

Anyway, against that back drop any britcom at all, is light years ahead of the local competition , even "Are you being silly"





BTW

"But that television show doesn't stack-up well against the Python movies, or Fawlty Towers, or Ripping Yarns"

Ripping Yarns was mediocer at best , as was the last Python movie and Time bandits etc, but none of those shows would have been even remotley possible [along with your precious Goodies], had the Pythons not broken such ground first .

The world is just divided up into those who understand and love the religion of Python, and those who don't.

 

[Magniac]

Like I said Magniac, your entitled to your opinion . While I still can't find ANYONE who knows who the Goodies even where ["You mean that movie called the Goonies , for the third time NOOOO" ]......... I will say that with the possible exception of the famous "South Park" mentioned above, there is precious little good comedy here in the North American TV market....come to think about it theres precious little of anything good on the North American TV Market. Ohhh maybe I should add our dear beloved "Trailer Park Boys"...got to love Bubbles and company.

Anyway, against that back drop any britcom at all, is light years ahead of the local competition , even "Are you being silly"

I hope you include the animated network shows, and recent sitcoms like Seinfeld, Arrested Development and 30 Rock as decent comedy, otherwise you'll be making dozens of enemies here.

Ripping Yarns was mediocer at best , as was the last Python movie and Time bandits etc, but none of those shows would have been even remotley possible [along with your precious Goodies], had the Pythons not broken such ground first .

The world is just divided up into those who understand and love the religion of Python, and those who don't.

You desperately need to find out about Milligan's Q and Cook and Moore's Not only, but also, esl. Don't ask your fellow Python fanboys, look for the DVDs, look for the reviews online.

Dude, it's no longer the early nineties (the years I first encountered Flying Circus). The old stuff is out there, it's easier to get ahold of nowadays, a lot of people have spent a lot of time recovering B&W and early colour tapes that were thought to have been lost forever (just like many 'Dr Who' episodes have been retrieved).

You also need to watch sixties movies like The Magic Christian, How I Won the War, and the films made by the Beatles.

I don't care if you have a much lower opinion of the 'Goodies' than I do of Flying Circus--I just think you should know that there was a whole school of wacky Brit comedy that came before Flying Circus. I'm not making this up.

That you think Python were the only 'groundbreakers' is nothing but willful ignorance. Sorry, but once again, I'm not making any of this up.
Anyway, I started a thread about this at non-chat (poll included).

I voted for 'the series kinda sucked, but the movies rocked'.

I see I should have included an option for 'I love the show, but dislike the movies'. Sorry, but you'll probably just have to vote for 'terrific'('Triffic').

 

[esl]

I hope you include the animated network shows, and recent sitcoms like Seinfeld, Arrested Development and 30 Rock as decent comedy, otherwise you'll be making dozens of enemies here.

I've seen them all and they are pretty lame. South Park is good and the Kramer character in Seinfeld is the only thing that makes that show worth watching. My kids hate all these modern comedys and prefer all the Britcoms and respect the older comedies even right back to the Marks Brothers. We have watched them all and nothing comes close to the series that I've already mentioned. Early SNL is good and sometimes great.

The wife who loves all those comedies you mentioned above, has concluded that some times of British humor is cultural and doesn't translate well into North American culture. I look upon it as comparisons with humor written in other lanquages, like Russian and Polish. The comedy often doesn't translate. Have you ever read a Russian or Chinese joke translated into English !!!!

I am remiss in not having mentioned Peter Cook and Duddly Moores works, but I look upon them as the Beyond the Fringe lot that we watched when we were in Edinburgh. Oh and the original BBC Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is also awsome. Douglas Adams humor is dry, but punchy.... and when it works , its just like hitting a home run.

Its like once you've watched the Sean Connery Bonds, there is no other Bond. Once you've watched Jeremy Brett's Holmes, their is no other Sherlock Holmes.

The early Dr Whos [William Hartnell & Patrick Troughton and to a lesser extent Jon Pertwee & Tom Baker] , these are the definitive 'Doctor's '... all else are mere pretenders.