QFLW
Posts 51
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9/30/2009 7:40 PM
posted awhile ago
Re:Who is your favorite member of Monty Python?
I don't think I chose Chapman out of sentiment (i.e., because he died), but from genuine affection through all the years I've been watching Python. Holy Grail and Fawlty Towers are classics. Terry Gilliam is one of my favorite movie makers. I love Terry Jones' interest in & depiction of things medieval...well, they're all excellent and very funny. But Graham Chapman's writing and expressions appealed to me the most. I loved it when he played women. :-)
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pippin06
Posts 578
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10/1/2009 8:19 AM
posted awhile ago
Re:Who is your favorite member of Monty Python?
As probably cliche as it is, I had to go with Cleese. Running through all my favorite Flying Circus sketches in my head, he's in the majority of them. Running through Holy Grail, he plays some of the best supporters (the black knight, Tim the enchanter), and he's just a generally funny man. Even when he's supporting, like in the majority of Life of Brian, it's his crazy facial expressions that get me going in the background.
But Palin would run a close second because many of Cleese's best stuff was supported by Palin. Everyone's favorite dead parrot sketch is the two of them. And Palin inaugurated the gumby. And Palin is Dennis in Holy Grail and says one of my favorite lines (Help! Help! I'm being repressed!). Of course, my favorite sketch in the world, which is Self Defense Against Fresh Fruit, has all of them in it, and Cleese is the center point, but the best supporter there is Idle.
So obviously, I like them all for different reasons. My least favorite is probably Gilliam. His on-screen appearances never did it for me, but the animation is weirdly hilarious; he's better suited for behind the camera.
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Risselada
Posts 2068
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10/1/2009 10:59 AM
posted awhile ago
Re:Who is your favorite member of Monty Python?
 pippin06:
But Palin would run a close second because many of Cleese's best stuff was supported by Palin. Everyone's favorite dead parrot sketch is the two of them.
It would be hard for me to pick, but I ended up just selecting Palin because he is so likeable!!
And I would argue that even more enjoyable than the Cleese / Palin / customer / shopkeeper sketch of the dead parrot sketch is the cheese shop sketch. Although I do have a personal obsession with cheese.
Did you know that John Cleese's family surname used to be "Cheese" but his dad changed it at some point to Cleese?
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pippin06
Posts 578
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10/1/2009 12:54 PM
posted awhile ago
Re:Who is your favorite member of Monty Python?
Risselada:
pippin06:
But Palin would run a close second because many of Cleese's best stuff was supported by Palin. Everyone's favorite dead parrot sketch is the two of them.
It would be hard for me to pick, but I ended up just selecting Palin because he is so likeable!!
And I would argue that even more enjoyable than the Cleese / Palin / customer / shopkeeper sketch of the dead parrot sketch is the cheese shop sketch. Although I do have a personal obsession with cheese.
Did you know that John Cleese's family surname used to be "Cheese" but his dad changed it at some point to Cleese?
I did actually! I have a lot of Monty Python related stuff and have read a lot about them, and I remember reading that somewhere along the way.
I like Cheese Shop. That's one of my favorites too, and really, that is Palin's sketch. Cleese's character is incidental/support really because he's just requesting all of the cheese. Oh, and the hilarious instrumentalists kind of give that sketch its offbeat flavor.
And lest we not mention The Spanish Inquisition, which is ALL Palin, and which is a running sketch over an entire episode! He's the one with all of the line deliveries; Jones and Gilliam are props practically. Actually, he's pretty funny each time he plays Cardinal Richelieu too - after all, it's fun to see a semi-obscure historical figure made into kind of a dandy.
Yeah, it was really hard to decide. And I haven't yet mentioned Chapman, but Life of Brian is all his. Well, and Jones as his mom.
What's fun is if you try to identify who wrote what sketch, because the central player wasn't always the writer. Palin and Jones were writing partners (having known each other from school/previous jobs), Cleese and Chapman were writing partners (same), and Idle wrote alone. The most absurd sketches, and things involving outlandish caricature-type characters, cross-dressing, etc. were Palin and Jones'. Cleese and Chapman were responsible for many of the ranting/raving/shouting sketches (such as Fresh Fruit and Chapman's Flying Lesson, another fave). The wordplay sketches tended to be Idle's (and he always wrote the ones where he was the commentator/introducer with monologues), such as Nudge Nudge. If there is a combo of these elements, chances are, they all threw something in together when they convened to write up the scripts for the episode. Historical figures and British references were common to all of them.
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