I can’t believe I missed this thread for so long. I must’ve gotten a bit absorbed in re-reading * Some More of God’s Greatest Mistakes *, or was I fantasizing about slipping in through the back door of the Castle Anthrax, just after Lancelot & Co. rescue Sir Galahad from almost certain temptation?
I dunno. They’re very different - the main thing they have in common is being British. Adams’ strength is a wryness that has a certain underlying wisdom; I’ve frequently found myself remembering bits of Hitchhiker lore in situations where that Hitchhiker passage describes exactly how the world is working at that moment.
By contrast, Python is just good old-fashioned outside-the-bounds-of-reality humor. A better either-or, IMO, would be Python v. Marx Brothers, who existed in that same rarefied plane, in their best movies, especially the * Monkey Business - Horsefeathers - Duck Soup * sequence. And I can’t make up my mind which is better at it, really, despite my * nom de SDMB *.