# How funny, to you, are Monty Python? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 29, 2012, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104 "2012-03-29T01:05:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/1 "2012-03-29T01:05:07Z")
Poll coming up. Maybe indicate your age, and even country of residence, if you don’t mind. I’m curious; that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/2 "2012-03-29T01:08:20Z")
34 ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/3 "2012-03-29T01:09:47Z")
What perfect timing; I even beat the OP to voting. I voted comic genius. 54, live in the US, but the first time I ever saw the show was because my grandmother in Toronto loved it. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/4 "2012-03-29T01:12:40Z")
I used to think they were astoundingly hilarious when I was ~12; sometimes I’d laugh until I couldn’t breathe. Now I think they’re clever, but I guess my tastes have changed. (38, Canadian) ---
**Author:** ![Jenaroph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e8c25b/32.png) [@Jenaroph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenaroph)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/5 "2012-03-29T01:16:18Z")
I voted Really Funny but I wavered on Absolute Comic Geniuses. 39; I thought Holy Grail was hysterical when I was a teenager but I think I appreciate more now how difficult their brand of absurdist comedy actually is, while finding less of it to be that funny. If that makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Kasper1014](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c89c15/32.png) [@Kasper1014](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kasper1014)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/6 "2012-03-29T01:19:58Z")
39, female, USA and voted for comic genius. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/7 "2012-03-29T01:24:33Z")
Comic genii. 🙂 40-_mumble_. NZ. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/8 "2012-03-29T01:32:34Z")
Comic geniuses. 43 USA ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/9 "2012-03-29T01:40:07Z")
Comic geniuses. Living in the USA, I knew them first as recording artists before I was even aware that they had a TV show. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/10 "2012-03-29T01:40:41Z")
Splunge. Male, 43, US: Comic geniuses. Which, of course, does not mean that everything they ever did was gold. Nor am I at all sure about labelling any of them individually as a comic genius. But collectively, if they aren’t, then no one is. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/11 "2012-03-29T01:56:59Z")
Male, 45, US I voted that their comedy hasn’t aged well, but I think they suffer from the fact that a certain type of Monty fan thinks it is funny to endlessly repeat parts of their skits verbatim and that this has diminished the brand over the decades. It’s hard to remember how weirdly wonderful the dead parrot skit was when I’ve had it repeated to me a thousand times by nerds. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/12 "2012-03-29T01:58:23Z")
I think they’re really funny. Their sketch show hasn’t aged that well, and sufferes from pop culture repetition to the point of over-saturation. Plus the “classic” sketches weren’t as funny to me as many of their others. However, I think the movies still hold up, especially _Life of Brian_, because there’s a linear story holding it all together that makes sense, with some clever satire in there for good measure. I’ve always loved silly humour like theirs, from the _Goon Show_ through to _Blackadder_, but it’s a style that doesn’t seem to have continued much past the 90s. I’d say _Austin Powers_ is the closest, and the last one of those was quite a long while ago. I wish there were more comedies in that vein again (though perhaps there are, and I’ve just overlooked them). ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/13 "2012-03-29T01:59:54Z")
Oh, forgot my particulars: Male, 42, general South Pacific Commonwealth region. ---
**Author:** ![Sudden\_Kestrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecd19e/32.png) [@Sudden\_Kestrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sudden_Kestrel)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/14 "2012-03-29T02:01:50Z")
Female, 50+, US of A, and I gave them second funniest on your scale. They only missed out on comic geniuses because a few people have crept past them since their heyday. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/15 "2012-03-29T02:07:59Z")
Female, over 50. I first saw them in the 70’s in a vacation cottage just over the Canadian border in NY - on an old black and white TV with rabbit ears. I remember the Terry Gilliam bits, the parrot sketch, I’m a Lumberjack, and Spam! I am a big anglophile, and we all giggled at the men dressed as dowdly housewives. I thought they were mostly amusing, but I don’t remember a whole lot other than what I mentioned. To this day, though, I remember the old geezer at the start of the show…“It’s…it’s…it’s…” cue music. Haven’t thought much about them in years, but they were a special part of my long lost youth! They WERE special. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/16 "2012-03-29T02:16:55Z")
Genius, 44 US ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/17 "2012-03-29T02:17:15Z")
Geniuses. 35, Canadian. Not everything they did was gold (the episode with the killer blancmange was incredibly tedious, even if the blancmange itself was kind of funny), but more often than not, they were funnier than most, their best stuff is some of the best of the best of comedy in general, and they never got _aggressively_ unfunny. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/18 "2012-03-29T02:18:40Z")
46 and an Aussie. Pure genius… ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/19 "2012-03-29T02:23:47Z")
50-USA. Genius though some has not aged well. However, their good stuff is some of the funniest comedy ever. Guess what my ringtone is. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104/20 "2012-03-29T02:26:45Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I voted that their comedy hasn’t aged well, but I think they suffer from the fact that a certain type of Monty fan thinks it is funny to endlessly repeat parts of their skits verbatim and that this has diminished the brand over the decades. It’s hard to remember how weirdly wonderful the dead parrot skit was when I’ve had it repeated to me a thousand times by nerds. Male, 57, US Ditto. Hell, thanks to the LPs beating the show to these shores I was burnt out on them before I even saw them. But my initial reaction to the LPs was “comic geniuses.” [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-funny-to-you-are-monty-python/617104.md?page=2)