Male 57 USA
If there was a British Mount Rushmore of Comedy, the Python’s faces would be on it. Or something like that.
Male 57 USA
If there was a British Mount Rushmore of Comedy, the Python’s faces would be on it. Or something like that.
If their comedy doesn’t seem to age well, it’s because they redefined the genre. Much of it is ordinary today, but extraordinary at the time. But movies such as Holy Grail and Life of Brian are timeless, and far superior to the typical modern comedy.
Absolute comic geniuses.
Genius.
American, 44
Genius, 41, USA.
Well, I saw it the first time around. I can still remember seeing the very first show, and telling friends at school about it the next day. So yeah, comic genius. I also currently have a daughter in high school and another daughter who is a college freshman, and actually I was fairly amazed to discover that high school kids are still aware of Monty Python some 40 years after the event (and without me having pushed it on them). It might not have the impact that it once had, but there do seem to be kids today who still regard it as great comedy (probably not my daughters, but some of their friends). For something as ephemeral as comedy, that is real staying power. Some of the other comedy from the same period, that I loved at the time, still very occasionally shows up in re-runs, but mostly it is really painful viewing now. Python is still funny to me even though I know it virtually by heart.
That said, Python, when it first appeared in the UK, was not by any means totally fresh and original in its style. With the exception of Terry Gilliam, all of the troupe had been working in British TV and radio for some time, and at least some of what they (and some others) had been doing displayed the same sort of comic sensibility. Python did it better, and more consistently, and jettisoned some of the more “traditional” comic elements that had diluted the impact of earlier shows, but it was not a sharp break with the immediate past. In particular, At Last the 1948 Show, which ran in the late '60s on ITV (with Cleese and Chapman in the cast), was very much in the same vein.
60, UK.
Meh, sometimes I smirk.
Male, United States, mid20s.
Geeeenius.
Pushing 60, American (but grew up on Beyond The Fringe, so was used to Brilliant Brit Humor)
The “aging” comments simply don’t apply unless your sense of humo(u)r only has an attention span of a few moments.
This 61 year old American male says “absolute comic geniuses”
As for not the not aging well comments I will just say - familiarity breeds contempt.
I couldn’t vote, though ‘Hit and Miss’ was closest. It just was more than ‘ok’ on the hits.
USA, white female, 45, did not grow up with Monty Python and didn’t learn of them until college. (Grew up with SNL and SCTV though)
What I like of Python, I really REALLY like. But that’s by no means even 60 percent of their material.
Peruvian male 43
Sometimes smirk.
They et boring and repetitive pretty quickly.
Genius,
56 year old American lady
Genius, American male, 36.
And unfortunately, no that brand of humor hasn’t aged well.
30 years old. American. I think they’re genius.
Humor is subjective though.
29, USA
I think they’re comic geniuses because they almost invented that style of absurdist comedy, and their wide influence is readily apparent today. But while I recognize their genius, I don’t find them nearly as funny as I did when I was 15, mainly because of sheer repetition. There’s only so many times you can sing along to The Lumberjack Song before you stop laughing out loud at it. Granted, that number may be in the high hundreds, but nevertheless I passed it years ago.
Someone mentioned pop culture saturation, and that’s a big part as well. I cringe whenever someone asks a slightly injured person if they’re alright, because I know “'tis but a scratch” or “it’s just a flesh wound” is coming in 3…2…1…
Of course, there is an obligatory XKCD that sums up my views on the matter rather well. It’s an old classic, too!
40 years old. Comic genius. Started watching them in middle school during the summers when I was allowed to stay up late enough to catch them on PBS.
Yeah, I put hasn’t aged well, but I do think they are geniuses. It’s like when people call Citizen Kane cliched, it’s not a cliche when you’re the first to do it.
ETA: that XKCD nailed it.
Thirty six year old male. I vote “geniuses,” but in all honesty, they’re geniuses that I never really need to see again.