SCTV was hilarious the first year and a half, until Harold Ramis left the show. It was just never the same after that. My disappointment grew with each passing year.
SNL was also hysterically funny when it first came on. Then I went and lived abroad for over a year. When I came back, I turned it on and said “Oh, my God! What happened while I was away?” The only bright spots after that were the Eddie Murphy years (and maybe, just maybe, the final year with the original cast, after Belushi and Ackroyd left).
Absolute genius, saw them on the TV, then saw everyone of their movies," Life of Brian "got me, now have “Always look on the bright side of life” as a ring tone. To old to tell you my age. Always have lived in USA. Still enjoy the “randy” side of British comedy, they have learned to get over themselves when it comes to humor, Americans have too many prudes.
37, male, American. I’m not a Python obsessive, though I have seen all their movies one or two times. I’m not sure I’ve seen all the episodes of Flying Circus, but certainly most of them. I voted comic geniuses. I agree with the posters above, that when they fell flat, they fell flat, but their brand of comedy was brilliant. I’m a sucker for intelligent humor with an absurdist twist.
(Pokes thread) hmm, fairly fresh zombie… I’ll risk it.
47 Female Kiwi.
Genius. The first show I was allowed to stay up late for. I still remember some of the gags that (AFAIK) never made it to the records and such.
Like when the credits ran (what seemed like) halfway through the show and everything after was spoofing what must have been the following shows back in Brittain. But wore the records out with friends, too.
My kid, at 13 y/o, loves them as much as I do, even requesting Life of Brian and Holy Grail DVD’s as birthday presents. We both end up breathless at some of the old skits on youtube.
“Really Funny”
I wavered between that and comic geniuses, but I preferred the Gilliam/Palin line of obscure/random humour to the Cleesian rants. (Although some of those rants are very funny!) Hence the second billing on the poll.
Yet another 40 Kiwi, female.
Some of their stuff is hysterically funny but being American some jokes don’t translate well. Some of their schtick runs on a bit long. On the average I will watch an episode or one of the movies but I will not go out of my way to find them online or on TV.
Voted “other”. They used to be funny, but I haven’t aged well. I used to die laughing at Monty Python, but I don’t find much of any comedy funny anymore except for an occasional smirk, and I usually only laugh at things that weren’t intended to be funny.
45 year old female living in the US. I voted “meh”. I think the individual players are comic geniuses but as a whole, Monty Python has never worked for me.
Only caught the “Flying Circus” in bits and pieces on public television in my youth, but my friends and I thought they were hilarious, and of course the movies as well. Bought all the DVD sets as soon as they were available.
Discovered them in the 9th grade on PBS quite by accident. For a long time I felt that I must be the only one in my town who watched them or got their humor.
Male, 50, Canadian. I used to drive into town from the farm to my sister’s place to watch Python on Sunday nights - she had cable and we didn’t. Loved them then and I love them still.
36, female, UK. I voted geniuses because when they’re funny, they’re really funny. Also because my daughter and her friends, who are teenagers, love them too (the films, at least), so it can’t have aged that badly.
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life is probably one of the best-known songs in the UK in terms of how many people know both lyrics and tune. And the Galaxy Song, with the same tune, is factually correct or close to it and actually taught me a fair bit - I still know all the words now.
