# Monty Python's Personal Best on PBS **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 22, 2006, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-pythons-personal-best-on-pbs/345683 "2006-02-22T21:01:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-pythons-personal-best-on-pbs/345683/21 "2006-02-23T15:40:23Z")
The sketches in the Chapman episode were those he co-wrote, even if he didn’t appear in them. I found the episode fascinating; it was rare you get a biographical glimpse of a Python. Eric Idle’s was also good, and his intro segments were as funny as ever, ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-pythons-personal-best-on-pbs/345683/22 "2006-02-23T20:19:59Z")
[Netflix](http://www.netflix.com) has these too. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2006, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-pythons-personal-best-on-pbs/345683/23 "2006-02-23T23:57:18Z")
In my area the local PBS station is having pub quiz night on each of the Wednesdays the series is showing. They find a pub, have an hour of Monty Python trivia, watch two hours of show, and give away prizes and such. I’m thinking about seeing if we can arrange a Dopefest at one of the two remaining pub nights. The final one, on March 8, is a pub I’ve been to with Dopers before. The one next week would be a good little drive from most of the DFW regulars I think. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-pythons-personal-best-on-pbs/345683/24 "2006-02-24T00:40:04Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > The sketches in the Chapman episode were those he co-wrote, even if he didn’t appear in them. I found the episode fascinating; it was rare you get a biographical glimpse of a Python. Highly recommended: Graham Chapman’s _Liar’s Autobiography_. An interesting bit of writing – confessional and surreal, absurdly comic and tragic without being maudlin. He wrote about his alcoholism honestly, made it funny and entertaining without tivializing the problem, and never came across as a gnasher. Lots of funny medical school stories and stuff, too. ---
**Author:** ![Fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/bc8723/32.png) [@Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-pythons-personal-best-on-pbs/345683/25 "2006-02-24T00:54:24Z")
> [@Otto](#): > > The sketches selected in tribute to Graham Chapman are striking me as rather alarmingly free of Chapman’s presence. Dead Parrot, Pantomime Horse, Ministry of Silly Walks, he wasn’t in any of these. He did co-write “Dead Parrot,” as noted above. He was also the inspiration for the divinely silly Pantomime Princess Margaret and, because he so often suggested silly pantomime animals, usually ended up playing them. I also read that Cleese and Chapman were admiring the strained uphill ambulations of a passerby while they were writing and decided that there should be a Ministry of Silly Walks; but as they had no time to write the sketch themselves they turned it over to Palin and Jones. ---
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-pythons-personal-best-on-pbs/345683/26 "2006-02-24T09:02:44Z")
I saw about the latter half of the Chapman one and I thought the mix of sketches with Chapman’s presence on camera vs. those he “merely” wrote was quite engaging. Kind of a deeper look into the process than we normally get just by seeing the finsihed product. Plus, I realized it had been much, much too long since I’d seen the Vikings singing “Spam spam spam spam spamedy-spaaaaaaam, spam spam spaam!” –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-pythons-personal-best-on-pbs/345683/27 "2006-02-24T22:17:43Z")
Sir Skip of Magic: “We are the knights who say ‘Twee!’” ---
**Author:** ![Ponder\_Stibbons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponder_stibbons/32/343_2.png) [@Ponder\_Stibbons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponder_Stibbons)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-pythons-personal-best-on-pbs/345683/28 "2006-02-24T22:21:07Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > Sir Skip of Magic: “We are the knights who say ‘Twee!’” Alright. Where’s a knight with a rubber chicken when you need him? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2006, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-pythons-personal-best-on-pbs/345683/29 "2006-02-24T23:32:02Z")
> [@Ponder Stibbons](#): > > Alright. Where’s a knight with a rubber chicken when you need him? [HERE YOU GO](http://arago4.tn.utwente.nl/stonedead/tv-series/pictures/fc-03/thumbnails/rubber-chicken.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/monty-pythons-personal-best-on-pbs/345683.md?page=1)