I found The Rocky Horror Picture Show to be the same way - watching it alone, it was one of the worst movies I’ve seen, but the audience changes it entirely.
You are right. MP is shit, and anyone who would be stupid enough to use one of their character names as a username is a complete wanker.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show is AFAIK unique in the way the audience participation is the whole point of seeing the movie.
But I’m hard-pressed to think of any comedy that isn’t way funnier and more enjoyable when watched with a large, appreciative audience than it is when you watch it alone.
I’ve been a big fan since I first saw the episodes rebroadcast on PBS in the early Seventies. Funny, clever, silly, surprisingly erudite, endlessly quotable. Holy Grail and Life of Brian are the best MPFC movies, but neither of them would even crack my Top Twenty, I have to say. I felt a burst of pride when my teenage sons, unprompted, began quoting MP to me.
Quite right!
Give Doug my best, and please don’t nail my head to the floor.
Spiny Norman sends his regards.
I’m going to echo what some others have said -
Did you see the movie in a theater with and audience? Or did you watch it at home, alone? There is a big difference in enjoyment level between those two experiences.
Also, regarding bits going on too long, that IMHO is actually one of their signature techniques. Milking humor out of discomfort over a bit not ending as expected and continuing past where one would like it too end so that you start going, “C’mon, alright already…” but it keeps going and repeats again and again into a pile of redundant meaninglessness and ennui, causing the eyes to glaze over and the skin to start to itch on the back of the neck right where that one hair grows that sticks up out of your shirt collar even though you pluck it regularly it still seems to grow back immediately like some genetically programmed sentry on the lookout reporting back to all of the other body hairs…(yeah, like that).
I should let him know. He and Shayna are FB friends.
The Pythons were fairly prolific. I’m a huge fan, but I’ll also say a lot of it is hit or miss. What’s good is really good, even iconic on occasion. But there’s dreck too.
Their method seemed to be coming up with an interesting premise and following it through to the most absurd lengths. Lots of times it worked well, but not always. I think they succeeded best when it was a simple premise that gave way to funny consequences when followed to the extreme. Some examples from the TV series (and I’m intentionally choosing lesser known sketches):
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A pair of stereotypical mafia guys go to shake down a local business. Who is it? The army. They’re demanding protection money from the most powerful institution in existence. “You’ve got a nice army base here, Colonel. Be a shame if anything were to… happen to it.” That’s a great premise.
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A man going through airport security acts incredibly suspiciously. To the utmost degree. And nobody cares. The humor here comes in just how blatant the guy’s behavior is and his shamelessness.
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A group of soldiers is trapped behind enemy lines with rations for all but one. The commander decides one of them should do the honorable thing and commit suicide. He then blatantly cheats at drawing straws and counting one-potato two-potato when selecting who will do the deed. (I think you’d have to see that one to get it…)
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Adolph Hitler is alive and living in Britain. He’s not disguised at all, merely calling himself “Mr. Hilter”, and spends his time trying to make a comeback, while succeeding in influencing no one at all. He’s seen giving speeches to bored children in the street.
Not everyone’s cup of tea, but it’s an interesting style of humor. As for the films, I think “Life of Brian” can be considered one of the greatest comedies of all time. Certainly their most coherent film, and it has something to say. It’s the Python’s commentary on organized religion, and I think it worked beautifully and remains relevant. I love Holy Grail, but I think Brian is clearly their best work.
I’m in that sad group of outsiders who enjoy Monty Python but think Meaning of Life is their best movie.
I first heard of them when Another Monty Python Album showed up at our college radio station. I loved it and asked a DJ who did a comedy show to do it. He liked it, too, but couldn’t figure out when to end it, since the sketched all segued into one another. I saw Holy Grail in a theater and had lost it before the opening credits were over. Moose bites can be very nasti.
Part of the disappointment in the OP is the Airplane! effect. ZAZ got us used to seeing fast-paced gag-a-minute comedy. Python predates it, and seems slow in comparison.
And much of Python’s humor is based not upon absurdity, but the reactions to the people to the absurdity. “The Cheese Shop” is funny not because there’s no cheese, but because Cleese starts naming cheeses far past the point where a person would give up. “The Dead Parrot” is so funny because Palin insists against all logic that the parrot is alive. In many ways, they are in the same vein as Andy Kaufmann, though he went even further with the concept.
Holy Grail is filled with that sort of absurdist comedy. Yes, a witch weighs as much as a duck but what makes it funny is that people accept the logic. The Black Knight continues to fight, completely oblivious to the fact he’s losing limbs. The peasant talks about anarchism and King Arthur tries to argue with him.
And, for the record, the ending was absolutely brilliant.
Can’t stand 'em, never could. Pretty much feel the same about all “British humor.” Give me Rodney Dangerfield, Redd Foxx, etc. anytime.
When I was a kid watching “Monty Python” episodes on PBS, I would be howling with laughter. I tried watching some episodes a few years ago, and they didn’t have the same effect on me.
I still think “Holy Grail” is pretty funny, like the discussion of how a moistened bint lobbing scimitars isn’t a good basis for a system of government, or using the scientific method to determine if a woman is a witch. I saw it once in a theatre with a bunch of other Monty Python fans and…the other fans were SO ANNOYING! There were so many nerds trying to chime in with the quotes (like “I got better”), but nobody could get the timing right…
Who are you, who are so wise in the ways of science?
The whole “not ending as you expected it to” and “going on past where it should have ended” (or “ending it in the middle, once the joke has been told”) thing led traditional comics like Johnny Carson to conclude (at first, anyway) that the Pythons didn’t know what they were doing.
Lorne Michaels and the original Not Ready for Prime Time Players on SNL, all of whom were strongly influenced by the Pythons, faced the same problem.
You are not the only one.
“But I didn’t eat the Salmon mousse”
“Holy shit! It’s Mr. Creosote!”
“We’re Protestants.”
I’ve travelled to a lot of countries.
Wherever I went, I met someone who quoted Monty Python. 
No, the whole premise is silly, and it’s very badly written. I’m the senior officer here and I haven’t had a funny line yet, so I’m stopping it.
Humour is subjective so I can understand that MPFC may not be everyone’s cup of tea (although I pity those people), much in the same way I can’t stand Mrs Brown’s Boys but many people find that hilarious (I also pity those people).
Filmwise I prefer Life of Brian as the most coherent storyline; Holy Grail and Meaning of Life are both much more a bunch of individual sketches stitched together (and of course they also literally had a film of all their best sketches, “And Now For Something Completely Different”).
That’s the sort of blinkered, Philistine pig ignorance I’ve come to expect from you non-creative garbage. Cite.
Regards,
Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern -schplenden -schlitter -crasscrenbon -fried -digger -dangle -dungle -burstein -von -knacker -thrasher -apple -banger -horowitz -ticoleensic -grander -knotty -spelltinkle -grandlich -grumblemeyer -spelterwasser -kürstlich -himbleeisen -bahnwagen -gutenabend -bitte -eine -nürnburger -bratwustle -gerspurten -mit -zweimache -luber -hundsfut -gumberaber -shönenddanker -kalbsfleisch -mittler -raucher von Hautkopft of Ulm