I completely agree with you but it’s funny hearing it from someone with your username.
I love MP. I also love FT. I used to have several episodes on tape but I lost the tape… 
The scene that contains the above line was absolutely one of, if not the, funniest things I have ever seen on television.
I know many people who would just be able to connect a lot more easily to Fawlty Towers than to Monty Python; MP just doesn’t make any sense to them, and they can’t see what the big deal is.
Cool, can you send it to the U.S.? I live near Detroit.
Oh, btw, I prefer FT to MP as well.
Well I’m a Brit, and I found FT to be funny when first watched as a kid, but to me it ages much worse than MP. I find FT to be too predictable, lacking in subtlty, and not nearly as good to watch repeatedly.
Admittedly MP sketches often fail, but I still enjoy watching MP whilst FT is just painful to watch these days.
I think Owlstretchingtime has a very good point. I remember years ago borrowing a couple of MP episode tapes from a friend and sitting down thinking “Man, I am gonna laugh my ass off.” Wow was I disappointed. Sure there were a few really good skits and quite a few decent ones, but at least 50% I just watched quietly - they did nothing for me. Even though I usually get the humor of MP, they just weren’t all that great. And I don’t think my high expectations were to blame.
FT though, well, that is just the funniest show ever made.
Fawlty Towers had the best comedic timing of anything I’ve ever seen on TV. And as we all know, comedy’s all in the timing. I love Monty Python, don’t get me wrong, but as others have pointed out, their “hit rate” really wasn’t that high - plenty of their skits just weren’t funny.
I think as far as the overall quality of the finished product goes, FT is better. I prefer to have the humor just a bit understated, but with a grand slam at the end, like when Basil realizes that the real hotel inspectors have just witnessed him attacking the departing Mr. Hutchinson with pies.
It’s much like the two Marx Bros. films that were produced by Thalberg, A Night At The Opera and A Day At The Races. Those movies were a little less “zany”, but the plot lines hung together better than in the earlier films, and they’re generally considered to be a more satisfying product overall.
Whe shouldn’t Cleese talk about Fawlty Towers? Python was a group effort; there are four other guys still alive who could talk about it (though they’re probably as sick of discussing it as he); and, towards the end, he was growing dissatisfied with it and didn’t contribute much. Fawlty Towers was “his” show; whether you like the show or not, that’s what he apparently wanted to discuss.
Quite well put. My favorite, and I’m not alone I’m sure, will always be Duck Soup because it has the most great jokes. But A Night at the Opera is the better movie in terms of moviemaking because it has better plotting and the musical sequences actually have something to do with the story for the one and only time. Although half of what makes Duck Soup fun is that utter randomness. Night is nearly as funny anyway; the classic bits are just as good. I never felt Day at the Races, despite a few very funny moments, was nearly on par with that pair, I’d put it behind Animal Crackers.
Fawlty Towers touches on universal themes: many people identify with Basil’s frustration with the world, and there are lots of old British B&Bs/hotels that were really not that far from FT. Basil really exemplifies the traditional British attitude to serving the public (maybe Americans don’t have that experience). I think reasons like that explain why the show has more resonance for many people.
Also, MP seems less popular with women than with men; women in the show are typically relegated to the role of bathing beauties. FT seems to have fans of both sexes in equal numbers.