Monty Python's Flying Circus: The Complete Monty Python's Flying Circus 16-Ton Megaset (DVD)
APPROX. 1749 MINS. - PROD. YEAR: 0 - MPA RATING: NR
" The show’s relentless anarchy and silliness just for the sake of silliness doesn’t seem quite as funny to me today as it did in the halcyon before I knew what the word “post-modern” meant. No, not as funny, but still damned funny.
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"The Complete Monty Python´s Flying Circus 16 Ton Megaset" does not actually weigh 16 tons but, then again, would you want to pay the postage and handling it did? Imagine the poor underpaid clerk at Best Buy who would have to stock the damned thing on the shelves: that´s a workman´s comp suit just waiting to happen. No, you´ll just have to settle for a mere three pounds of Python and consider yourself lucky to have it.
The entire Python menagerie is here including crunchy frogs, dead parrots, exploding penguins, giant hedgehogs called Norman, and even a Scotsman on a horse. The 16-ton Megaset includes all 45 episodes of the original television series which ran in Britain from 1969-1974 and later in America on late night PBS broadcasts which is where I first discovered them.
The sheer absurdity of the show was an endless source of delight to me then. I knew some of the bits by heart, especially The Lumberjack Song and, of course, the Spanish Inquisition amongst whose main weapons are such diverse elements as surprise, fear, a ruthless efficiency, and an almost fanatical devotion to the pope. The movies were every bit as good, particularly "Life of Brian" which was the first film to teach me a very valuable lesson: Blasphemy is funny!
While I´ve seen the movies many times over the years, I hadn´t revisited the original series in quite some time. I´m a little older now (though I reserve the right to remain just as immature) and my tastes have evolved. A few of my old favorites didn´t quite play the same this time around. I always remembered one episode - in which alien blancmanges turn all the Englishmen into Scotsman (who are known as terrible tennis players) in order to win Wimbledon – as one of the funniest things I had ever seen in my life; watching it again, I still laughed but not as uproariously as I expected to. The show´s relentless anarchy and silliness just for the sake of silliness doesn´t seem quite as funny to me today as it did in the halcyon before I knew what the word "post-modern" meant.
No, not as funny, but still damned funny. Funnier than any other sketch show I can think of, in fact. One thing I was keenly aware of was what a fantastic physical actor John Cleese really is. Nature gave him a bit of a boost with his gangly legs, but he moves like no other actor I´ve ever seen. "The Ministry of Silly Walks" is the best example, but his ability to turn on a dime or go limp in a nanosecond is put to use in many scenes. I also came to the conclusion that Graham Chapman was a damned fine actor by any measure, though I suppose I already knew that from "Life of Brian."
The Pythons weld the low brow to the high brow in a unique fashion. They´re just as comfortable making fart jokes as they are singing songs about the great world philosophers ("And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart, I drink therefore I am!"), and they have a way of bringing both onto the same level. One of my favorites is the "World Forum" sketch in which an expert panel including Karl Marx, Che Guevara, Vladimir Lenin and Mao Zedong have to answer questions about soccer trivia in order to compete for (non-materialistic) prizes.
In addition to all 45 original episodes, the set includes two extra discs with live Python performances and Python specials. On Disc 15, you get the legendary "Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl" (1 hr, 17 min.) performance from 197x which includes many of their best bits and their "Live at Aspen" (58 min.) special from 1998 hosted by Robert Klein in which the late Graham Chapman makes a special guest appearance as a fine, powdery substance. Disc 16 offers "Parrot Sketch Not Included: 20 Years of Python" (1 hr, 12 min), a rather pointless clip show hosted by Steve Martin and the real gem of the collection: "Fliegender Zirkus #1", the German-language episode of the show which most fans have only seen in bits and pieces. It is absolutely hilarious, and would qualify as one of the best episodes of the regular series.
