Contains: Episode 1: "Whither Canada", Episode 2: "Sex and Violence" Contains tasty bits of famous dead people, Italian for Italians, Whizzo Butter, a hedgehog called Frank, Picasso on a bicycle, the funniest joke in the world, flying sheep, a Scotsman on a horse, musical mice and a man with three buttocks.
Reader Reviews
5 October 1969--History was made when the debut episode of a series that would forever change the face of comedy was aired on BBC1. The skits of Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin, would bizarre sketches, twisted satire, outrageous jokes, funny dialogue, equally surreal animation, and the destruction of sundry sacred cows. The bearded bedraggled hermit (Palin) emerging from the sea, gasps that historical first word, "It's..."Episode 1-Whither Canada?
One knows things are pretty weird when Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Cleese in a sardonic faux-German accent) hosts the famous deaths, which are rated using Olympic style scores, with Genghis Khan's death being televised. Some of the dialogue is side-splitting: "Yes, mothers. New improved Whizzo Butter containing 10% more less is absolutely indistinguishable from a dead crab. Remember, buy Whizzo Butter and go to heaven."
Interviewers who insult or nitpick at trivialities are seen via Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson (Jones), who wants to discuss his music, only to be repeatedly asked about his nickname and sheds, much to his frustration.
The deadliest joke sketch is an example of an idea gone crazy, taking the concept of the ultimate weapon and Ultima machine and totally turning it on its head. I mean, if we were to die, wouldn't it better to die laughing at some lethal joke rather than a mushroom cloud? This idea transforms from a mere skit, to news report, war documentary, to war movie, and back to documentary. The running joke here are pigs being sat on, eliciting a squeal, followed by someone crossing out a drawing of a pig.
A Python feature that debuts is the presence of a Viking, who completes the last word in a phrase.
Episode 2
Sheep trying to fly like birds and plummeting? (BAAA!! Flap-flap-flap THUD!) That's the opening sketch, with a conversation between a bowler-hatted stockbroker type talking to a local farmer. I wonder if the lead sheep being named Harold is a slap at Harold Wilson, then prime minister. The stockbroker's wincing at the sheep thudding is priceless!
The marriage counselor sketch, of a couple undergoing marital strife, is made more hot by Carol Cleveland, who steams up the screen as the sultry wife, described in "All The Words Vol 1 as "beautiful [and] buxom..., in the full bloom of her womanhood." With her crossed legs beneath striped mini, fluttering eyes, a ravishing smile, it's no wonder the counselor (Idle) does his own advice on her while telling her nerdish accountant-type husband (Palin) to wait outside.
This is the debut of the knight who wields a fried chicken body and whacks perpetrators of horrible overracting or totally pathetic performers.
However, the news documentary-style Mouse Problem sketch, is interesting, given the recent Stonewall riots, and in Britain, where certain acts between consenting adults were decriminalised in 1967 as part of Roy Jenkins's enlightened reforms. John Cleese is simply great utilizing a shy, slow and pained voice as a "mouse" who has come out of the closet, or should that be skirting board? This is also the debut of a familiar Python motif--the vox pop, the montage of people giving their opinions on a given subject.
A strong pair of episodes, with more laughs to come.
