Life of Python Page #2

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Which nobody saw at all,

was a series Terry

Jones and I wrote.

The whole essence of the

complete and utter histories

was to look at history

As if television

had existed at the time,

so we were reporting

on historical events

as if it was modern television.

There'd be an interview

with the victorious Normans

in the showers after

the Battle of Hastings.

"Boys, how did it go?"

When were you sure

you were going to win?

You can never be sure

of a thing like that,

when they were 2,000 down.

Great fun, these lads.

Well, now what about that incident?

You mean when Harold was knocked down.

Very nasty business, David,

and we're all sorry about it,

but I think it was fair.

Certainly gave our lads a laugh.

That was the good bit.

I remember John ringing me

in what must have been April of 1969,

and he said,

"Oh, I've seen The Complete

And Utter History."

He said, "Um,

"you won't be doing any

more of those, will you,

So why don't we do

something together?"

Meaning your lot and our lot.

Barry took, who was

then, you know,

and still is a highly

respected writer

who had worked with

Marty and all that,

was acting as a sort of

entrepreneur of comedy

at the time.

In 1969, I was the advisor

to the comedy department at the BBC,

And we'd just finished

a very successful

second series of Marty,

starring Marty Feldman.

The BBC asked me, "What comes next?"

I'd been looking around

at the various people

who were extremely good

writer-performers.

There were a lot of them,

and I, in my mind's eye,

put together a group of four

which subsequently became six.

They were John Cleese

and Graham Chapman,

Michael Palin and Terry Jones,

Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam.

When you look back,

it was an amazing act of courage.

I was the only one who'd been

much on as a performer,

except that the others--

Mike, Terry, and Eric,

and Terry Gilliam's

first animation--

first appeared on

Do Not Adjust Your Set,

but nobody knew that.

It was the funniest

thing on television,

but it went out at half past 4:00.

It was extraordinary they

went straight into a series

without asking for a pilot.

I thank them for that.

They used to meet and

argue first at my home,

then go to their homes,

then through the evening

they'd phone me and say,

"Am I ruining my career

"by being a part

of this new thing?"

Nobody knew what to call it.

The first title was "It's".

We thought the idea of

somebody saying "It's"

And then being immediately cut off

before they could

announce the program

was funny.

It's...

The BBC said, "Why don't

you just have something

really wacky or

off the wall like...

like somebody's flying circus?

how about that,

John Cleese's flying circus

or something like that?"

John, commendably, didn't

want to be associated

that closely with the show.

And it wasn't any one person's show.

That was something we didn't want--

The David Frost Show,

the John Cleese Show.

We merged our identities

as much as possible.

John suggested Python,

and I suggested Monty

'cause in my pub in Warwickshire,

there was this guy wore a bow tie.

Monty was the guy--

slightly overweight,

was always there in his corner

and had his own pint mug.

It was this wonderful,

warming sort of name.

shows, the early ones.

The first one was called

Whither Canada?

A silly send up of a

documentary subtitle.

Sex And Violence-- we liked that.

The BBC said, "We hope there

won't be any sex and violence."

Weren't we naughty?

Gosh, we were naughty boys.

Aah!

Monty Python's Flying Circus.

It was important to us

to have control

because even when we'd been

writing for other people

and had become well-

established writers,

artists would change a line.

Producers would change a line.

"We think this is better."

We'd say, "No, it isn't."

They might have been right,

but we wanted to say we do know.

The six of us know what is right.

We started off

having group meetings.

We'd meet and talk about

what we wanted to do,

what we should avoid,

The shape of the show--

Get based, then a Gilliam cartoon--

It would go through and link and flow,

and it wouldn't have stop-starts.

Terry Gilliam had done this

stream animation of consciousness.

It was definitely a conscious idea

that we create a whole show

that was a stream

of consciousness.

All the kids really wanted to hear

was that we were heavily into drugs.

Nothing else interested them.

We were all by then pushing 30.

We'd all been working

for a very long time

and were disciplined,

hard-working guys

doing a terrible, boring business

of trying to make people laugh.

They would be terribly,

bitterly disappointed

that we're not sort of--

"Hey, wow, let's do this.

Let's do that."

You can't get a knight in armor

and a chicken just like that.

You've got to plan it.

We cheated slightly in that

we stuck to our own usual

writing groupings--

Terry Jones and myself,

Eric Idle writing on his own,

Terry Gilliam doing

his animations on his own,

And John and Graham writing together.

Graham is a very, very clever writer

and the best judge

of whether something's funny

that I've ever come across.

If ever I was not sure,

I would always take

Graham's opinion.

He seemed to be a sort

of perfect litmus paper

with just extraordinary judgment.

And that was unbelievably

valuable, I think,

to the group and to me as a writer.

John always has to

write through someone.

He needs to focus his

ideas through someone.

The Graham-John partnership

worked extremely well

'cause Graham was always

able to throw in

this really bizarre...

Now and again he'd say "Mongoose,"

which would set the whole thing

careering off in another direction.

Funny that penguin being there.

What's it doing there?

Standing.

I can see that.

Perhaps it comes from next door.

Penguins don't come

from next door.

They come from the Antarctic.

Burma!

Why did you say "Burma"?

I panicked.

The "Nudge-nudge" sketch,

I'd actually written

for Ronnie Barker

for a Frost On Sunday.

I thought it was

a funny character.

It was only afterwards I realized

why he never did it.

Because the script says,

"Know what I mean?

Know what I mean?

Nudge nudge. Say no more.

Know what I mean?"

There's no jokes in it or anything.

I read it out very tentatively

at one of the early Python meetings,

and they laughed like

crazy at the character.

Is your wife, uh, a goer?

Know what I mean?

Nudge nudge. Nudge nudge.

Know what I mean?

I beg your pardon?

Your wife, does she...

Does she go?

Know what I mean?

Nudge nudge. Say no more.

She sometimes goes, yes.

I'll bet she does.

Know what I mean? Nudge nudge.

I don't quite follow you.

Oh, follow me. That's good.

A nod's as good as a wink

to a blind bat, eh?

Are you selling something?

Selling? Selling? Very good.

Very good.

Oh, wicked! Wicked! You're wicked.

Know what I mean? Nudge nudge.

Know what I mean? Nudge nudge.

Nudge nudge.

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