Year: Day to Day Men: 11th of May
Communicating with Nature
May 11, 1969 is the birthdate of the British comedy troupe, Monty Python.
John Cleese was writing for TV personality David Frost and actor/comedian Marty Feldman, when he recruited Graham Chapman as a writing partner and “sounding board”. BBC had offered the pair a show of their own in early May of 1969. John Cleese reached out to former “How to Irritate People” writing partner Michael Palin, to join the team. Palin invited his own writing partner Terry Jones and colleague Eric Idle over from rival ITV. Eric Idle in turn wanted American-born Terry Gilliam for his animations.
The Pythons considered several names for their new program, including “Owl Stretching Time”, “The Toad Elevating Moment”, “Vaseline Review” and “A Horse, a Spoon and a Bucket”. “Flying Circus” had come up as well. The Flying Circus name stuck when BBC revealed that they had already printed flyers with this name and were not interested in printing any revisions.
The show was a collaborative process, beginning with the first broadcast on October 5, 1969. With no writers of their own, the six would divide into groups and write their own material. Whether any given sketch would make it into the program, was always a democratic process.
Different Python factions were responsible for different elements of the team’s humor. The work of the Oxford educated Terry Jones and Michael Palin was more visual, and a little more off the wall. The Spanish Inquisition arriving in a suburban apartment is a prime example. The Cambridge educated John Cleese and Graham Chapman were more confrontational – “This is abuse. I came here for an argument”. Any skit that got utterly involved with words was the work of Eric Idle, such as the ‘Man who Spoke in Anagrams’. Terry Gilliam was the personality behind all the peculiar animation.
The Pythons shared a dislike for “capping” bits with punchlines, and experimented with ending sketches by cutting abruptly to another scene, or breaking the rules altogether by addressing the camera directly. Terry Gilliam’s animations were a favorite technique to use: a 16 ton weight would drop from the sky and end the skit.
The Flying Circus broke new ground with techniques like the “cold open”. With no titles, credits, or opening theme, Michael Palin would crawl across the tundra a la Robinson Crusoe, looking into the camera and saying “It’s… And off the skits went. The cold open sometimes lasted until the middle of the show. Occasionally, the Pythons fooled viewers by rolling closing credits halfway through, usually continuing the gag by fading to the BBC logo while John Cleese parodied the tones of a BBC announcer. On one occasion the closing credits ran directly after the opening titles.
