Things That Go Pop!

personally, i think "Holy Grail" is their best work. especially the scene where King Arthur is talking to the communists.

"Dennis the Peasant: Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
Arthur: Be quiet!
Dennis: You can't expect to wield supreme power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!"

and of course Faulty Towers is all gold...

John Cleese as Beethoven in the Beethoven and his mynah bird sketch was my favorite

Jeepers, Matthew, you read my mind. That scene ranks among my top five. Also,
"What makes you think she's a witch?"
"Well, she turned me into a newt!"
"A newt?"
"...I got better."

When I get a few alcoholic drinks into me, I'm liable to break into the "Medical Love Song". I know it never came from a skit, but it is still a terribly silly moment. My male friends think it's hilarious, and my female friends...well, let's just say singing about Gonococcal urethritis does little for my love life.

My all time favorite is the (I actually forget the actual name) the four yorshiremen.
Where they talk about how tough their life was.

Matthew's right , the constitutional peasant from the Holy Grail is one of the best skits. I'm also a big fan of The Cheese shop with no actual cheese in it and the argument sketch is another of my all time favourites.
The Holy Grail was some of their best work. The first time I saw it at the theater I rolled on the floor during the Black Knight sketch.
I watch the Life of Brian every easter. I love all the tiny relegious sects accusing each other of being Splitters. What have the Romans done for us ? is also a classic.
"All right, all right but apart from better sanitation and medicine, education and irrigation, the roads, wine, clean water and baths,and public order what have the Romans done for Us?"
"Brought peace?"
"Oh Yes peace, very nice. Shut up!!"

The Cheese Shop skit is easily another classic. =)

Monty Python was funny? I'm 54 - and I've never noticed anything funny about Monty Python. And, now for something completely different - the pillory!

And who can forget Archbishop Bruce from Brisbane

The Four Yorkshiremen kills me everytime. My uncle quotes it at the most random times. "At least you had a lake! There were 150 of us living in a shoe box in the middle of the road! Every morning we had to get up and lick the road clean with tongue!"

I watched the Holy Grail two weeks ago. "So if she weighs the same as a duck, she's a witch!" Classic line spoken by members of my family!

Priceless!

One of my favorites is the Slap Happy Fish dance. Short but very funny.

My personal favourite is the Piranha Brothers sketch, but also anything that features the gumbies is also very funny, oh and lets not forget SPAM!

The body of work these geniuses (genii?) created is unparalleled, not only as a collective, but as individuals. Fawlty Towers has been mentioned. Brazil also comes to mind.

To this day, their catch-phrases pop into my consciousness when I see or experience certain behaviours. For example, as an educator, I have had plenty of opportunity to whisper "Silly Bunt".

I've always found more fun in the Blackmail sketch or "How not to be seen".

There's an almost ridiculous scene where these accounts are using a cheque machine and every time a body falls.

But the pub quiz, where Lenin is asked questions about the FA Cup. Hilarious!

Spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam spam.

Have to agree with the others...without a doubt "The Cheese Shop" is tops on the list.

Some of my favourites are:

The Kamakaze Highlanders
Self-Defense from Fresh Fruit
Denis Moore
and of course The Upper-Class Twit of the Year

Favourite movie is Holy Grail

Having missed the original broadcasts on CBC in the early 70s, I grew up listening to Monty Python on vinyl, and some of the sketches I remember most clearly are "The Lifeboat Sketch (Still No Sign Of Land)", "The Undertaker" featuring Graham Chapman and John Cleese, "How To Do It" a brilliant parody of children's programmes, and "Fish License/Eric the Half-A-Bee".

Years later, when I'd had the chance to catch up with the original series on video, what stuck out for me (more often than not) were Terry Gilliam's brilliant animated links, like "The Killer Cars", "The House-Hunters" and "American Defense".

There's a lot of fond memories for me where Python is concerned, and I can still find myself laughing heartily whenever I happen upon a clip of the show. Forty years on and still funny - there's not many comedy troupes that can lay claim to that.

Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch

Ex-leper

itsmyfalk SAID

Monty Python was funny? I'm 54 - and I've never noticed anything funny about Monty Python.

What a shock another dreary sad sack from Winterpeg who doesn't think Python is funny.
Never really got past the three stooges out there did you?

I think their finest work as a whole is Holy Grail, but if I had to pin it down to one moment, it would either be the part with the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, or the role-reversing sketch in Flying Circus where a blue-collar playwright played by Graham Chapman eschews his son (Eric Idle) for going into coal mining instead of the arts.

The cheeseshop sketch. A classic.

The Cheese Shop sketch is right up there. I'm surprised it was not in the initial group.

Upper-middle class twit of the year... or cheese shop. Or even the Olympic Hide-and-go-seek.

It is so hard to pick the funniest sketch but a couple of notable omissions from the list are the Cheese Shop sketch and the Philosopher's Song.

As for movies, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life ("Every Sperm Is Sacred" is one of my all-time favourite movie scenes) are a tie for me.

The Dirty Fork (Restaurant Sketch)

One of my faves is 'Hitler in Minehead', in which Mr. Hilter runs for election in the tourist town of Minehead, and plotting the annexation of Taunton. Everybody around him is totally oblivious to who he and his colleagues, Mr. Bimmler and Ron Vibbentrop, really are. It's just so surreal.

Life of Brian, when they are in the Colosseum - "Where's the fetus going to gestate you going to keep it in a box?"

Letterman's recent incident reminded me of the Blackmail sketch.

The problem with a question such as "what's your favourite Monty Python sketch" is that there are simply too many possible answers. It might have been better to ask which sketch was the worst. That could have fostered some interesting debate.

The Latin spelling/grammar lesson given by the Roman Centurion to Brian in "Life of Brian" is one of the best. Upper Class Twit of the year was also hilarious.

"And now for something completely different", the movie means so much to me, as my Dad took me to see it at the Snowdon Theatre in Montreal and all the way home he kept saying, "Don't tell your mother about the movie!!!".

Favorite sketch? Spam I Spam Don't Spam really Spam, Spam, Spam have Baked Beans one Spam, Spam and spam, but if I had a passion fruit pointed at me, I might say, "Hells Grannies".

Dear CBC,

I abhor the implication that anyone would think that 'Monty Python' is at all funny. I don't find sketches involving persons slapping one another with fish, or arguing about non-existent cheese in the least bit amusing. I demand that you stop this nonsense at once, or I shall be forced contact the CRTC and inform them of your promotion of this tomfoolery.

Yours etc.

Colonel B.J. Concrete.
(in a white wine sauce with shallots, mushrooms and garlic)

To Dennis (of the house in Windsor)

Methinks itsmyfalk was referring to the military character(Chapman) always changing the sketches whilst saying they weren't funny.

One of my favourite skits is the Olympic Hide and Seek. Totally Sardinic.

A moose once bit my sister.

ALBATROSS!! ALBATROSS!!

Blessed are the big noses!

How could one not include the Cheese Shop and Spam????? They rank right up there with the Norweigan Blue!!!

Gumby brian surgery is completely silly and inane and cracks me up everytime. Mind you trying to pick a favourite Python is like trying to pick a favourite Beatles tune, each stands on their own merits. Clever word play, shattering the rules of comedy, getting thoroughly silly, they did it all. Opening a sketch with "Hello Mrs. Premise" "Hello Mrs.Conclusion" could very well be the best opening line in comedy.

I have to agree with the many who have lamented the lack of the Cheese Shop and Dennis the Peasant ("Come see the violence inherent in the system!") on the list, but as someonw else mentioned, listing only ten is a near-impossible task.

And this time, we DID expect the Spanish Inquisition!

The ex-leper bit in Life of Brian is brilliant!
"Well who cured you?"
"Jesus did sir. Not so much as a bye or leave, you're cured mate. Bloody do gooder!"

For me, the key to Python's humour, and most British humour for that matter, is that if you don't "know things" you don't get the humour. A great example is the scene in the Holy Grail between King Arthur and the Anarcho-syndicalists. Another is from Life of Brian, where the Centurion has Brian re-write his "Romans go home" 100 times because he did not decline the noun correctly. "Look, you've used the nominative case. You're addressing the Romans, so you should have used the vocative case!" I am ever grateful that I recieved a good education in a public school system at a time history was taught, and Latin was a langugae option (still obliged to take French as well).

Some I can think of off the top of my head are

"Bicycle repairman" - quite funny seeing the close up of what appears to be Superman and the deep-voiced narrator and then the camera pulls back and you see that the normal inhabitants of the city all wear superman outfits and it is "bicycle repairman" who is the secret hero!

"It's the Mind" - a TV show to discuss the phenomenon of deja vue... while trying to do the show, the commentator finds himself in a recurring cycle of time which drives him mad.

Airline pilots practical jokes - a bored airline pilot and copilot with autopilot set relieve their boredom by making funny announcements to the passengers ... "the wings are not on fire"

Confuse-a-cat .... oh well, too many to list really.

The Holy Grail with the rabbit and the holy hand grenade along with the he sound of horses.

I remember watching Python on TV as a kid and thinking that some adult was going to notice and turn it off. But it was on CBC and it was British so it must be appropriate!

The Black Knight and so much more from the Holy Grail, The Philosopher's Song, the Four Yorkshiremen, and the Cheese Shop are some of my favourites.

Natalie beat me to the Mr Hilter sketch, but another one I love is Oscar Wilde.
"Your Majesty is like a stream of bat's piss."
"What??"
"One of Wilde's, one of Wilde's."
Oh! and the Northern Playwright sketch, too! "There's nowt wrong wi' gala luncheons, lad! I've 'ad more gala luncheons than you've 'ad hot dinners!"

It's a tough choice, but I think "The Four Yorkshiremen" is their most perfect sketch.

My fave is the one where the Piranha Brothers try to extort protection money from a British Army base (dialogue is approximate :))

"'Ow many troops and tanks you got here, major?"

"Oh about 1200 infantry, 60 tanks and 100 light armoured personnel carriers"

"You wouldn't want anything to happen to them, now would you?"

Priceless .....!!!

Funny, so far no one has mentioned the Aussie wine review group, made up of members all named Bruce!

"Australian Blue, a lovely little wine, sluces you out at both ends"

I have hysterics every time I see it.

I really learned to love Monty Python after I bought their album 'Live at Drury Lane". All of their best stuff is on there including the parrot sketch, the argument sketch, the four Yorkshiremen, the 'nudge nudge wink wink' sketch, the Lumberjack Song and many more treasures. This is a great album; Monty Python is firing on all cylinders and the audience is loving it.

I would also recommend their 'Live at the Hollywood Bowl' dvd as this is probably the best live video recording of the group.

The Scottish fish dance! Hands down the silliest thing ever.

A lot of my favourites have already been mentioned.
However, I always loved the Election Night Results sketch, featuring the Silly Party, and the Very Silly Party.
The Battle of Pearl Harbour Sketch (Battle reenacted by a Ladies Group) always made me roar with laughter too.

My brain hurts!

Anything with Gumbys cracks me up.

The Holy Grail scene of the guard confronting the King Arthor. The duel procedes where the king cuts off the guards arm with the comment from the gaurd "Oh its only a fleshwound. I've had worse! Come on you wimp..." & on & on. John Cleese on Q said recently, at the time the producers wanted to cut the scene because of the taste.He said it was the funniest scene in the movie.
I also liked in HG where the king confronts the French guards in the tower & says " He is on a quest of the holy grail" the guard says "We already got one!I fart in your general direction..!" classic!!

Cheese shop was good, bookshop was amazing

there can be no top ten, best of list, it is impossible to choose between of their skits, each was too priceless to rate above the other. Having said that I would point out that one of my favorites was a tribute to Sam Peckinpah that they did, wonderful stuff, gore and all, nudge nudge and I'll say no more......

I'm amazed that my favourite has not yet been mentioned. The sketch where the accountant goes in for career counselling because he wants to become a lion tamer, never fails to crack me up.

"I've got a hat. It says Lion Tamer on it."

My "favourite" varies by mood but right now I'm thinking of "The Bishop" with Terry Jones as a mafioso in a bishop's outfit, taking a call on his crozier and the line, "Don't say the kid's name, vic!" and priests in dark glasses pushing people off the pavement. Yet every sketch is a classic.

So many to choose from.. but how about "The Dirty Fork", or "Upper Class Twit-of-the-Year", or the "Olympics for the Disabled".

Saw them live in Winnipeg in the seventies and "I am a Lumberjack" brought the house down!

Early on in the TV series there was one with flying sheep that has not had the play it deserves.
"Look how much trouble they have with such a simple task as perching!"
I'd love to see it again.

I've always considered the Cheese Shop Sketch as my favourite. It combines my two favourite things comedy and chesse!

Holy Grail. I cracked a rib toboganning and just happen to watch the Holy Grail in English class at school the next day. Couldn't have been funnier. The fact that when ever I laughed it hurt like hell made everything so much funnier. I had tears in my eyes I was laughing so hard mostly becuase of the pain... but it was so funny.

For me it's John Cleese as Ann Elk explaining her new theory on the brontosaurus to Graham Chapman.

What a silly bunt!

Stoning scene from Life of Brian, hands down!

The Dennis Moore sketch. A hilarious look at social welfare policy.

The Silly Party sketch should not be forgotten.

How about the cheese shop..or is it shoppe. whichever it is, it funny

I grew up with Monty in the 70's on cable from a little PBS station in the US. Wow!!! Naked ladies...kinda

The Cheese Shop and the Parrot sketch are tied for first with me.

-b-

Bicycle Tour!

Science Fiction Sketch

That, and the court scene with Mr. Larch and the Cardinal Richelieu impersonator.

The "How to Recognise Different Parts of the Body" episode (episode 22, from the 2nd season). Many classics in there, including the Philosophy Department at the University of Woolamaloo ("G'day Bruce!"), the man who contradicts people ("I most certainly did not!"), Mr. Raymond Luxury Yacht ("...but it's pronounced 'Throat-Wobbler Mangrove'"), Close Order Swanning About ("Squad! Camp it ... up!"), Killer Cars, "Number twenty-six: Margaret Thatcher's brain" (with an arrow pointing to her knee), and my kids' favourite, "It's just gone eight o'clock, and time for the penguin on top of your television set to explode." If you can watch only one episode of the series, make it this one.

Gumby!
http://tinyurl.com/67jkbf

I've always been a huge fan of the 'confuse a cat' sketch. doesn't seem to get the recognition it deserves as a truly silly sketch.

The fish license, The Semaphore version of Wuthering Heights, Seduced mailmen, Hells grannies, Emigration from Surbiton Hounslow, etc...

I've always liked the one about the dead parrot on the TV

I vote for the the 'old lady' on the bench chucking cans of spam at the pigeons. "Would you like a nice piece of canned ham?!?"

Dear Lord Dennis from Windsor,

"Winterpeggers" are not all "sad sacks"! Some of us do enjoy a good Monty Python sketch, and if you dare suggest otherwise, I will smack your bottom ever so gently with a dead parrot (my personal favourite sketch).

The one about the wannabe explorer who goes to the Royal Geographic Society to propose an expedition - first ascent - of Mount Kilimanjaro's second summit (Kilimanjaro doesn't have a 2nd summit!). He's got the trail all planned out and proceeds to demonstrate it in RGS officer: climbing on the fireplace mantle, traversing to the file cabinet etc. Soon find out he sees doubles (ergo the 2nd summit...)

The pilate sketch from the Life of Brian - Michael Palin is hysterical! Also the 'Lupine' sketch from the Flying Circus

Too many funny sketches and moments, but I've always thought the Argument Room and the Blackmail game show. The Fish Dance is hilarious in that sort of "Huh, WTF is that sort of way!" As well, helpful hints like "THIS IS IRONY!" are great wherever they were tossed in.

While the Dead Parrot is up there, I also love World War 1 Noises, Dead Bishops and best of all, The Cheese Shop.

Who can forget the "what's your favourite colour? Ummm... Blue - NO RED!!! AHHHHHHHHH....."

Holy Grail rocks... it's just a little bunny!

I love the sketch right at the beginning of "The Meaning of Life' called "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" where the old school bankers are out to conquer all the businesses they can. Like the ultimate Wall St. company.

Python was very much ahead of it's time in many ways. Love it.

It must just be me, but I've always loved exploding penguins.

"...Anyway, if it came from the zoo, it would have 'property of the zoo stamped on it.
No it wouldn't! They don't stamp animals 'property of the zoo'. You can't stamp a huge lion!
They stamp them when they're small.
What happens when they moult?
Lions don't moult.
No, but penguins do. There, I've run rings around you logically.
Oh, intercourse the penguin!

TV Announcer: It's just gone 8 o'clock and time for the penguin on top of your television set to explode.
BOOM!
How did he know that was going to happen?!
TV Announcer: It was an inspired guess. And now... "

Kamikaze Highlanders!!!

What, you don't have the Grim Reaper sketch??? That's the funniest one!

"Ah, dear, there's a Mr. Death at the door..."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UBQFXQUqxE

Morning. Morning. Morning. Morning. Oh look, Harold's being eaten.

The fish in the tank at the start of Mr. Creasote sketch in "Meaning of Life". It always comes to mind whenever I walk into work in the morning.

One glaring omission from your top 10 funniest scenes must be "Biggus Dickus" from Life of Brian. I think that anyone who can watch this without laughing should have their vital signs checked!

There are so many great sketches! I'm a fan of Da Bishop and Olympic Hide and Seek as well as their "Guide to not Being Seen."

This thread has reminded me of so many great Python sketches, and it's far too difficult to just choose one. I don't think anyone has mentioned "The Funniest Joke in the World" yet, though. I think that the German's attempt to create a deadly joke of their own is the best part of the skit:

Hitler Shouting at Crowd: My dog has no nose!
Massive Crowd of Soldiers: How does he smell?
Hitler Shouting at Crowd: Terrible!

Either the Fish Dance, or the Mr Hilter sketch. Freaking hilarious.

Spamalot was just as hilarious as the original TV series. My two favourites are the 'Hand Grenade' and 'He isn't dead yet!' Honestly, how can there be a favourite with such a repertoire of comic genius? Then there is 'I must sell the children for medical experiments.' from 'The Meaning of Life.' For all their great stuff visit Monty Python's Completely Useless website