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Monty Python

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Television

                              Monty Python

   The Python team. Top row: Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam.
   Bottom row: Terry Jones, John Cleese, Michael Palin
   British comedy troupe
   Years active
   1969-1983
   Members
   Graham Chapman
   John Cleese
   Terry Gilliam
   Eric Idle
   Terry Jones
   Michael Palin
   Milestones
   Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969-1974)
   Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
   Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)
   Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982)
   The Meaning of Life (1983)
   Spamalot (2005)
   Official website
   PythOnline

   Monty Python, or The Pythons, is the collective name of the creators of
   Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show
   that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. A total of 45 episodes
   were made over four series (the last of which dropped the 'Flying
   Circus' from the title and thus was also called Monty Python). However,
   the Python phenomenon developed from the original television series
   into something much greater, in scope and impact; it spawned touring
   stage shows, four films, numerous albums, several books and a spin-off
   stage musical—as well as launching the members on to individual
   stardom.

   The television series, broadcast by the BBC from 1969 to 1974, was
   conceived, written and performed by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry
   Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. Loosely structured
   as a sketch show but with a highly innovative stream-of-consciousness
   approach (aided by Terry Gilliam's animations), it pushed the
   boundaries of what was then considered acceptable, both in terms of
   style and in content.

   The group's influence on comedy has often been compared to The Beatles'
   influence on music, a self-contained comedy team responsible for both
   writing and performing their work and changing the way performers
   entertained audiences. The Pythons' creative control allowed them to
   experiment with form and content, discarding the established rules of
   television comedy and breaking new ground for those who came after (
   George Harrison, who became friends with several members of the cast,
   said that he regarded Monty Python as 'continuing the spirit' of The
   Beatles). Their influence on British comedy of all kinds has been
   apparent for many years, while in America it has coloured the work of
   many cult performers from the early editions of Saturday Night Live
   through to more recent absurdist trends in television comedy.

   There are differing accounts of the origins of the Python name although
   the members agree that its only 'significance' was that they thought it
   sounded funny. In the 1998 documentary Live At Aspen the group implied
   that 'Monty' was selected as a gently-mocking tribute to Field Marshal
   Lord Montgomery, a legendary British general of World War II; requiring
   a "slippery-sounding" surname, they settled on ' Python'. On other
   occasions Idle has claimed that the name 'Monty' was that of a popular
   and rotund fellow who drank in his local pub; people would often walk
   in and ask the barman, "Has Monty been in yet?", forcing the name to
   become stuck in his mind. These explanations aside, some believe that '
   Monty Bodkin', the name of a character in several books by humourist P.
   G. Wodehouse, served on some level as an inspiration.

   In a 2005 poll to find The Comedian's Comedian, three of the six
   members were voted among the top 50 greatest comedians ever, by fellow
   comedians and comedy insiders. Palin was at number 30, Idle was voted
   21st and Cleese was at two, just beaten to the top by Peter Cook.

Before Monty Python

   Palin and Jones first met at Oxford University, while Cleese and
   Chapman met at Cambridge. Idle was also at Cambridge, but started a
   year after Cleese and Chapman. Cleese met Gilliam in New York while on
   tour with the Cambridge University Footlights revue Cambridge Circus
   (originally entitled A Clump of Plinths).

   Chapman, Cleese and Idle were all members of the Footlights, which at
   that time also included the future Goodies— Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill
   Oddie and Graeme Garden—as well as Jonathan Lynn (co-writer of Yes
   Minister and Yes, Prime Minister). During the time of Idle's presidency
   of the Club, feminist writer Germaine Greer and broadcaster Clive James
   were also members. Recordings of these so-called "Smokers" at Pembroke
   College include sketches and performances by Idle and Cleese. They are
   currently kept in the archives of the Pembroke Players, along with
   tapes of Idle's performances in some of the college drama society's
   theatrical productions.

   Variously, the Python members appeared in or wrote, or both, for the
   following shows before being united for Monty Python's Flying Circus.
   In particular, The Frost Report is credited as first uniting the
   British Pythons and providing an environment in which they could
   develop their particular styles:
     * I'm Sorry, I'll Read That Again (radio) (1964–1973), Cleese: cast
       member & writer
       — Idle and Chapman: writers]
     * The Frost Report (1966–1967) [Cleese: cast member & writer
       — Idle: writer of Frost's monologues — Chapman and Palin & Jones:
       writers]
     * At Last the 1948 Show (1967) [Chapman & Cleese: writers & cast
       members — Idle: writer]
     * Twice a Fortnight (1967) [Palin & Jones: cast members & writers]
     * Do Not Adjust Your Set (1967–1969) [Palin, Jones & Idle: cast
       members & writers
       — Gilliam: animation — Bonzo Dog Band: musical interludes]
     * We Have Ways of Making You Laugh (1968) [Idle: cast member & writer
       — Gilliam: animation]
     * How to Irritate People (1968) [Cleese & Chapman: cast members &
       writers — Palin: cast member]
     * The Complete and Utter History of Britain (1969) [Palin & Jones:
       cast members & writers]
     * Doctor in the House (1969) [Cleese & Chapman: writers]

   Several of these also featured other important British comedy writers
   or performers, or both, including Ronnie Corbett, Ronnie Barker, Tim
   Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden, Bill Oddie, Marty Feldman, Jonathan Lynn,
   David Jason and David Frost.

   Following the success of Do Not Adjust Your Set (originally intended to
   be a children's programme) with the adult demographic, ITV offered
   Palin, Jones, Idle and Gilliam their own series together. At the same
   time Cleese and Chapman were offered a show by the BBC, having been
   impressed by their work on The Frost Report and At Last The 1948 Show.
   Cleese was reluctant to do a two-man show for various reasons,
   including Chapman's supposedly difficult personality. Cleese had fond
   memories of working with Palin and invited him to join the team. With
   the ITV series still in pre-production Palin agreed and suggested the
   involvement of his writing partner Jones and colleague Idle—who in turn
   suggested that Gilliam could provide animations for the projected
   series. Much has been made of the fact that the Monty Python troupe is
   the result of Cleese's desire to work with Palin and the chance
   circumstances that brought the other four members into the fold.

Flying Circus and the Python style

   The Pythons had a very definite idea about what they wanted to do with
   the series. They were all great admirers of the work of Peter Cook,
   Alan Bennett, Jonathan Miller and Dudley Moore on Beyond the Fringe,
   and had worked on Frost, which was similar in style. They also enjoyed
   Cook and Moore's sketch show Not Only... But Also. However, one problem
   the Pythons perceived with these programmes was that though the body of
   the sketch would be strong, the writers would often struggle to then
   find a punchline funny enough to end on, and this would detract from
   the overall quality of the sketch. They decided that they would simply
   not bother to 'cap' their sketches in the traditional manner, and early
   episodes of the Flying Circus series make great play of this
   abandonment of the punchline (one scene has Cleese turn to Idle, as the
   sketch descends into chaos, and remark that "This is the silliest
   sketch I've ever been in" - they all resolve not to carry on and simply
   walk off the set). However, as they began assembling material for the
   show, the Pythons watched one of their collective heroes, Spike
   Milligan, recording his new series Q5 (1969). Not only was the
   programme more irreverent and anarchic than any previous television
   comedy, Milligan would often "give up" on sketches halfway through and
   wander off set (often muttering "did I write this?"). It was clear that
   their new series would now seem somewhat less original, and Jones in
   particular became determined the Pythons should innovate further.

   After much debate, Jones remembered an animation Gilliam had created
   for Do Not Adjust Your Set called "Beware of the Elephants", which had
   intrigued him with its stream-of-consciousness style. Jones felt it
   would be a good concept to apply to the series: allowing sketches to
   blend into one another. Palin had been equally fascinated by another of
   Gilliam's efforts, entitled "Christmas Cards", and agreed that it
   represented "a way of doing things differently." Since Cleese, Chapman
   and Idle were less concerned with the overall flow of the programme, it
   was Jones, Palin and Gilliam who became largely responsible for the
   presentation style of the Flying Circus series, in which disparate
   sketches are linked to give each episode the appearance of a single
   stream-of-consciousness (often using a Gilliam animation to move from
   the closing image of one sketch to the opening scene of another).

   Each day of writing started at 9am and finished at 5pm. Typically,
   Cleese and Chapman worked as one pair of writers isolated from the
   others, as did Jones and Palin, while Idle wrote alone. After a few
   days of working in this configuration, they would all join together
   with Gilliam, critique their scripts and exchange ideas. Their approach
   to writing was democratic. If the majority found the idea to be
   humorous, it would be included in the show. The casting of roles for
   the sketches was a similarly unselfish process, since each member
   viewed himself primarily as a writer, rather than an actor desperate
   for screen time. When the themes for sketches were finally chosen,
   Gilliam had carte blanche to decide how to bridge them with animations,
   armed with his camera, scissors, and airbrush.

   While the show was a collaborative process, different factions within
   Python were clearly responsible for different elements of the team's
   humour. In general, the work of the Oxford-educated members was more
   visual, and more fanciful conceptually (e.g. the arrival of the Spanish
   Inquisition in a suburban front room), while the Cambridge graduates'
   sketches tended to be more verbal and more aggressive (for example,
   Cleese and Chapman's many "confrontation" sketches, where one character
   ends up intimidating or hurling abuse at another, or Idle's characters
   with bizarre verbal quirks, such as The Man Who Speaks In Anagrams).
   Asked about this, Cleese has confirmed that "most of the sketches with
   heavy abuse were Graham's and mine, anything that started with a slow
   pan across countryside and impressive music was Mike and Terry's, and
   anything that got utterly involved with words and disappeared up any
   personal orifice was Eric's." Gilliam's animations, meanwhile, ranged
   from the whimsical to the savage (the cartoon format allowing him to
   create some astonishingly violent scenes without fear of censorship).

   Several names for the show were bandied about before the title Monty
   Python's Flying Circus was settled upon. Some of the more memorable
   were Owl Stretching Time, The Toad Elevating Moment, Vaseline Review
   and Bun, Wackett, Buzzard, Stubble and Boot. "Flying Circus" stuck when
   the BBC explained to the group that it had already printed that name in
   its schedules and was not prepared to amend it, leaving the Pythons no
   choice in the matter. Many variations then came and went. Gwen Dibley's
   Flying Circus was named after a woman Palin had read about in the
   newspaper, thinking it would be amusing if she were to discover she had
   her own TV show. Barry Took's Flying Circus (also Baron Von Took's
   Flying Circus) was an affectionate tribute to the man who had brought
   them together. Arthur Megapode's Flying Circus was suggested, then
   discarded. Cleese then added "Python", liking the image of a slippery,
   sly individual that it conjured up. The specific origin of "Monty" is
   somewhat confused (see above).

   Flying Circus pioneered some innovative formal techniques, such as the
   cold open, in which an episode began without the traditional opening
   titles or announcements. An example of this is the "It's" man: Palin in
   Robinson Crusoe garb, making a tortuous journey across various
   terrains, before finally approaching the camera to state, "It's...",
   only to be then cut off by the title sequence and the theme song. On
   several occasions the cold open would last until mid show, after which
   the regular opening titles would run. Occasionally the Pythons would
   attempt to trick viewers by rolling the closing credits halfway through
   the show, usually continuing the joke by fading to the familiar globe
   logo used for BBC continuity, over which Idle would parody the clipped
   tones of a BBC announcer. On one occasion the credits would run
   directly after the opening titles. They also experimented with ending
   segments by cutting abruptly to another scene or animation, walking
   offstage, addressing the camera (breaking the fourth wall), or
   introducing a totally unrelated event or character. A classic example
   of this approach was the use of Chapman's "Colonel" character, who
   walked into several sketches and ordered them to be stopped because
   things were becoming "far too silly." Another favourite way of ending
   sketches was to drop a cartoonish "16-ton weight" prop on one of the
   characters when the sketch seemed to be losing momentum, before cutting
   to the next scene (a knight, who would wander on-set and hit characters
   over the head with a dead chicken, served a similar purpose).

   The Monty Python theme music is Liberty Bell march composed by John
   Philip Sousa.
     * Monty Python - Flying Circus theme —
          + The theme music from Monty Python's Flying Circus featuring
            the "It's..."
          +

   The use of Gilliam's surreal, collage stop motion animations was
   another innovative intertextual element of the Python style. Many of
   the images Gilliam used were lifted from famous works of art, and from
   Victorian illustrations and engravings. The giant foot which crushes
   the show's title at the end of the opening credits is in fact the foot
   of Cupid, cut from a reproduction of the Renaissance masterpiece Venus,
   Cupid, Folly, and Time by Bronzino. This foot, and Gilliam's style in
   general, have come to be considered the visual trademarks of the
   series.

   The Pythons built on and extended the great British tradition of
   cross-dressing comedy. Rather than dressing a man as a woman purely for
   comic effect, the (entirely male) Python team would write humorous
   parts for women, then don frocks and makeup and play the roles
   themselves. Thus a scene requiring a housewife would feature one of the
   male Pythons wearing a housecoat and apron, speaking in falsetto. While
   this accentuated the humour, it was not, in itself, the joke (had a
   woman played the role, the lines would have had the same comic effect).
   However, since audiences tend to find this cross-dressing funny in
   itself, 'straight' female roles would be passed to a guest actress,
   usually Carol Cleveland. In some episodes and the later Monty Python's
   Life of Brian they took the idea one step further by playing women who
   impersonated men.

   Many of the sketches have become extremely well-known outside the
   hardcore of Python fans, and are still widely quoted to this day. "The
   Dead Parrot", " The Lumberjack Song", " Spam", " Nudge Nudge", " The
   Spanish Inquisition", " Upper Class Twit of the Year", " Cheese Shop"
   and " The Ministry of Silly Walks" are just a few examples.

Life after the Flying Circus

The end of Flying Circus

   Having considered the possibility at the end of the second series,
   Cleese finally left the Flying Circus at the end of series three. He
   claimed he felt he was merely repeating himself, that he had nothing
   fresh to offer the show and that many of his sketches in the third
   series were merely rewrites of his earlier work. He was also finding
   Chapman, who was at that point in the full throes of alcoholism,
   increasingly difficult to work with. According to an interview with
   Eric Idle "it was on an Air Canada flight on the way to Vancouver, when
   John (Cleese) turned to all of us and said `I want out.' Why? I don't
   know. He gets bored more easily than the rest of us. He's a difficult
   man, not easy to be friendly with. He's so funny because he never
   wanted to be liked. That gives him a certain fascinating, arrogant
   freedom."

   The rest of the group carried on for one more series (dropping the
   Flying Circus from the show's title, which became just Monty Python)
   before calling a halt to the programme in 1974. Despite Cleese's
   officially leaving the group, he makes a cameo appearance in the fourth
   series, and several episodes credit him as a co-writer, since some
   sketches were recycled from scenes cut from the Holy Grail script.

   In 1975 the series was first broadcast in America and soon gained a
   cult following.

Films

And Now For Something Completely Different (1971)

   This was the Pythons' first feature film, comprised of some of the best
   sketches from the first two series of the Flying Circus, re-shot on an
   extremely low budget (and often slightly edited) for cinema release.
   Financed by Playboy executive Victor Lowndes, it was intended as a way
   of breaking Monty Python in America, and although it was ultimately
   unsuccessful in this, the film did good business in the UK. The group
   did not consider the film a success, but it enjoys a cult following
   today.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1974)

   The group (including Cleese) reformed in 1974 to write and star in
   their first feature film of new material. The film, Monty Python and
   the Holy Grail, was based around Arthurian Legend and directed by Jones
   and Gilliam, the latter also drawing the film's linking animations and
   opening credits. Along with the rest of the Pythons, Jones and Gilliam
   performed several roles in the film, but it was Chapman who took the
   lead as King Arthur. Holy Grail was filmed on a budget of nearly
   £150,000; this money was raised in part with donations from rock groups
   such as Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin.

   The film was shot on location in Scotland, particularly around Doune
   Castle, Glen Coe, and the privately owned Castle Stalker. Because of
   the small budget, the film had to make do without horses. This led to
   one of the film's most memorable gags, as every time the script calls
   for the knights to be majestically riding their steeds, they are
   actually play-riding along on foot while their squires behind them bang
   together coconut half-shells to imitate the sound of horses' hooves (a
   common radio sound effect now shown on screen for comic effect - though
   this gag had actually been done previously in the sole surviving
   episode of the 1956 program A Show Called Fred, produced by Richard
   Lester and starring Peter Sellers). The chain mail armour worn by the
   various knights was actually silver-painted wool, whilst the many
   castles seen throughout the film were either Doune Castle shot from
   different angles, or cardboard models held up against the horizon. The
   filming was apparently unpleasant. The weather was poor and the "chain
   mail" soaked up rain; the budget only allowed for low-quality hotels
   which could not provide sufficient hot water for the team to bathe
   every evening; Gilliam and Jones argued with each other and with the
   other Pythons; and the extent of Chapman's alcoholism became apparent
   when he began to suffer from delerium tremens during the filming. The
   Pythons recall that the filming of Holy Grail is the only time any of
   them can remember the usually amiable Palin losing his temper. This
   occurred when Jones and Gilliam insisted on repeatedly re-shooting a
   scene in which Palin played a character called "the mud eater". The
   scene was ultimately cut from the movie.

   The film proved a success and in 2000, readers of Total Film magazine
   voted Monty Python and the Holy Grail the 5th greatest comedy film of
   all time.

Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979)

   Following the success of Holy Grail, a reporter asked Idle for the
   title of the next Python film, despite the fact that the team had not
   even begun to consider a second movie. Idle flippantly replied "Jesus
   Christ - Lust for Glory", which became the group's stock answer once
   they realised that it shut reporters up. However, they soon began to
   seriously consider a film lampooning the life of Christ in the same way
   Holy Grail had lampooned King Arthur. Despite being non-believers, they
   agreed that Jesus was “definitely a good guy” and found nothing to mock
   in his actual teachings; on the other hand, they shared a distrust of
   organised religion, and decided to write a satire on credulity and
   hypocrisy among the followers of a spurious “Messiah”.

   The focus therefore shifted to a separate individual born at the same
   time, in the neighbouring stable, who is subsequently mistaken for the
   messiah. When Jesus does appear in the film (as he does on two
   occasions, first in the stable, and then later speaking the Beatitudes
   (Matt 5:1-48)), he is played straight (by British actor Kenneth Colley)
   - the comedy begins when members of the crowd mishear his statement
   “Blessed are the Peacemakers” (“I think he said, 'blessed are the
   cheesemakers'”).

   Learning their lesson from Holy Grail's unpleasant setting, the team
   chose to write the script in the Caribbean (where they were visited by
   Keith Moon and Mick Jagger) and film in Tunisia. In contrast to Holy
   Grail, many of the Pythons remember this as their most enjoyable
   experience working together as a group. Impresario Bernard Delfont
   became nervous upon reading the script, and abruptly withdrew funding
   shortly before filming was due to commence, but the project was saved
   by George Harrison, who immediately set up Handmade Films purely to
   finance Brian. He claims he did so because he simply wanted to see
   another Python film. The Pythons often joke that it is still the most
   anyone has ever paid for a cinema ticket.

   The experiment with co-direction on Holy Grail proved to be a one-off,
   as it led to creative friction. Instead, Jones was left to direct by
   himself. Though Cleese had originally wanted to play Brian, the rest of
   the group favoured Chapman, having been impressed by the “noble”
   quality he brought to his portrayal of King Arthur (they were also
   conscious that Cleese's performance as Reg had been the highlight of
   the read-throughs, and he would not have been able to play both parts).
   Though Chapman only plays Brian and Biggus Dickus, the rest of the cast
   between them play over 40 characters. Brian also featured cameos from
   George Harrison and Spike Milligan, who just happened to be on holiday
   in Tunisia at the time; Keith Moon was also set to appear but died
   before he could film his part.

   Upon its release, Christian groups organised protests against the film,
   based on its perceived blasphemy, particularly in the final scene, a
   comical song sung by the victims of a mass crucifixion (Idle's " Always
   Look on the Bright Side of Life"). On its initial release in the UK,
   the film was banned by several town councils (some of which had no
   cinemas within their boundaries). The film was also banned for eight
   years in the Republic of Ireland and for a year in Norway (it was
   marketed in Sweden as 'the movie that is so funny, it was banned in
   Norway!'). The film was not released in Italy until 1990, eleven years
   after it was made. The film was not shown in Jersey until 2001, and
   even then, Bailiff of Jersey Frank Ereaut's government wanted it to be
   watched only by adults, even though the BBFC had rated it suitable for
   anyone aged 14 or over.

   Mary Whitehouse and other campaigners picketed and distributed leaflets
   at cinemas showing the film, ironically providing free publicity.
   Shortly after the film's release, Cleese and Palin appeared in a debate
   on the BBC2 discussion programme Friday Night, Saturday Morning, in
   which Malcolm Muggeridge and Mervyn Stockwood, the Bishop of Southwark,
   put the case against the film. Cleese has frequently said that he
   enjoyed the debate, since he felt that the film was 'completely
   intellectually defensible'. Palin, however, was visibly angry. This
   discussion (and the earnest reverence for Python among comedy fans) was
   famously parodied by the Not the Nine O'Clock News, in a sketch
   featuring a furious debate about The General Synod's Life of Christ, a
   Biblical film accused of being “a lampoon of the Comic Messiah himself
   - Our Lord, John Cleese.”

   For their part, the Pythons have always maintained (most recently on
   the DVD commentary) that the film is heretical rather than blasphemous,
   since it mocks the practices of organised religion rather than the God
   being worshipped.

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983)

   Python's final film returned to something closer to the style of Flying
   Circus. A series of sketches loosely followed the ages of man from
   conception to death. Directed again by Jones, The Meaning of Life is
   embellished with some of Python's most bizarre and disturbing moments,
   as well as various elaborate musical numbers. The film is by far their
   darkest work, containing a great deal of spectacular violence and black
   humour: at the time of its release, the Pythons confessed their aim was
   to offend "absolutely everyone". A short film by Gilliam - The Crimson
   Permanent Assurance - originally planned as a sketch within the film,
   eventually grew so ambitious that it was cut from the movie and used as
   a supporting feature in its own right (on video and DVD, and also in
   television screenings, this section is tagged onto the start of the
   film as a prologue).

   Though a commercial and critical success, The Meaning of Life is
   generally not regarded as being of the same quality as its
   predecessors. Many feel that it lacks the structure of Holy Grail and
   Life of Brian. Idle claims it was just "one re-write away from being
   perfect". The Pythons had originally wanted to do one final re-write
   introducing one lead character (along the lines of Arthur or Brian) who
   could be followed through the ages of man. However, Cleese refused as
   he had grown tired of the already protracted writing process for the
   film.

   Crucially, this was the last project that all six Pythons would
   collaborate on, except for the 1989 compilation Parrot Sketch Not
   Included where we see the Python cast sitting in a closet for 4 seconds
   - which would also be the last time Chapman was filmed on screen with
   the rest of the Pythons.

Python (Monty) Pictures

   The five surviving members of the main Monty Python team are directors
   of Python (Monty) Pictures Limited which was incorporated in 1973 and
   now manages ongoing activities resulting from their previous work
   together. In the accounts return, the company describes its activities
   as the 'exploitation of television and cinematographic productions'. In
   the last financial year for which accounts are available (to March
   2004), the company's turnover was £4.9M (source: Creditsafeuk.com).

   When Monty Python's Flying Circus was shown in the USA by ABC in their
   " Wide World of Entertainment" slot in 1975, the episodes were
   re-edited, thus losing the continuity and flow intended in the
   originals. When ABC refused to stop screening the series in this form,
   the Pythons took them to court. Initially the court ruled that their
   artistic rights had indeed been violated, but refused to stop the ABC
   broadcasts as this would cause “financial damage” to ABC. However, on
   appeal the team gained control over all subsequent US broadcasts of its
   programmes. The case also led to them gaining the foreign rights to all
   Python shows from the BBC, once their original contracts ended at the
   end of 1980 (a unique arrangement at the time).

   A driving force behind Python in the late 1970s was George Harrison,
   who not only funded Life of Brian but guest-starred as Mr. Papadopolous
   (though his voice is dubbed by Palin), and also produced a number of
   their songs from that period, including "The Lumberjack Song" single.
   He also made a cameo appearance in Idle's cult Beatles parody All You
   Need Is Cash (aka The Rutles), which united several Pythons with the
   Saturday Night Live team, and was co-produced by Broadway Video, SNL's
   production company. Harrison even claimed in an interview that "Monty
   Python helped me get over the trauma of the breakup of the Beatles."

Going solo

   Each member pursued other film and television projects after the
   break-up of the group, but often continued to work with one another.
   Many of these collaborations were very successful, such as Fawlty
   Towers (written by and starring Cleese and Connie Booth), and A Fish
   Called Wanda (1988) (also written by Cleese, and in which he starred
   along with Palin). The latter pair also appeared in Time Bandits
   (1981), a movie written by Gilliam and Palin, and directed by Gilliam.
   Gilliam also directed and co-wrote Brazil (1985) and The Adventures of
   Baron Munchausen (1988), which featured Palin and Idle respectively.
   Gilliam has now become a cult director; he often struggles to find the
   money for his work because his films tend to go over-budget and fail at
   the box-office. Idle had critical success with Rutland Weekend
   Television in the mid-70s and as an actor in Nuns on the Run (1990)
   with Robbie Coltrane. He also had a UK #3 single with "Always Look on
   the Bright Side of Life." Palin and Jones wrote the comedic film series
   Ripping Yarns, starring Palin with an assortment of British actors.
   Palin's BBC travel series have also proved extremely popular as have
   Jones' historical documentaries. In terms of numbers of productions,
   John Cleese has had the most prolific solo career, having appeared in
   59 theatrical movies, 22 TV shows or series, 23 direct-to-video
   productions, and six video games.

The end?

   The Pythons are often the subject of reunion rumours. The death of
   Chapman in 1989 (on the eve of their 20th anniversary) seemed to put an
   end to this speculation, but in 1998 the five remaining members, along
   with what was purported to be Chapman's ashes, were reunited on stage
   for the first time in 18 years. The occasion was in the form of an
   interview (hosted by Robert Klein, with an appearance by Eddie Izzard)
   in which the team looked back at some of their work and performed a few
   new skits. The climax of the event came when what were supposed to be
   Chapman's ashes were "accidentally" spilled – then hurriedly cleaned up
   with a vacuum cleaner.

   On 9 October 1999, to commemorate 30 years since the first Flying
   Circus television broadcast, BBC2 devoted an evening to Python
   programmes, including a documentary charting the history of the team,
   interspersed with new sketches filmed especially for the event; the
   program appears on the DVD The Life of Python.

   In an interview to publicise the DVD release of The Meaning of Life,
   Cleese said a further reunion was unlikely. "It is absolutely
   impossible to get even a majority of us together in a room, and I'm not
   joking," Cleese said. He said that the problem was one of business
   rather than one of bad feelings.

   A sketch appears on the same DVD spoofing the impossibility of a full
   reunion, bringing the members “together” in a deliberately unconvincing
   fashion with modern bluescreen/greenscreen techniques.

   Idle has said that he expects to see a proper Python reunion, "just as
   soon as Graham Chapman comes back from the dead." This echoed a comment
   Harrison once made: "As far as I'm concerned, there won't be a Beatles
   reunion as long as John Lennon remains dead."

   2003's The Pythons Autobiography By The Pythons, compiled from a series
   of interviews with the surviving members, reveals that a series of
   disputes in 1990 over a Monty Python and the Holy Grail sequel
   conceived by Idle may have resulted in the group's permanent fission.
   Cleese's feeling was that Monty Python's Meaning of Life had been
   personally difficult and ultimately mediocre, and for this and other
   reasons did not wish to be involved. Apparently Idle was angry with
   Cleese for refusing to do the film, which most of the remaining Pythons
   thought reasonably promising. A still-smarting Idle refused to appear
   in what he saw as the Cleese-dominated reunion show a few years later
   (his place was taken by Eddie Izzard).

   The members have continued to appear in each other's films. Terry
   Gilliam has directed Michael Palin, John Cleese, Terry Jones and Eric
   Idle in various non-Python pictures, Graham Chapman worked with John
   Cleese and Eric Idle in Yellowbeard and Michael Palin and John Cleese
   worked together in the acclaimed A Fish Called Wanda and Fierce
   Creatures. Terry Jones' 1996 adaptation of The Wind in the Willows
   featured all the surviving Python members, except for Terry Gilliam,
   who was going to play The River but could not find space in his
   schedule. The next film reunion will be in Shrek the Third, in which
   John Cleese and Eric Idle have voice-over roles.

   March 2005 saw a full, if non-performing, reunion of the surviving cast
   members at the premiere of Eric Idle's musical Spamalot, based on Monty
   Python and the Holy Grail. It opened in Chicago and has since played in
   New York on Broadway, and is currently entertaining audiences in
   Toronto, Ontario. In 2005, it was nominated for 14 Tony Awards and won
   three: Best Musical, Best Direction of a Musical for Mike Nichols and
   Best Performance by a Featured Actress in a Musical for Sara Ramirez,
   who played the Lady of the Lake, a character specially added for the
   musical.

   Owing in part to the success of Spamalot, PBS announced on July 13,
   2005, that the network would begin to re-air the entire run of Monty
   Python's Flying Circus, as well as new one-hour specials focusing on
   each member of the group, called Monty Python's Personal Best. Each
   episode was written and produced by the individual being honoured, with
   the five remaining Pythons collaborating on Chapman's programme.

The Pythons

Graham Chapman

   Born in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, England on 8 January 1941,
   Chapman was originally a medical student, but changed to theatre when
   he joined Footlights at Cambridge (he did in fact complete his medical
   training and was legally entitled to practice as a doctor). Chapman is
   best remembered for taking the lead roles in The Holy Grail, as King
   Arthur, and Life of Brian, as Brian Cohen.

   These were largely straight roles, but in the Flying Circus, he had
   tended to specialise in characters closer to his own personality:
   outwardly calm, authoritative figures barely concealing a manic
   unpredictability. In many ways, Chapman was the epitome of
   public-school respectability, a tall, craggy pipe-smoker who enjoyed
   mountaineering and playing rugby. At the same time, he was proudly gay,
   highly eccentric (Douglas Adams remembered seeing Chapman in his local
   pub, casually whacking his penis against the bar to attract the
   attention of the bar staff) and, by the start of the 1970s, an
   alcoholic who was beginning to cause problems for the other Pythons
   with his excessive drinking.

   Chapman had been infuriating the others by performing drunk on stage,
   missing cues and forgetting lines (a habit that had begun during the
   later television shows), and had particular trouble filming Holy Grail
   in Scotland, where he got a case of delirium tremens, often called DTs.
   At the height of his alcoholism, he was reportedly consuming two quarts
   of gin every day. On accepting his definitive role of Brian, he finally
   made the decision to stop drinking, and was sober by the time filming
   began – his performance in the film is arguably the finest of his
   career.

   Besides starring in Monty Python features, Chapman appeared in movies
   such as The Odd Job (which he also produced) and Yellowbeard (which he
   directed), also making several appearances on Saturday Night Live. He
   died of spinal and throat cancer on 4 October 1989. He is now lovingly
   referred to by the surviving Pythons as "the dead one." At Chapman's
   memorial service, Cleese delivered the irreverent speech he felt his
   co-writer would have wanted: having been the first person to say “shit”
   on British television, Cleese announced, Chapman would never have
   forgiven him had he missed the opportunity to become “the first person
   ever at a British memorial service to say 'fuck'.”

John Cleese

   Born on 27 October 1939 in Weston-super-Mare, North Somerset, England,
   Cleese’s family surname had originally been Cheese. His father,
   however, had it changed to Cleese when he joined the army during World
   War I. Cleese attended Clifton College, Bristol where he developed a
   taste for performing by appearing in house plays, then moved on to
   Cambridge, where he met his future Python writing partner, Graham
   Chapman.

   Along with Gilliam's animations, Cleese's work with Chapman provided
   Python with its darkest and angriest moments, and many of his
   characters display the seething suppressed rage that later
   characterised his portrayal of Basil Fawlty. Many critics naturally
   make a connection with Cleese's own self-confessed neuroses (he has
   spoken openly about receiving psychoanalysis).

   Unlike Palin and Jones, Cleese and Chapman actually wrote together, in
   the same room; Cleese claims that their writing partnership involved
   him sitting with pen and paper, doing most of the work, while Chapman
   sat back, not speaking for long periods, then suddenly coming out with
   an idea that often elevated the sketch to a different level. A classic
   example of this is the "Dead Parrot" sketch, envisaged by Cleese as a
   satire on poor customer service, which was originally to have involved
   a broken toaster. It was Chapman's suggestion to change the faulty item
   into a dead parrot, giving the sketch a surreal air which made it far
   more memorable.

   Their humour often involved ordinary people in ordinary situations
   behaving absurdly for no obvious reason. Like Chapman, Cleese's poker
   face, clipped middle-class accent and imposing height allowed him to
   appear convincing as a variety of authority figures - which he would
   then proceed to undermine. Many of his characters have a kind of
   incipient madness, but remain utterly straight-faced and impassive
   while behaving in a ludicrous fashion. Most famously, in the "Ministry
   of Silly Walks" sketch (actually written by Palin and Jones), Cleese
   exploits his extraordinary stature as the crane-legged civil servant
   performing a grotesquely elaborate walk to his office.

   Chapman and Cleese also specialised in sketches where two characters
   would conduct highly articulate arguments over completely arbitrary
   subjects, such as in the "cheese shop", the "dead parrot" sketch and,
   perhaps most notably, the "argument sketch”, where Cleese plays a
   stone-faced bureaucrat employed to sit behind a desk and engage people
   in pointless, infuriatingly trivial bickering. All of these roles were
   opposite Palin (who Cleese often claims is his favourite Python to work
   with) – the comic contrast between the towering Cleese's crazed
   aggression and diminutive Palin's shuffling inoffensiveness is a common
   feature in the series.

   Cleese has recently had a species of lemur named after him, Avahi
   cleesei (or "Cleese's Woolly Lemur"). This was in recognition of his
   promotion of conservation issues after the release of his film Fierce
   Creatures, which featured such an animal, and Operation Lemur with John
   Cleese, which highlighted their plight on the island of Madagascar —
   their natural habitat.

   Cleese recently played Q's assistant ("R") and finally the new Q
   himself in the James Bond movies. He also has done work for Shrek 2,
   and appeared in the first two Harry Potter movies, Rat Race, and
   several Saturday Night Live episodes.

Terry Gilliam

   Gilliam, born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA, on 22 November 1940, is
   the only non-British member of the troupe. He started off as an
   animator and strip cartoonist for Harvey Kurtzman's Help! magazine, one
   issue of which featured Cleese. Moving from the USA to England, he
   animated features for Do Not Adjust Your Set and then joined Monty
   Python's Flying Circus when it was created.

   He was the artist-animator of the distinctive, surreal cartoons which
   linked the show's sketches together, and defined the group's visual
   language in other mediums (such as LP and book covers, and the title
   sequences of their films). He mixed his own art, characterised by soft
   gradients and odd bulbous shapes, with backgrounds and moving cutouts
   from antique photographs, often from the Victorian era. The style has
   been mimicked repeatedly throughout the years: in the children's
   television cartoon Angela Anaconda, a series of television commercials
   for Guinness, the JibJab cartoons featured on The Tonight Show with Jay
   Leno, the online comic strip The New Adventures Of Queen Victoria, and
   the television history series Terry Jones' Medieval Lives. The title
   sequence for Desperate Housewives and the visits to the land of the
   living in Grim Fandango are also highly Gilliamesque. The style of
   animation used for South Park was inspired by Gilliam's paper cut-out
   cartoons for Monty Python's Flying Circus.

   Besides doing the animations for the Flying Circus, he also appeared in
   several sketches, usually playing parts that no one else wanted to play
   (generally because they required a lot of make-up or uncomfortable
   costumes, such as a recurring knight in armour who would end sketches
   by walking on and hitting one of the other characters over the head
   with a plucked chicken) and took a number of small roles in the films.

   He co-directed Monty Python and The Holy Grail and directed short
   segments of other Python films (for instance " The Crimson Permanent
   Assurance", the short film that appears before The Meaning of Life).
   Gilliam has gone on to become a celebrated and imaginative film
   director of such notable titles as Jabberwocky, Time Bandits, Brazil,
   The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, The Fisher King, Twelve Monkeys,
   Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, The Brothers Grimm and Tideland.

Eric Idle

   Idle was born on 29 March 1943 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear,
   England. When Monty Python was first formed, two writing partnerships
   were already in place: Cleese and Chapman, Jones and Palin. That left
   Gilliam in his own corner, operating solo due to the nature of his work
   - and Idle.

   Idle was content to be cast as the group loner, preferring to write by
   himself, at his own pace, although he sometimes found it difficult in
   having to present material to the others and make it seem funny without
   the back-up support of a partner. Cleese admitted that this was
   slightly unfair – when the team voted on which sketches should appear
   in a show, “he only got one vote” - but says that Idle was an
   independent person and worked best on his own. Idle himself admitted
   this was sometimes difficult: “You had to convince five others. And
   they were not the most un-egotistical of writers, either."

   Idle studied at Cambridge, a year behind Cleese and Chapman. He is
   perhaps best remembered for composing Always Look on the Bright Side of
   Life, which closes Life of Brian and which has become something of the
   group's signature tune.

   His work in Python is often characterised by an obsession with language
   and communication: many of his characters have verbal peculiarities,
   such as the man who speaks in anagrams, the man who says words in the
   wrong order, and the man whose sentences are alternately rude and
   polite. A number of his sketches involve extended monologues (for
   example the man who won't stop talking about how awful his last holiday
   was), and he would frequently spoof the unnatural language and speech
   patterns of television presenters.

   One of the younger members of the team, Idle was closest in spirit to
   the students and teenagers who made up much of Python's fanbase, and
   many of the sketches that deal with contemporary obsessions such as pop
   music, sexual permissiveness and recreational drugs are Idle's work. A
   competent guitarist, he composed the groups most famous musical numbers
   – as well as Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life, he was responsible
   for the Galaxy Song from The Meaning Of Life and (with Cleese) Eric The
   Half-A-Bee, a whimsical tune recorded for the album Monty Python Sings.

   Since Python, Idle has starred in movies ranging from South Park:
   Bigger, Longer & Uncut to National Lampoon's European Vacation to 102
   Dalmatians to television shows such as The Simpsons, MADtv and Saturday
   Night Live and even starred in the 1996 "point-and-click" computer game
   Discworld, in which he voiced the game's protagonist Rincewind. He also
   continues to compose humorous songs, including the theme to the BBC
   sitcom One Foot In The Grave.

   Idle is the writer of the three-time Tony award-winning Broadway
   musical, Spamalot, based on the Holy Grail movie. He also collaborated
   with John Du Prez on the music for the show.

Terry Jones

   Jones was born on 1 February 1942 in Colwyn Bay, North Wales. The
   mildest member of Python, he has rarely received the same attention as
   his colleagues, but has been described by other members of the team as
   the “heart” of the operation. Python biographer George Perry has
   commented that should you "speak to him on subjects as diverse as
   fossil fuels, or Rupert Bear, or mercenaries in the Middle Ages or
   Modern China... in a moment you will find yourself hopelessly out of
   your depth, floored by his knowledge." Many others agree that Jones is
   characterised by his irrepressible, good-natured enthusiasm, which is
   perhaps the reason for his unflagging loyalty to the preservation of
   the group.

   One of Jones' early concerns was devising a fresh format for the Python
   TV shows, and it was largely Jones that developed the
   stream-of-consciousness style which abandoned punchlines and instead
   encouraged the fluid movement of one sketch to another - allowing the
   team's conceptual humour the space to “breathe”. Jones also objected to
   TV directors’ use of sped-up film, over-emphatic music, and static
   camera style, and took a keen interest in the direction of the shows.
   He later committed himself to directing the Python films Monty Python
   and the Holy Grail, The Life of Brian, and Monty Python's Meaning of
   Life, and as director, finally gained fuller control of the projects,
   devising a visual style that allowed the performers 'space'; for
   instance, in the use of wide shots for long exchanges of dialogue, and
   more economical use of music. As demonstrated in many of his sketches
   with Palin, Jones was also interested in making comedy that was
   visually impressive, feeling that interesting settings augmented,
   rather than detracted from, the humour. His methods encouraged many
   future television comedians to break away from conventional
   studio-bound shooting styles, as demonstrated into the 21st century by
   shows such as Green Wing, Little Britain and The League of Gentlemen.

   Of Jones' contributions as a performer, his parodic, screechy-voiced
   depictions of middle-aged women are among the most memorable. His
   humour, in collaboration with Palin, tends to be conceptual in nature;
   a typical Palin/Jones sketch draws its humour from the absurdity of the
   scenario. For example, in the “Summarise Proust Competition”, Jones
   plays a cheesy game show host giving a series of contestants 30 seconds
   to condense Marcel Proust's lengthy work A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu;
   in the "Mouse Organ" sketch, he plays a tuxedoed man using mallets to
   bash mice who have been trained to squeak at a select pitch, and when
   “played” in the correct order reproduce the tune "Bells of St. Mary".
   In both cases, the laughs originate in the madness of the idea itself.

   In 2004, Jones was the presenter and actor for the BBC's miniseries,
   Terry Jones' Medieval Lives. He has also directed and starred in Erik
   the Viking, and in 2006 presented a series on BBC2 entitled Barbarians.

   Since his major contributions were largely behind the scenes
   (direction, writing), and he often deferred to the other members of the
   group as an actor, Jones' importance to Python was often underrated.
   Recent Python literature has highlighted his lead role in maintaining
   the group's unity and creative independence.

Michael Palin

   Born on 5 May 1943 in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. The youngest
   Python by a matter of weeks, Palin is often lovingly referred to as
   "the nice one." He attended Oxford, where he met his Python writing
   partner Jones. The two also wrote the series Ripping Yarns together.
   Palin and Jones originally wrote face-to-face, but soon found it was
   more productive to write apart and then come together to review what
   the other had written. Therefore, Jones and Palin's sketches tended to
   be more focused than that of the other four, taking one bizarre,
   hilarious situation, sticking to it, and building on it.

   These sketches take everyday situations (talking in the sitting room,
   dining out) and introduce an unexpected rogue element (Cardinals of the
   Spanish Inquisition, an impossibly overweight man). From here, Palin
   and Jones could play around with the newly created environment, taking
   it to logical or illogical extremes: having waiter Cleese feed Mr.
   Creosote until he actually explodes, showering the other diners in
   viscera, or attempting to torture old ladies with cushions and comfy
   chairs.

   In recent years, Palin has starred in a number of documentary travel
   series for the BBC in which he visits various — usually remote —
   locales, often along some predetermined route; for example his series
   Pole to Pole and the BBC-sponsored Around the World in Eighty Days,
   where he followed the route of the fictional journey of Phileas Fogg in
   Jules Verne's novel of the same name. He also starred in Gilliam’s
   Brazil and Time Bandits, and hosted Saturday Night Live several times.
   Largely through his travel shows, Palin has become one of the most
   popular television personalities in Britain. He was also voted the
   best-looking member of the Monty Python group by the public.

Associate Pythons and other contributors

   Several people have been accorded unofficial "Associate Python" status
   over the years. Occasionally such people have been referred to as the
   7th Python - in a style reminiscent of associates of the Beatles being
   dubbed "The 5th Beatle." The two collaborators with the most meaningful
   and plentiful contributions have been Neil Innes and Carol Cleveland.
   Both were present and presented as Associate Pythons at the official
   Monty Python 25th anniversary celebrations held in Los Angeles in July
   1994.

Neil Innes

   Neil Innes is the only non-Python besides Douglas Adams to be credited
   with writing material for the Flying Circus. He appeared in sketches
   and the Python movies, as well as performing some of his songs in Monty
   Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl. He was also a regular stand-in for
   absent Pythons on the rare occasions when they appear to re-create
   sketches. For example, he took the place of Cleese when he was unable
   to appear at the memorial concert for George Harrison. Gilliam once
   noted that if anyone qualified for the title of the "Seventh Python,"
   it would certainly be Innes. He was one of the creative talents in the
   off-beat Bonzo Dog Band, appreciated for such nutty compositions as
   "The Intro and the Outro" and "I'm The Urban Spaceman." He would later
   portray Ron Nasty of the Rutles and write all of the Rutles'
   compositions for All You Need is Cash. By 2005, an unfortunate falling
   out had occurred between Eric Idle and Innes over additional Rutles
   projects, the results being Innes' critically acclaimed Rutles
   "reunion" album The Rutles: Archaeology and Idle's undistinguished,
   straight-to-DVD Rutles sequel The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch, each
   undertaken without participation from the other. According to an
   interview with Idle carried by the Chicago Tribune in May 2005, his
   attitude as a result of the dispute is that he and Innes go back "too
   far. And no further." Innes has maintained a diplomatic silence on the
   dispute.

Carol Cleveland

   Commonly referred to as the "Seventh Python," or the "Python Girl,"
   Carol Cleveland was the most important female performer in the Monty
   Python ensemble. Originally hired by producer/director John Howard
   Davies for just the first five episodes of Monty Python's Flying
   Circus, she went on to appear in approximately two-thirds of the
   episodes as well as in all of the Python films, and in most of their
   stage shows as well. Her common portrayal as the stereotypical "blonde
   bimbo" eventually earned her the sobriquet "Carol Cleavage" by the
   other Pythons, but she felt that the variety of her roles should not be
   described in such a pejorative way.

Connie Booth

   John Cleese's ex-wife Connie Booth, who went on to write and star with
   him in Fawlty Towers, was probably the only other significant female
   performer. She appeared in, amongst others "The Lumberjack Song" and as
   the "witch" in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It has been suggested
   that she may also have assisted Cleese and Chapman in their writing.

Douglas Adams

   Douglas Adams was "discovered" by Graham Chapman when a version of the
   Footlights Revue (a 1974 BBC2 television show featuring some of Adams'
   early work) was performed live in London's West End. The two formed a
   brief writing partnership, and Adams earned a writing credit in one
   episode (episode 45: "Party Political Broadcast on Behalf of the
   Liberal Party") of Monty Python's Flying Circus for a sketch called "
   Patient Abuse". In the sketch, a man who had been stabbed by a nurse
   arrives at his doctor's office bleeding profusely from the stomach,
   when the doctor makes him fill out numerous senseless forms before he
   can administer treatment (a joke Adams later incorporated into the
   Vogons' obsession with paperwork). Adams also contributed to a sketch
   on the album for Monty Python and the Holy Grail. He had two "blink and
   you miss them" appearances in the fourth series of Monty Python's
   Flying Circus. At the beginning of Episode 42, "The Light Entertainment
   War," Adams is in a surgeon's mask (as Dr. Emile Koning, according to
   the on-screen captions), pulling on gloves, while Michael Palin
   narrates a sketch that introduces one person after another, and never
   actually gets started. At the beginning of Episode 44, "Mr. Neutron,"
   Adams is dressed in a " pepperpot" outfit and loads a missile onto a
   cart, driven by Terry Jones, who is calling out for scrap metal ("Any
   old iron..."). The two episodes were first broadcast in November 1974.
   Adams and Chapman also attempted a few non-Python projects, including
   Out of the Trees.

Eddie Izzard

   Stand-up comedian Eddie Izzard, a devoted fan of the group, has
   occasionally stood in for absent members. When the BBC held a "Python
   Night" in 1999 to celebrate 30 years of the first broadcast of Flying
   Circus, the Pythons recorded some new material with Izzard standing in
   for Idle, who had declined to partake in person. (Idle taped a solo
   contribution from the US.) Izzard hosted a history of the group
   entitled The Life of Python (1999) that was part of the Python Night
   and appeared with them at a festival/tribute in Aspen, Colorado, in
   1998 (released on DVD as Live at Aspen).

'Pythonesque'

   Monty Python casts a considerable shadow over modern comedy. As such,
   the term 'pythonesque' has become a byword in surreal humour. However,
   this is perhaps somewhat misleading, since the humour of Monty Python,
   whilst certainly nonsensical and surreal, is still strongly
   characterised by a preoccupation with the British social class system —
   most notably with British working class stereotypes. These themes
   cannot be said to be essential to surrealist comedy as a whole.

Things named after Monty Python

     * The Python programming language by Guido van Rossum is named after
       the troupe, and Monty Python references are often found in sample
       code created for that language. Additionally, a 2001 April Fool's
       Day joke by van Rossum and Larry Wall involving the merger of
       Python with Perl was dubbed "Parrot" after the Dead Parrot Sketch.
       The name "Parrot" was later used for a project to develop a virtual
       machine for running bytecode for interpreted languages such as Perl
       and Python.
     * In 1985, a fossil of a previously unknown species of gigantic
       prehistoric snake from the Miocene was discovered in Riversleigh,
       Queensland, Australia. The Australian palaeontologist who
       discovered the fossil snake was a Monty Python fan, and he gave the
       snake the taxonomic name of Montypythonoides riversleighensis in
       honour of the Monty Python team. (Translated from Greek to English,
       Montypythonoides means "like Monty Python").
     * The term spam, as used to denote unsolicited email, comes from
       Monty Python's "Spam" sketch.
     * In 2006, Ben & Jerry's introduced a new flavour: "Vermonty Python",
       a coffee liqueur ice cream with a chocolate cookie crumb swirl &
       fudge cows. (More details: )
     * Each member of Monty Python has an asteroid named after him ( 9617
       Grahamchapman, 9618 Johncleese, 9619 Terrygilliam, 9620 Ericidle,
       9621 Michaelpalin, and 9622 Terryjones).

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