Monty Python's Flying Circus - Classic or Dud?

i think they assume that

a) he wouldn't mind, would probably approve in fact

b) it's up to them how they refer to someone they worked with and knew closely for 20 years or so before he died.

Cleese: the Ingmar Bergman of the Pythons

so you wd say, Smiles of a Summer Night hata

I was more referring to his propensity for giving crusty, bitter interviews.

I preferred his earlier, funnier interviews

^ we've come full circle

he repeated himself after interviews 1 & 2 imo

That Palin + Cleese vs. Muggeridge + Bishop of Southwark confrontation is classic though, not that Palin contributes much

would love to see the full clip

I'm a fan of crusty + bitter in comedians/people, don't all faint.

Why say those things? Why bother at this point?

cuz fanboys are still "blaming" him for leaving the show? I don't see his remarks as scornful. Don't hold your breath for the day Aykroyd says the same about Belushi.

I don't think anyone "blames" Cleese for leaving the show, I know Python fans are saddoes, but not that sad. I think he could be crusty and bitter because nobody finds him funny anymore, least of all himself.

Aykroyd always wanted to leave the coke fiesta at 4.30am and bang some party girl before passing out and getting up 12 hours later to write five lines of banter, while Belushi always insisted on staying til 5 o'clock

... also because, the others, in different ways, all seem happier and more successful than him? (xp)

different in the way of not making fawlty towers?

judging ppl's happiness by media/interviews = hilarious. Sample, 1993: "Oh, that River Phoenix and his healthy vegan lifestyle."

yeah, Eric Idle's current "success" largely built on the dumbed-down recycling that is Spamalot.

It's making him rich(er), that's success of a kind

judging ppl's happiness by media/interviews = hilarious

Well, of course, but there appears to be only one embittered sourpuss these days, where they're used to be two (Cleese and Idle)

do people want to see john cleese happy?

They want to see him funny

Ok, look. The man will be 70 years old on the 27th. (Happy Birthday, Cleese, in advance -- the world would be quite a bit less funny without you.) It just seems unnecessary for him to go pissing on his ex wife in public, or his old friends... it's ugly, is what I mean. You'll be sour enough when you're dead, so lighten the fuck up. You're rich as hell and loved wherever people speak English. Count your motherfucking blessings, you old coot.

maybe john cleese doesn't think people want to see him happy, though? seriously, have you ever seen the man appear out of 'grouch' mode. i can't think of an instance.

Well, I'm on the record now, fwiw.

john cleese, we'd like to see you happy.

but we don't pay as well as mastercard, so that's probably that out of the running.

Yeah, he's nearly 70, he's more or less retired anyway

Younger than Woody Allen though

You're rich as hell

Not what he says! He's in Eddie Murphy HALF mode.

I think that's exactly what it is, Morbs. How much money does he want buried with him, I wonder?

I mean, give the bitch the money. It's just money. It's not going to make her any happier, either.

bollocks it won't

taking it off him in the first place will make her happier, and then she actually gets to buy stuff with it.

Yeah, but... fine. Let her. I don't actually believe that he's hurting financially. He's just sour-graping. He can give her half and still have plenty to live in the country, drink the world's finest wine, and grow ever more Orson-shaped until his demise.

I guess i AM asking for a mellow, contented John Cleese. And I guess that is a bit silly.

it's a fine world we live in when john cleese can't find happiness but jerry seinfeld only ever seems to be fucking grinning at me.

xp yeah, i just don't think i've ever seen anything to suggest cleese has that 'setting'

Maybe Michael Palin could help him

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiBWHHqK7W8

He has a video about cheese, too.

(Although it seems the a youtube search for "John Cleese cheese" only turns up the obvious.)

you guys must get in touch w/ him and tell him what a breeze it is to make a million a year in Hollywood at 70.

he has to make it in hollywood? that's a strange stipulation to throw on to a divorce settlement.

I have not seen the man's bank balance, but I would be surprised if he didn't have a million a year to spare for a good while. Judges can be bastards, but they don't tell people to pay their exes a million a year unless they have many, many millions.

no, it has to be new money he earned that year in hollywood i think.

That does seem to be his side of the story.

anyway, if the judgement enraged him with its unfairness then hurrah cos that's when he's at his best. we should break all his windows and put a potato in his exhaust pipe imo.

eagerly awaiting the divorce-induced Zach Braff remake of Fawlty Towers

(Although it seems the a youtube search for "John Cleese cheese" only turns up the obvious)

heh heh...what, the "cheese shop" sketch or the fact that his grandfather's surname was originally "Cheese"?

(Oh wait, YOUTUBE search not google...never mind.)

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/16/a-night-of-round-table-with-monty-python/

Responding to a question about how to tell which Pythons wrote which sketches, Mr. Cleese said that his work with Mr. Chapman was fairly clean and “finished short,” while Mr. Palin and Mr. Jones’s skits were “prolonged,” and Mr. Idle’s were “highly verbal” and “disappeared up their own funnel.” (Mr. Palin said his material could be recognized because it produced laughter.)

Other exchanges were downright bizarre, even by Python standards. Mr. Cleese read a card that asked, “What about that very funny thing that happened at Auschwitz?” This yielded an anecdote about the troupe’s visit to Germany when they traveled a concentration camp — recollections differed as to which one — only to discover that it was closed to visitors. Mr. Chapman suggested they say that they were Jewish, but the group was still denied entry.

The format also yielded a couple of authentically touching moments. Mr. Gilliam read a question submitted by 10-year-old Talia Lindner, asking if she could perform her version of the Spanish Inquisition skit for the Pythons. Mr. Gilliam accepted, and up to the front of the theater strode little Talia, in glasses and blue jeans. After a deep breath or five, she rapidly performed all the characters in the scene in just under a minute (“I didn’t expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition”; “Hold on, I’ll come in again”), drawing roars of laughter from the troupe followed by enthusiastic handshakes.

I'd heard that Auschwitz story before, forget where...

Haha visualizing that ten year old girl has me chuckling out loud

nytimes:

Chapman suggested they say that they were Jewish, but the group was still denied entry.

wired:

"Graham (Chapman) said, 'Tell them we’re Jewish,' he recalled, to a now completely inconsolable audience. 'They let us in.'"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmWN9fwmOKM

I remember being thirteen or so and seeing that on PBS...I had no idea wtf was happening. "When will they start speaking English?"

i only recently found out about German Python. Palin's and Cleese's German are actually quite good as far as i can tell.