# The Non Sequitur



## Monocle (Oct 24, 2012)

I am a fan of Monty Python's Flying Circus. I would say most of my male friends can at least have a laugh, if not fall over laughing, at that sort of irreverent and non sequitur-driven humor, which that show helped popularize. But I would also say a majority of my female friends do not appreciate this form of humor. Long have I heard the remark "I just don't get it" uttered by different women. And I heard it again in the office the other day. That is not to say that ALL men get it, and ALL women don't, because I know that is certainly not true. But I wonder as far as humor goes, if men are not naturally more predisposed to appreciating utter silliness than women are?


Sent from the Underground.


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## SG_67 (Mar 22, 2014)

I'll be honest, most American's don't get it....period. 

I can take or leave Monty Python. I do enjoy some of their sketches and the "Ruttles" documentary was genius. I also enjoyed the soccer match between the ancient Greek philosophers and the Enlightenment philosophers. 

It's British humor aimed at a British audience. Mostly cerebral, never one to go for the cheap laugh, it takes work to appreciate it. I'm not sure American audiences, in general, were ever ready for it.


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Some of it hasn't aged terribly well, but some is just as funny now as when it first appeared. My wife and I still use expressions derived from their films and programmes. If we see, or eat something that we like, one of us will invariably say "It's very nice" in a grotesque French accent .....


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Enjoy


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## SG_67 (Mar 22, 2014)

"It's wefah thin."


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## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

Chicks don't get Monty Python, the Three Stooges, or Abbott and Costello.

They are different than us.

:teacha:


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## Acct2000 (Sep 24, 2005)

I suppose my beloved Laurel and Hardy probably fall into that category, too.

Although "I don't want ANY spam" still works today, I suppose.


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## ChrisRS (Sep 22, 2014)

My wife and I were watching a Leslie Nielsen movie and she actually said, "That can't really happen." I was too busy laughing at the movie first and then her response to actually respond.


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## JJR512 (May 18, 2010)

SG_67 said:


> I'll be honest, most American's don't get it....period.
> 
> I can take or leave Monty Python. I do enjoy some of their sketches and the "Ruttles" documentary was genius. I also enjoyed the soccer match between the ancient Greek philosophers and the Enlightenment philosophers.
> 
> It's British humor aimed at a British audience. Mostly cerebral, never one to go for the cheap laugh, it takes work to appreciate it. I'm not sure American audiences, in general, were ever ready for it.


I agree that British humour is very cerebral, but I disagree that they never go for the cheap laugh. The Brits have been known to employ slapstick humour. Consider Monty Python alum John Cleese's later show, Fawlty Towers as a prime example.


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## phyrpowr (Aug 30, 2009)

JJR512 said:


> . The Brits have been known to employ slapstick humour. Consider Monty Python alum John Cleese's later show, Fawlty Towers as a prime example.


Consider Benny Hill!! I still get a hoot from Monty Python, though The Three Stooges to me are Kardassian: two minutes every several months is plenty. I'll take all the Marx Brothers you have, though.


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## Shaver (May 2, 2012)

Monty Python has, by and large, aged very badly. The Rutles documentaries are still very funny but are *not* Monty Python product.

Spike Milligan, whom is largely unheard of in America but was contemporaneous to Python, remains as fresh and hysterically irreverent as it was at first broadcast.


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

I loved the episode where Spike is trying to eat a baguette. I can't access Youtube at the moment, but I will try and find it when I can.

This MP sketch was quite funny


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

I can't stand MPFC. Couldn't back then, still can't now. Awful stuff. Most of it wasn't even remotely funny. The films however, were a bit better, but still contained huge sections of rubbish.


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## Kingstonian (Dec 23, 2007)

Norman Wisdom may appeal. He is not cerebral, mostly pratfalls and slapstick in the little man against the world tradition.

Very big in Albania.

He single handedly kept the British film industry in business in the 50s and 60s - bigger than James Bond in his day.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXPPyPIZO-U


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

I like Norman Wisdom's films and the Carry On films from the 50s and 60s, and Terry Thomas and Leslie Phillips, Doctor in the House. For me the 70s and early 80s were the very lowest point of British comedy, MPFC, The Goodies, The Comedians, all those awful sitcoms, NTNON, Alas Smith & Jones, Rowan Atkinson and so on. l only got interested & started to enjoy comedy again with Vic Reeves, Harry Enfield, Eddie Izzard, Harry Hill etc.


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## MaxBuck (Apr 4, 2013)

I loved Monty Python. My dear wife's 50th birthday present to me (about 10 years ago) was a pair of tickets to Eric Idle as he came to Columbus to present many sketches from the series. It was hilarious, but my wife's enjoyment was strictly limited to appreciating my own.


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## Acct2000 (Sep 24, 2005)

But can anything beat the 15 minute video of Laurel and Hardy trying to move that piano up about 200 stairs into the mansion??


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## Monocle (Oct 24, 2012)

SG_67 said:


> I'll be honest, most American's don't get it...
> 
> It's British humor aimed at a British audience. Mostly cerebral, never one to go for the cheap laugh, it takes work to appreciate it. I'm not sure American audiences, in general, were ever ready for it.


I agree that much of the content was encapsulate of the times, politically and socially. I remember being confused mostly about a lot of it, because obviously I was not living in England at the time. But the comedic shiftiness and delivery was extremely funny to me, even at a young age. The nonsensicality, the absurdity, the breaking the fourth wall, the non-sequitur element still thrives in a lot of shows today. It's not for everyone. But especially so, it seems women hate it. That is the curious bit.

Sent from the Underground.


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## SG_67 (Mar 22, 2014)

JJR512 said:


> I agree that British humour is very cerebral, but I disagree that they never go for the cheap laugh. The Brits have been known to employ slapstick humour. Consider Monty Python alum John Cleese's later show, Fawlty Towers as a prime example.


Sorry, I meant specifically Monty Python.

As for Fawlty Towers, never watched it.


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## JJR512 (May 18, 2010)

Most of what I know of English television is from what I've seen on PBS.

This includes Are You Being Served?, As Time Goes By, Vicar of Dibley, and The Thin Blue Line. There may have been others that I don't recall.

AYBS was the first, and I had no idea what I was getting into. I had seen the title listed in the cable guide many times, but never tuned in because the description, something about people working in a store, didn't seem interesting. I forget now why I finally tuned in for the first time; it might be because one day, there was finally nothing else on that had a description that seemed more interesting. So I finally tuned in, and was hooked right away.

After that, I started trying other English comedies, like As Time Goes By and Vicar of Dibley, both of which failed to hook me. It could be that the humour in those shows was more subtle, less overt than in AYBS.

Somewhere in there, I also came across Mr. Bean, which I liked, but it wasn't broadcast regularly. I did go see both movies, though.

Long before AYBS, a friend of mine had shown me some tapes of Monty Python, which I enjoyed but wasn't necessarily hooked. But I never saw it on TV, so I never got a chance to get more into it. I've tried some of the movies, and found them to be some occasionally funny jokes separated by long periods of boredom.

Because I recognized the name John Cleese, I gave Fawlty Towers a try, and was hooked.

Because I recognized the name Rowan Atkinson, I gave The Thin Blue Line a try, and was hooked. I later tried Black Adder, and struggled a bit through the first season, but found it to get better as it progressed.

Completely separately, I also got into The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. My mother had a tape with the original BBC series on it, which I always skipped over while looking through the tapes collection for something interesting to watch. I guess in that sense, I skipped over it because the name didn't pull me in, just like with AYBS. One day, I was sitting in the library, waiting for my mother to pick me up, and I noticed there was a book on the table next to me called "The Restaurant at the End of the Universe". That title intrigued me, so I picked it up and started reading. I was hooked. Then I realized it was part of THHGTTG, a name I recognized from the tapes at home, so next chance I got, I watched them, and fell in love. From that, I read all the books (only four at the time, plus a short story).

i have also enjoyed some of Terry Gilliam's movies, in particular Time Bandits, and Twelve Monkeys.


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## Earl of Ormonde (Sep 5, 2008)

SG_67 said:


> It's British humor aimed at a British audience.


I must dispute that actually. MPFC was largely middle class humour aimed at the middle class. It was very exclusionary.During its orignal airings it was watched by very few. It has grown amazingly in popularity since then.


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## Hitch (Apr 25, 2012)

phyrpowr said:


> Consider Benny Hill!! I still get a hoot from Monty Python, though The Three Stooges to me are Kardassian: two minutes every several months is plenty.* I'll take all the Marx Brothers you have, though.*


*
*yup..


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

Earl of Ormonde said:


> I must dispute that actually. MPFC was largely middle class humour aimed at the middle class. It was very exclusionary.During its orignal airings it was watched by very few. It has grown amazingly in popularity since then.


When I was at school, every kid watched it, everybody, right from the beginning. We spent break and lunch the next day discussing it, re-enacting sketches etc. It was the single most popular programme on television, TOTP perhaps excepted.


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## Shaver (May 2, 2012)

phyrpowr said:


> Consider Benny Hill!! I still get a hoot from Monty Python, though The Three Stooges to me are Kardassian: two minutes every several months is plenty. *I'll take all the Marx Brothers you have, though.*





Hitch said:


> [/B]yup..


Agreed. The mere thought of the Marx Brothers warms my heart.

You would have to be dead not to laugh at this:


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## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

Getta you tootsie-frootsie...


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

I can't find the two clips I'd really like to see; the final scene from Duck Soup, when Rufus T Firefly opens up with a Tommy Gun, "Look at them run! Nyahahaha!" To be told by Chico, "You're firing on your own men!". The other I've mentioned before, the Maurice Chevalier impersonation scene from "A Night at the Opera".


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## WouldaShoulda (Aug 5, 2009)

If the nightingale, could sing like you....


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## Chouan (Nov 11, 2009)

I've got a feeling of "deja vu"......


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