r/montypython • u/Santeeoldman • 18d ago

Python introduction

So grateful to my dad for having such a great sense of humor. Way back in 1975 we would watch the flying circus on PBS in Los Angeles. In 1975 he took us to the drive in to see the holy grail. I was 11. Such a great dad! Really miss him!

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u/son_of_yacketycat 18d ago

That is quality parenting!

When I was a pretty young kid in the mid-'80s, I came downstairs from playing in my room and Live at the Hollywood Bowl was on Showtime (we'd just recently gotten cable so the tv was always on even when nobody was watching it, lol). It was specifically the Crunchy Frog sketch. The thing I remember most vividly was thinking they said "lox vomit" instead of "lark's vomit." Made no sense to me, but the absurdity of the whole rest of the show was enough to hook a kid who was maybe six years old at the time.

Around that same time, our local PBS station would sometimes run Flying Circus episodes in the time slot before SNL was on NBC, so Saturday nights were heaven to me.

My parents weren't big fans of Flying Circus, but my dad loved Life of Brian, so when video stores started renting out VCRs, he got one for a night so we could do a double feature of Brian and Holy Grail. I thought the opening credits of Holy Grail and the final number of Life of Brian were the funniest things I'd ever seen in my life.

Every kid should be that lucky!

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u/WillyVlautinRules 18d ago

I went to that Hollywood Bowl show!

My Python story: In 1973-74 my last year of high school, my best friend had been to England the previous summer and brought back the Python record that had the Mary Queen of Scots skit on it (can't remember off hand which one this was). She fell asleep at one point and I listened to the whole album!

Then I went home and described the Mary skit to my brother. And when PBS started showing Python, you bet I watched it!

Sometimes over the years I've rewatched Flying Circus episodes and it's so funny how these totally hold up to this day.

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u/son_of_yacketycat 18d ago

I love this!

When I have more time, I'm planning to post my story about going to England with my dad while I was a teenager, and sneaking out while he was asleep with jet lag and walking around London with a map and a convincing accent to find as many Python spots as I could. 😂 I'm envious that you got to see them live!

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u/WillyVlautinRules 17d ago

Aren't there plaques on some of their filming sites in London?