don't squeeze the python

[calimac]

The two Python members talked about their past work and threw ice water on the suggestion that there might still be new, fresh Monty Python films and appearances. Terry Jones said they've gotten too old. Eric Idle said ... those who demand a Python resurrection really don't want that. What they want, he said, is to feel young again...to be transported back to the age they were when new Python material was coming out.

I daresay Idle is probably right. I'm a dedicated Pythonite, but I'm not really faunching for them to do anything else except what they really want to do. For one thing, any new material would lack the patina of long-familiarity which covers all their older work. This is a problem I experienced as early as Life of Brian, which I didn't enjoy all that much on first viewing because I was already too familiar with what had come before. I only began to admire it as it aged into the same state for me.

Also, there can come a point where you just run dry, and there is nothing worse than material hacked out by creative people who are only doing it out of obligation. (There actually was a record called something like Monty Python's Contractual Obligation Album. I vaguely recall that it wasn't very good, but Python were never at their best in audio-only format anyway.) The number of times I've watched Brian and Holy Grail and most of Flying Circus runs into three digits, but I've only ever seen The Meaning of Life once, when it first came out, and I have no desire ever to see it again. I'd rather they do nothing than another one like that.

But do the Pythons owe us anything? I think not, and for a simple reason: they never left us hanging. When grrm tells his readers he doesn't owe them anything, and the next volume in his saga will be done when it's done, and right now he's going to watch a football game instead, it may be better for the eventual book if he doesn't just grind it out like pulp, but the argument feels disingenuous. This is because he's writing a serial, and if you want to captivate your readers with your plot, you owe them to finish it up. You want your readers to be patient? Then don't write a story that interests them very much. Simple as that.

Also, don't keep announcing deadlines that you keep missing. Better to make no promises than false ones.

Comments

[shelleybear.livejournal.com]

[barondave.livejournal.com]

YMMV, it seems: their first two records are still my favorite Monty Python, with the possible exception of Life of Brian.

I agree that I don't want them to reunite. Frankly, their later work has been, with exceptions, disappointing. Of course, I'm one of the seven people who doesn't like Faulty Towers; go fig. Clockwise was pretty good, though.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I do like "Fawlty Towers", but it's not Pythonesque and would not have been improved by having the other Pythons in it. "Clockwise" was rather dull.

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

It's not consistent, but The Meaning of Life has some profoundly good bits in it. I won't elaborate, because I'm not trying to convince you that you actually like it, but to me it's classic Python, as good as or better than much of Season Three.

There's lots of good stuff out there, though, for Python fans dreading repetition. "At Last, the 1948 Show" has the first appearance of my favorite Python sketch, the Four Yorkshiremen, and other good bits. Peter Cook & Dudley Moore did some hilarious bits, chief among them SUPERTHUNDERSTINGCAR, an almost supernaturally deft take on Gerry Anderson product. And I must post about the fact that the Smothers Brothers' "Honey House" sketch is finally up on YouTube -- and seems to be taken from the copy I myself made from a VHS tape a friend sent (based on certain aspects of the video). Wayne and Schuster's "Shakespearean Baseball" is on YouTube as well -- or has been -- and it's surprisingly good for its time. Albert Brooks's original ventriloquist act ("Dave and Danny") is up, as is the follow-up from just over ten years later (Robo-Danny).

Yeah, I need to make some posts.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

If there are good bits in "Meaning of Life," I don't remember them: not a promising sign. I remember the bad bits, though, and the promising bits that fell flat.

I have the DVD of "At Last the 1948 Show". And "Do Not Adjust Your Set".