History Creator / MontyPython

-->-- ''FanWorks/PlayTheGame,'' the "Monty Python Anthem"

The following year, Cleese and Chapman were offered a show of their own. Who would join them in the new troupe was initially unclear; Brooke-Taylor, later of ''Series/TheGoodies'', was seriously considered (Cleese and the three Goodies had been mainstays of much-loved radio comedy sketch-show ''Radio/ImSorryIllReadThatAgain''), as was jobbing comic actor Creator/DavidJason. But Cleese really wanted to work with Palin, and Palin's three cohorts were ready to move on to more ambitious fare as well, so in the end it all fell into place naturally.

-->''And now for something completely different: the circus is in town!''
-->''IT'S--''

DeadpanSnarker Creator/JohnCleese, StraightMan Creator/GrahamChapman and musician Creator/EricIdle met at Cambridge University where they were members of The Footlights, a celebrated performing society. [[{{Pantomime}} Panto]]-style actor Creator/TerryJones and his writing partner, NiceGuy Creator/MichaelPalin, had been similarly occupied at Oxford at about the same time. Cleese met cartoonist/animator Creator/TerryGilliam -- the one American in the group, then working for the humor magazine ''Help!?'' -- during the US tour of "The Footlights Revue".

The troupe more or less dissolved into its component parts after their last film, and fell apart definitively when Graham Chapman died in 1989. The last time all six were seen together live was in a brief spot in the 20-year reunion special ''Parrot Sketch Not Included'', where host Creator/SteveMartin revealed they were all being kept in a closet, including a visibly-ailing Chapman seated in the middle; the special aired the day after his death that October. The survivors (particularly Cleese and Palin) still do occasionally perform either on stage or in each other's films. All five held a 1998 reunion in Aspen, Colorado (with Creator/EddieIzzard in tow) and in mid-2014, they took one last collective bow, in a short series of London-based performances characteristically entitled [[Film/MontyPythonMostlyLiveOneDownFiveToGo ''Monty Python (Mostly) Live: One Down, Five to Go''.]]

Most other things "Monty Python" nowadays (such as ''{{Theatre/Spamalot}}'') fully involve only Creator/EricIdle, with the others as occasional drop-ins. Creator/TerryGilliam now mainly works as a director; Creator/TerryJones is a novelist; Creator/MichaelPalin makes travel documentaries; Creator/JohnCleese is still the grumpy old face of British comedy (having appeared in both the ''Film/JamesBond'' films as 'Q' and as a ghost in the ''Film/HarryPotter'' films); and Creator/GrahamChapman has continued to remain dead...

(Note: you will sometimes see the Terry Gilliam-directed film ''Film/{{Jabberwocky}}'' included in lists of Python films. This is due to it being promoted as ''Monty Python's Jabberwocky'' in some regions at the time of its original release, much to Gilliam's objections. Although it does feature some Python members, it is not correctly considered a Python film.)

Over the course of the series, they also acquired a loyal and long-running supporting cast: the unofficial seventh and eighth members of the troupe are British-born/American-raised actress Creator/CarolCleveland and comedic musician Neil Innes, with other frequent guest players including Cleese's then-wife (and future ''Series/FawltyTowers'' collaborator) Connie Booth, actor-writer Ian Davidson, and singing troupe The Fred Tomlinson Singers.

* ''Film/AndNowForSomethingCompletelyDifferent'' (1971): Essentially TheMovie of the ''Flying Circus'', produced and released while the original series was still in production. A collection of their best sketches from the show, reshot on film to introduce the team to American audiences, who didn't catch on quite yet.

The troupe more or less dissolved into its component parts after their last film, and fell apart definitively when Graham Chapman died in 1989. The last time all six were seen together live was in a brief spot in the 20-year reunion special ''Parrot Sketch Not Included'', where host Creator/SteveMartin revealed they were all being kept in a closet, including a visibly-ailing Chapman seated in the middle; the special aired the day after his death that October. The survivors (particularly Cleese and Palin) still do occasionally perform either on stage or in each other's films. All five held a 1998 reunion in Aspen, Colorado (with Creator/EddieIzzard in tow) and in mid-2014, they took one last collective bow, in a short series of London-based performances characteristically entitled ''Monty Python (Mostly) Live: One Down, Five to Go''.

DeadpanSnarker Creator/JohnCleese, StraightMan Creator/GrahamChapman and musician Eric Idle met at Cambridge University where they were members of The Footlights, a celebrated performing society. [[{{Pantomime}} Panto]]-style actor Creator/TerryJones and his writing partner, NiceGuy Creator/MichaelPalin, had been similarly occupied at Oxford at about the same time. Cleese met cartoonist/animator Creator/TerryGilliam -- the one American in the group, then working for the humor magazine ''Help!?'' -- during the US tour of "The Footlights Revue".

All save Gilliam were recruited as television writers straight out of college. In the amorphous melting pot that was British radio and TV comedy in the late 1960's -- where alliances drawn from the same talent-pool were constantly formed for [[BritishBrevity short-lived projects]] and then dissolved -- meetings in various combinations ensued for our heroes, and considerable mutual respect was earned. In 1967 Idle, Palin, Jones and Gilliam wrote and starred in the UK children's TV series, ''Series/DoNotAdjustYourSet''. At the same time Cleese and Chapman joined together with Tim Brooke-Taylor et al. to produce ''Series/AtLastThe1948Show'', and in 1968 the two provided additional material for the unruly satire ''Film/TheMagicChristian'', also making cameos in the film. Cleese, Chapman, Palin and Brooke-Taylor then collaborated for the one-off TV special ''How To Irritate People'' later that year.

The troupe more or less dissolved into its component parts after their last film, and fell apart definitively when Graham Chapman died in 1989. The last time all six were seen together live was in a brief spot in the 20-year reunion special ''Parrot Sketch Not Included'', where host Creator/SteveMartin revealed they were all being kept in a closet, including a visibly-ailing Chapman seated in the middle; the special aired the day after his death that October. The survivors (particularly Cleese and Palin) still do occasionally perform either on stage or in each other's films. All five held a 1998 reunion in Aspen, Colorado (with Creator/EddieIzzard in tow) and in mid-2014, they took one last collective bow, in a short series of London-based performances characteristically entitled ''Monty Python (Mostly) Live: One Down, Five To Go''.

'''Monty Python''' is a British comedy troupe, featuring some very well-educated clowns.

[[caption-width-right:350:[-Creator/MichaelPalin, Creator/TerryJones, Creator/EricIdle, Creator/GrahamChapman, Creator/TerryGilliam, and Creator/JohnCleese at the Hollywood Bowl, 1980-] ]]

The brash young sextet stormed into a pitch meeting with BBC executives and told them that... they had absolutely no idea what they wanted to do, let alone come up with a title for it. In their heads, though, it was going to be ''really really'' cool and groundbreaking and just generally nothing the comedy world had ever seen before -- like ''Radio/TheGoonShow'' had been, only more so. Incredibly enough, the execs took a flyer on them. The net result was ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'', and a sketch-comedy troupe for the ages was born. The unofficial seventh and eighth members are British-born/American-raised actress Creator/CarolCleveland and comedic musician Neil Innes, with other frequent guest players including Cleese's then-wife (and future ''Series/FawltyTowers'' collaborator) Connie Booth, actor-writer Ian Davidson, and singing troupe The Fred Tomlinson Singers.

Writing chores tended to fall along well-established lines: Cleese with Chapman (which Cleese described as mostly him feverishly typing while Chapman smoked his pipe and occasionally tossed out a totally random--but usually brilliant--idea), Palin with Jones, Idle on his own. Gilliam later noted that there seemed a further division in sensibilities between the taller, more "aggressive" Cambridge men and the shorter, lighter-humored Oxford men, the latter of which camps Gilliam found himself leaning towards. He himself worked separately on animations and hence appears only very rarely before the camera. Roles -- in the TV show, at least -- were assigned based on who had contributed most to that particular script; thus it's possible to roughly figure out who wrote what based on who's starring in any given sketch.

* ItGetsBetter

* ''Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl'' (1982): A live show, recorded in 1980, recreating some of the most famous sketches and songs (often with a twist), and adding new material (as well as some footage from the German episodes). Reportedly this film was made as a way of the troupe to overcome writer's block suffered while creating...

The troupe more or less dissolved into its component parts after their last film, and fell apart definitively when Graham Chapman died in 1989. The last time all six were seen together live was in a brief spot in the 20-year reunion special ''Parrot Sketch Not Included'', where host Creator/SteveMartin revealed they were all being kept in a closet, including a visibly-ailing Chapman seated in the middle; the special aired the day after his death that October. The survivors (particularly Cleese and Palin) still do occasionally perform either on stage or in each other's films. All five held a 1998 reunion in Aspen, Colorado (with Creator/EddieIzzard in tow) and in mid-2014, they took one last collective bow, in a short series of performances characteristically entitled ''Monty Python (Mostly) Live: One Down, Five To Go''.

* BlessedAreTheCheesemakers

DeadpanSnarker Creator/JohnCleese, StraightMan Creator/GrahamChapman and musician Eric Idle met at Cambridge University where they were members of The Footlights, a celebrated performing society. [[{{Pantomime}} Panto]]-style actor Terry Jones and his writing partner, NiceGuy Creator/MichaelPalin, had been similarly occupied at Oxford at about the same time. Cleese met cartoonist/animator Creator/TerryGilliam -- the one American in the group, then working for the humor magazine ''Help!?'' -- during the US tour of "The Footlights Revue".

Writing chores tended to fall along well-established lines: Cleese with Chapman (which Cleese described as mostly him feverishly typing while Chapman smoked his pipe and occasionally tossed out a totally random--but usually brilliant--idea), Palin with Jones, Idle on his own. Gilliam later noted that there was a further division in sensibilities between the taller, more "aggressive" Cambridge men and the shorter, lighter-humored Oxford men, the latter of which camps Gilliam found himself leaning towards; he worked separately on animations and hence appears only very rarely before the camera. Roles -- in the TV show, at least -- were assigned based on who had contributed most to that particular script; thus it's possible to roughly figure out who wrote what based on who's starring in any given sketch.

* The scripting language Python, while not developed by any member of the cast, was named after them. The standard IDE for Python, IDLE, was similarly named after Python member Eric Idle.

The troupe more or less dissolved into its component parts after their last film, and fell apart definitively when Graham Chapman died in 1989. The last time all six were seen together live was in a brief spot in the 20-year reunion special ''Parrot Sketch Not Included'', where host SteveMartin revealed they were all being kept in a closet, including a visibly-ailing Chapman seated in the middle; the special aired the day after his death that October. The survivors (particularly Cleese and Palin) still do occasionally perform either on stage or in each other's films. All five held a 1998 reunion in Aspen, Colorado (with Creator/EddieIzzard in tow) and in mid-2014, they took one last collective bow, in a short series of performances characteristically entitled ''Monty Python (Mostly) Live: One Down, Five To Go''.

* ''The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief'' (1973) The full title of the album is "Free Record Given Away With the Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief". It was also a "3-sided" record; side 2 had two concentric spiral grooves rather than one, so that the one that would play when the needle was dropped was completely unpredictable.
* ''Monty Python Live at Drury Lane'' (1974)

All save Gilliam were recruited as television writers straight out of college. In the amorphous melting pot that was British radio and TV comedy in the late 1960's -- where alliances drawn from the same talent-pool were constantly formed for [[BritishBrevity short-lived projects]] and then dissolved -- meetings in various combinations ensued for our heroes, and considerable mutual respect was earned. In 1967 Idle, Palin, Jones and Gilliam wrote and starred in the UK children's TV series, ''Series/DoNotAdjustYourSet''. At the same time Cleese and Chapman joined together with Tim Brooke-Taylor et al. to produce ''Series/AtLastThe1948Show'', and in 1968 the two provided additional material for the unruly satire ''Film/TheMagicChristian''. Cleese, Chapman, Palin and Brooke-Taylor then collaborated for the one-off TV special ''How To Irritate People'' later that year.