Terry Gilliam on Monty Python

Terry Gilliam tries to explain Monty Python's Flying Circus.
March 3rd, 2007
The full interview is available here : • Terry Gilliam: It Is E...

[@danalexander2149]

Describe Monty Python: “Six guys who got away with murder.” - Terry Gilliam

[@LordBaktor]

I love that he mentions that they just tried to make each other laugh and didn't care about a potential audience. I've always believed that's how art should be made. Don't waste time trying to do what you think the audience will like, make what you love and if it's any good, the correct audience will eventually find you.

[@Superfreq69]

I was laughing again yesterday as I was thinking of a scene in Holy Grail.. Where i guys gets hit with a bow and arrow, with a message attached as it went in his body.. he says. Message for you sir~ ( very English) and Cleese goes on to his wonderful speech of this mans bravery... But the dude keeps popping up saying hes getting better..So finally Cleese finishes him off so he could continue with his speech.. Brilliant! God the whole movie, the witch scene... Very smart. Also catch Little Britain, USA on Stremio, Those guys are very intelligent and hilarious. HBO canned it after 6 Episodes because they were offending so many Americans! haha!

[@ingvarhallstrom2306]

Not only that, but there was some fierce internal competition in the group and some tribalism. You had Cleese and Chapman on one side and Jones, Palin, and Idle on the other side and Gilliam in between. So they effectively wrote in two different teams, then they met, read the sketches to the others, and only then decided what to keep. The thing was, they only kept the things that made the *other* team laugh. Because if you can make your "enemy" laugh, you've won.

[@reedsawyer5704]

Intelligent and silly. What a great summary of Python.

[@inactiveuser1981]

Seems I am my only audience 😅

[@LordBaktor]

@@inactiveuser1981 Same. I have an art channel that only I and two of my friends watch.

[@ajs3147]

"Hegel is arguing that reality is merely an a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant via the categorical imperative is holding that ontologically, it exists only in the imagination and Marx is claiming it was offside"

[@OGRE_HATES_NERDS]

great balls of fire pol pot

[@johankaewberg9512]

But then Socrates…

[@carlodave9]

Some young kids have no clue about them. One of my students had a very Monte Python sense of humor and had never seen them. I showed him the ‘getting hit with fish’ sketch, and it was like he found God.

[@Theomite]

A common occurrence with young people experiencing Python for the first time.

[@ChrisR395]

'Hello, I'd like to have an argument, please....'

[@KCFlyer2]

I never realized that as a teenager in Dallas in 1974 that I was watching the first Monty Python Flying Circus episode on KERA in Dallas.

[@briankorbelik2873]

Monty Python found me, or I them, when I was in high school in the early 1970's. The local PBS station in Los Angeles used to play them late on Friday nights. I am forever grateful for Monty Python seriously warping my sense of humor and showing me just how fun it is to be silly.

[@rickgarcia7334]

They were F'ing hilarious!! They helped raise me. 😁

[@telsurrey1]

The four Yorkshiremen sketch…I was brought up in a shoe-box. That’s luxury…we only dreamed of shoe-boxes…

[@gepmrk]

Elvis Presley was a huge Monty Python fan.

[@A_A_K_123]

Watching MP as a teen was like freebasing genius -- intelligence and sillyness -- directly into my bloodstream. They were ahead of their time (uncool, weird, PBS stuff), and now they are recognized as legends, even have a programming language named after them. How deeply Pythonic.

[@HailAnts]

At one point after the series finished on the BBC the network was going to wipe the video tapes it was shot on in order to reuse them. This happened a lot in the early days of videotape. One of its selling points was that the tapes (which were expensive at the time) could be reused unlike film. I think Terry Jones came up with the $1000 or so dollars to buy them from the BBC and prevent this!

[@Theomite]

Christ, talk about disaster averted!

[@HailAnts]

@@Theomite - Yeah. All of Johnny Carson's NYC studio-based Tonight Shows were 'wiped' and lost forever in this way..

[@lewistaylor1965]

'Do you ever get tired about being asked about Python?'...'Not really'....I wish I'd known that when I walked past Terry coming in the opposite direction...Only 2 of us in the street outside his house...I was dying to talk to him as a fan but thought I'd not pester him as he probably gets it all the time and probably fed up with it...Wish I'd just said 'Thanks'...that's all

[@NxDoyle]

"It's a fair cop, but society is to blame." "Agreed. We'll be charging them too."

[@PapiElric]

Thank you from France.

[@johankaewberg9512]

Without Monty Python, no Brazil (one of the best movies ever)

[@Andrew_M_Ward]

The BBC letting Monty Python happen unmolested and unfiltered is really a tribute to the genius of BBC

[@aaronleblanc9276]

I think the BBC censored the word “masturbating,” after fighting them on it for a while, by just cutting to silence for the one offensive word. And the gag turned out to be even better.

[@TheEvilCheesecake]

anything making it through the BBC of the 70s unmolested is the true miracle.

[@Roseland8]

Yea if you forget the fact they let pedophiles do whatever they wanted

[@DanielWesleyKCK]

That same laissez faire attitude at the BBC also led to several great shows in the 60s being wiped out. It's a double edged sword.

[@blueabattoir]

A very interesting man! One of my favourite directors.

[@johnbernhardtsen3008]

I Love the Brazil movie!part nitty gritty work/grind grim world and part Dream/Escape world!

[@jamesroof6150]

I discovered Monty Python's Flying Circus on PBS when I was 15 in the mid 1970's. We would smoke pot and watch it. We thought it was so absurd and silly even though initially we didn't understand all the dialogue & British sayings and slang. Timeless , Priceless and still just plain Silly.😂😂😂😜

[@Dranok1]

I love that he can't manage laissez-faire, because I reckon the BBC was less laissez-faire more lackadaisical 😈

[@sheldonwheaton881]

Smart and SILLY! "..high brow, low brow all agree they're the best thing in(comedy)!"

[@Fester_]

Is his blood pressure really as relaxed as it seems? Very cool.

[@telsurrey1]

Singing 'Look on the bright side of life!' whilst being crucified!

[@telsurrey1]

John Cleese was originally called John Cheese! No wonder he became a comedian!

[@johnshannon9656]

This man is responsible for "Tideland". That alone is enough.

[@telsurrey1]

In the early 70s, before I met my wife, she was a huge MP fan. I knew nothing about them. She converted me, and we used to do MP sketches together.

[@ankhor9252]

What does his shirt say? It doesn't say anything. It can't talk.

[@bobabooey285]

They made life fun while you watched or talked about them

[@johngaller278]

Klip klop Klip klop Klip klop Klip klop...... " Old woman!" "Man."

[@MorlokKurak]

The best way to sum up Monty Python....🤔 "Lemon Curry!?"

[@soppero]

Number one: the larch.

[@MorlokKurak]

@@soppero Naughty Bits. We can do this all day. 😀

[@soppero]

@@MorlokKurak We most certainly can, now hand over your lupins.

[@ghendar]

@@soppero Not now. I'm busy confusing a cat.

[@MorlokKurak]

@@ghendar Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisi... Oh, Bugger.

[@telsurrey1]

No cheddar! Don’t you realise cheddar cheese is the most popular cheese in the world?

[@kyon813]

Not 'round these parts, sir.

[@telsurrey1]

That’s not an argument, it’s a contradiction! I’ve come here for an argument.

[@bobabooey285]

No you didn't

[@pmacamfg7655]

Gilliam should make a movie with Alec Baldwin. I think he’s ready to do his rendition of madness.

[@christopherkenney4766]

Bloody Vikings.

[@Zak6959]

Knee

[@CloneShockTrooper]

It’s the best humor I ever encountered. People in my country tried to copy it but failed miserably. Sad that these times will never return, because everything has become so political correct 😞 Comedy is art form but this form of art is being put in chains ⛓️ by woke people who realty is authoritarian people claiming they are a force for good. And comedy is anti authoritarian and is offensive to these people clearly because it expose them and take away their freedom to suppress freedom.

[@telsurrey1]

What did the Romans do for us?

[@matthewseanmclachlan]

If you can get back his jaded ego...

[@CurriedBat]

I can say, I listen to the Black Knight every. day. of. of. the. of. The. Week. -My Grammarly subscription has been sacked.

[@TheEvilCheesecake]

quoting monty python is not a substitute for growing a real personality.

[@akfreed6949]

I was fortunate to watch MONTY PYTHONS FLYING CIRCUS on PBS in the good old days , before Reagan screwed up America .

[@akfreed6949]

@@jeffbroussard2436 So ?

[@TheEvilCheesecake]

only a white person can think this.

[@pjmlegrande]

@@jeffbroussard2436 … and was the solution to the Reagan problem