Although Monty Python humour seems quintessentially British, the Pythons had a considerable following in other countries, especially America, and in September 1980 they gave four live performances at the Hollywood Bowl. Many of their American fans were college students, which may explain why many of the sketches included here have a rather intellectual flavour. These performances were captured on videotape, and the tapes were edited to produce this film which was released two years later in 1982 The film also includes excerpts from a German version of the television show, "Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus", including the "Silly Olympics" and the "International Philosophers' Football Match". Some sketches which had been performed during the live show were omitted from the film. These include, rather surprisingly, the famous "Dead Parrot sketch", possibly because it had been included in an earlier Python film, "And Now For Something Completely Different".
"Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl" is similar to "And Now..." and "The Meaning of Life", which was to come out in 1983, in that all three films consist of a series of unrelated comedy sketches and songs with no linking theme. In the other two Python films, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and "Life of Brian", the various sketches were linked together to form a coherent narrative, or something resembling one.
Pythonesque humour is an acquired taste, and attempting to explain its appeal to anyone who is not already a Python-worshipper is a forlorn hope. Indeed, the film itself contains an object lesson in the perils of trying to explain or analyse humour, in the sketch in which Graham Chapman, playing a highbrow academic, lectures the audience on the history of slapstick. The "japes" which Chapman describes, are acted out by Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin, with the humour deriving from the contrast between Chapman's earnest, rather pompous manner and the silliness of the various japes performed by the other three with deadpan faces. To avoid sounding like Chapman's rather absurd academic, therefore, I will avoid trying to analyse the sketches in any depth, merely pointing out a few of my favourites, which include:-
"Sit on My Face" - A parody of Gracie Fields' famous, and sunnily optimistic, "Sing as We Go", here given a ribald twist to celebrate the joys of oral sex.
"The Last Supper", in which Michelangelo defends an unorthodox painting of the Last Supper (including, among other things, a kangaroo and three Christs) to a sceptical Pope.
"The Philosophers' Song" - In which a group of Australian philosophy dons enlighten uses to the drinking habits of some of the great philosophers from history.
"The Ministry of Silly Walks" - In which John Cleese discusses the possibility of Palin getting a grant to develop his silly walk and make it even sillier, with the humour mostly deriving from real-life bureaucratic jargon being used in an absurd context.
"Nudge Nudge" - In which Eric Idle, posing as an experienced man of the world, uses innuendo to imply that Jones's wife is sexually promiscuous; the punchline, however, reveals that Idle is still a virgin.
"Four Yorkshiremen sketch" - In which four wealthy Yorkshiremen discuss their humble origins, with each man trying to outdo the others in tales of the poverty he had to endure as a child. ("We used to live in a shoebox in't middle o't road...."). This was not originally a Monty Python sketch but was written for an earlier comedy show, "At Last the 1948 Show", in which Cleese and Chapman also appeared.
"The Lumberjack Song" In which a rough, tough lumberjack unexpectedly reveals a softer, feminine side to his personality, shocking his girlfriend and the accompanying chorus of Mounties. This song is here sung by Idle, rather than Palin who had performed it on television.
Not all the sketches are of this quality; I have never really seen the point of Chapman wrestling himself, and the "Never Be Rude to an Arab" song doesn't hold up well in these more politically correct times. The ratio of hits to misses, however, is higher here than it was in "And Now....", when the Pythons had less material to choose from, and certainly higher than it was to be in "The Meaning of Life" when the well of inspiration was starting to dry up. To any practising Pythonist like myself, this film is essential viewing. 9/10.
"Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl" is similar to "And Now..." and "The Meaning of Life", which was to come out in 1983, in that all three films consist of a series of unrelated comedy sketches and songs with no linking theme. In the other two Python films, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" and "Life of Brian", the various sketches were linked together to form a coherent narrative, or something resembling one.
Pythonesque humour is an acquired taste, and attempting to explain its appeal to anyone who is not already a Python-worshipper is a forlorn hope. Indeed, the film itself contains an object lesson in the perils of trying to explain or analyse humour, in the sketch in which Graham Chapman, playing a highbrow academic, lectures the audience on the history of slapstick. The "japes" which Chapman describes, are acted out by Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin, with the humour deriving from the contrast between Chapman's earnest, rather pompous manner and the silliness of the various japes performed by the other three with deadpan faces. To avoid sounding like Chapman's rather absurd academic, therefore, I will avoid trying to analyse the sketches in any depth, merely pointing out a few of my favourites, which include:-
"Sit on My Face" - A parody of Gracie Fields' famous, and sunnily optimistic, "Sing as We Go", here given a ribald twist to celebrate the joys of oral sex.
"The Last Supper", in which Michelangelo defends an unorthodox painting of the Last Supper (including, among other things, a kangaroo and three Christs) to a sceptical Pope.
"The Philosophers' Song" - In which a group of Australian philosophy dons enlighten uses to the drinking habits of some of the great philosophers from history.
"The Ministry of Silly Walks" - In which John Cleese discusses the possibility of Palin getting a grant to develop his silly walk and make it even sillier, with the humour mostly deriving from real-life bureaucratic jargon being used in an absurd context.
"Nudge Nudge" - In which Eric Idle, posing as an experienced man of the world, uses innuendo to imply that Jones's wife is sexually promiscuous; the punchline, however, reveals that Idle is still a virgin.
"Four Yorkshiremen sketch" - In which four wealthy Yorkshiremen discuss their humble origins, with each man trying to outdo the others in tales of the poverty he had to endure as a child. ("We used to live in a shoebox in't middle o't road...."). This was not originally a Monty Python sketch but was written for an earlier comedy show, "At Last the 1948 Show", in which Cleese and Chapman also appeared.
"The Lumberjack Song" In which a rough, tough lumberjack unexpectedly reveals a softer, feminine side to his personality, shocking his girlfriend and the accompanying chorus of Mounties. This song is here sung by Idle, rather than Palin who had performed it on television.
Not all the sketches are of this quality; I have never really seen the point of Chapman wrestling himself, and the "Never Be Rude to an Arab" song doesn't hold up well in these more politically correct times. The ratio of hits to misses, however, is higher here than it was in "And Now....", when the Pythons had less material to choose from, and certainly higher than it was to be in "The Meaning of Life" when the well of inspiration was starting to dry up. To any practising Pythonist like myself, this film is essential viewing. 9/10.