Chapman, Cleese, and Idle were members of the Footlights, which at that time also included the future Goodies ( Tim Brooke-Taylor, Bill Oddie, and Graeme Garden), and Jonathan Lynn (co-writer of Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister). Cleese met Gilliam in New York City while on tour with the Cambridge University Footlights revue Cambridge Circus (originally entitled A Clump of Plinths). Idle was also at Cambridge, but started a year after Chapman and Cleese. Chapman and Cleese met at Cambridge University. Jones and Palin met at Oxford University, where they performed together with the Oxford Revue.
Many sketches from their TV show and films are well-known and widely quoted. In 1998, they were awarded the AFI Star Award by the American Film Institute. " Pythonesque" has entered the English lexicon as a result.Īt the 41st British Academy Film Awards in 1988, Monty Python received the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema. Their influence on British comedy has been apparent for years, while in North America, it has coloured the work of cult performers from the early editions of Saturday Night Live through to more recent absurdist trends in television comedy. Following their television work, they began making films, including Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Life of Brian (1979) and The Meaning of Life (1983). A self-contained comedy team responsible for both writing and performing their work, the Pythons had creative control which allowed them to experiment with form and content, discarding rules of television comedy. Loosely structured as a sketch show, but with an innovative stream-of-consciousness approach aided by Gilliam's animation, it pushed the boundaries of what was acceptable in style and content. īroadcast by the BBC between 19, Monty Python's Flying Circus was conceived, written and performed by its members Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. Regarded as an enduring icon of 1970s pop culture, their sketch show has been referred to as being "an important moment in the evolution of television comedy". The Pythons' influence on comedy has been compared to the Beatles' influence on music.
The Python phenomenon developed from the television series into something larger in scope and influence, including touring stage shows, films, albums, books and musicals. Forty-five episodes were made over four series. Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British surreal comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show Monty Python's Flying Circus, which first aired on the BBC in 1969.