Monty Python's Flying Circus/YMMV


 * Adaptation Displacement: An example of a show doing it to itself, some of Flying Circus' bits were redone, and became famous the second time around.
 * Graham Chapman played the first Gumby, but Michael Palin created the one everyone remembers.
 * Terry Gilliam played a nude organist for the "Blackmail" sketch, a full season before Terry Jones' crazy haired version.
 * Graham Chapman's colonel who complained about things getting too silly was preceded by Graham Chapman's colonel who complained about copyright violations of the British Army's slogan "It's a dog's-- pig's-- man's life, in the modern army".
 * It's the same character. The transition came in the episode "Full Frontal Nudity", where the Colonel begins a sketch in his first role -- admonishing a soldier who thought from the British Army's recruitment campaign it was all about water-skiing and other adventures rather than killing -- and then breaks the fourth wall with "Stop that, it's silly" when the sketch turns into a gag about two Mafia men intimidating him for menaces money. He then reappears throughout that episode (and ever afterward) to stop sketches he considers silly, and the earlier characterization was abandoned.
 * And of course there's "And Now for Something Completely Different", which was displaced from another show, Blue Peter; it was also spoken by Eric Idle and Michael Palin before John Cleese used it.
 * The Four Yorkshiremen sketch originally part of At Last The 1948 Show but more famous via the Python version.
 * Crosses the Line Twice: One sketch was about an obscure composer (Johann Gambolputty de von Ausfern-schplenden-schlitter-crasscrenbon-fried-digger-dingle-dangle-dongle-dungle-burstein-von-knacker-thrasher-apple-banger-horowitz-ticolensic-grander-knotty-spelltinkle-grandlich-grumblemeyer-spelterwasser-kurstlich-himbleeisen-bahnwagen-gutenabend-bitte-ein-nürnburger-bratwustle-gerspurten-mitz-weimache-luber-hundsfut-gumberaber-shönedanker-kalbsfleisch-mittler-aucher von Hautkopft of Ulm) whose name is an extremely Overly Long Gag, to the point where it loops around from being tedious to fall-out-of-your-seat funny.
 * Crowning Moment of Funny: has its own page!
 * Discredited Meme: The jokes have been quoted so many times that it's become a joke to repeat the jokes.
 * Ear Worm: Just about any song the group makes.
 * Fountain of Memes
 * Funny Aneurysm Moment: Graham Chapman's "request death" in the "Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart" sketch.
 * Germans Love Monty Python: Which is why Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus came about, made especially for the show's sizeable German fanbase.
 * Even Funnier In Hindsight: "The Mouse Problem" satirized then current attitudes of homosexuality by replacing homosexuals with men who dress up like mice; today, we now have fursuiters.
 * Informed Wrongness: The narrator of the "Mr. Neutron" sketch keeps telling us that Mr. Neutron is plotting to destroy the world, yet we never see Mr. Neutron do anything even remotely evil, except flirting with a married woman, and is a pretty nice (if odd) guy.
 * Lowest Common Denominator: In "Njorl's Saga", there is a TV executive put on trial and defending himself by saying that television is all about popularity, and that the average viewer wants entertainment, not 3 hours of documentaries.
 * Memetic Mutation: Now with its own page.
 * Misaimed Fandom
 * The Pythons were dismayed that people were looking for deeper satirical meaning in the "Ministry of Silly Walks", which they said was just a silly sketch; John Cleese focused on fans who thought the sketch was their best.
 * The opposite happened with Monty Pythons Life of Brian, where the Pythons really were parodying the divisions in Britain's left-wing parties.
 * Nightmare Fuel: A few of Gilliam's animations. Also, the "Déjà Vu" sketch is probably what insanity is actually like.
 * Seasonal Rot: The fourth and final series is widely considered to be the weakest one. The Pythons themselves share this viewpoint; John Cleese, having become tired with the show, had left after the previous series and they agree that without both his contributions and his quality control things were getting a bit weaker.
 * Seinfeld Is Unfunny: Not so much the actual shows and movies, but hearing people recite their favorite sketches for the 16,047th time can be aggravating, to say the least.
 * Their "Spanish Inquisition" sketch has become such a classic that it's now easy to forget what made it so funny the first time it showed up: it was (hence their catchphrase) completely unexpected, with the Inquisition barging into an unrelated sketch without warning. Needless to say, watching it in a YouTube video titled "The Spanish Inquisition" spoils the joke just a bit.
 * Values Dissonance: All things considered, much of the treatment of non-whites and gays (and women) by the Pythons is rather offensive when viewed today. Obviously Grandfather Clause and Rule of Funny liberally apply -- as does the fact that one of the Pythons, Graham Chapman, was himself gay -- but for first time viewers, the dissonance can be jarring.
 * What Do You Mean It Wasn't Made on Drugs?: Word of God insists unanimously that it wasn't. Their sketches may look spur-of-the-moment, but they were actually very tightly written, often depended on split-second timing, and hence were well-rehearsed -- they actually wouldn't have been able to produce the show had they been under the influence (their frustration with Chapman's alcoholism still emerges in reminiscences forty-odd years later). Of course, what they may have got up to in their leisure hours was something else again...