The 3 Best Monty Python Sketches (Aren’t Necessarily the Funniest)
To this day, I feel a twinge of irritation when the queen’s birthday honors list comes out and I see that the surviving Pythons remain un-knighted for yet another year.
I see recent photographs of Eric Idle and Michael Palin and give my head a shake: How can they be getting old?
But as an adult, I’ve been forced to accept that these strangers — whose work was one of the only things I believed I could ever truly depend on – all had (giant, stomping, purloined) feet of clay.
Terry Jones revealed himself to be a bitchy Bush-hater.
John Cleese doled out self-help psychobabble while marrying and divorcing more times than even my mother. (He’s in the midst of an “Alimony Tour” and is auctioning off a career’s worth of props and memorabilia.)
Worse, Cleese seems stupidly saddened and baffled by the transformation of his beloved London into a lawless polyglot madhouse — a transformation which is entirely the fault of the youthful culture-busting philosophy he and his liberal pals embraced.
They’d unwittingly (or not) destroyed England in a way the Luftwaffe could have only dreamed of.
(See Ed Driscoll’s searing take on the aging comedian’s almost touching confusion about the world he helped create.)
On that touchy topic, I was forced to confront my unalloyed affection for Monty Python while reading Peter Hitchens’ The Abolition of Britain.
I’d picked that book up to get a kick out of Hitchens’ brutal evisceration of the people who’d turned Princess Diana’s funeral into a ghoulish holiday from their own tedious, godless lives.
What I didn’t expect was to feel convicted myself, when Hitchens turned his attention to Swinging London’s ’60s and ’70s “satire boom,” of which Python were a part:
Beyond the Fringe, Forty Years On and TW3 created a tradition of “anti-establishment” comedy which continued long after its roots were forgotten. There may still have been an “establishment” of snobbery, church, monarchy, clubland and old-school-tie links in 1961. There were no such things ten years later, but it suited the comics and all the reformers to pretend that there was and to continue to attack this mythical thing. After all, if there were no snobbery, no crusty old aristocrats and cobwebbed judges, what was the moral justification for all this change, change with benefited the reformers personally by making them rich, famous and influential? (…)
The new, “iconoclastic” humour changed the way that the British, especially the middle class, thought about themselves. But people who use the word “iconoclastic” in a casual, almost approving fashion have little ice of the damage that image-smashers can do, not least because the vandalism, once started, is very hard to stop.
That was hard for me — now a grown-up self-described conservative — to read.
I felt a bit sick.
Still, the best — or perhaps more accurately, my favorite — Monty Python sketches retain their humor, insight, and bite, holding up the same way that (at least for some poor delusional folks) some Beatles songs do.
OTOH, SCTV was the first comedy show I remember seeing that mocked the left to the benefit of the right.
Blaming Monty Python for Britain’s problems is like blaming Joe Paterno for Graham Spanier and Jerry Sandusky. When it comes to destructive pop culture, the Beatles were the problem.
The Beatles were not cultural leaders – they were cultural mouthpieces. Musical pioneers (who might not have been as pioneering without the help of George Martin), but everything else about them – from their looks to their “transgressive” lyrics to their sometimes ridiculous public pronouncements – was taken from the culture around them. They were a symptom, not a cause. They were postmodernists before anyone knew what that was.
And yet they also wrote and recorded “Taxman”. Or maybe that’s your point.
I loved me some Python at one time. I believe that I was their single viewer in Alabama from 74 to 77.
Sad really to see how Cleese has turned out. I suspect that there is a great deal of self-loathing in all comics that continues to increase in their later years until all that is left is bile.
I think that Cleese, like a lot of 60s liberals, thought he was contributing to the evolution of British society. Now he’s discovered that that evolution wasn’t really under the liberals’ control and society has become…something completely different.
Correction – Obama is the half-generation after them (as am I). We turned 18 during the mid-late-end 70s, not 60s.
Obama is a “Wizard’s Apprentice.” Following in his Master’s footsteps.
It helps to recall that Cleese is what used to be called manic depressive, and his genius and mood fluctuate like, say, Spike Milligan’s.
Agree about the massive shift in the UK between about 1960 and about 1975 — my upbringing included some years in the still-semi-snooty English school system so I saw much of it directly — but the central failings of the hapless Brit establishment, BBC above all, had nothing to do with MPython. The leading thought-mongers of the day simply didn’t know what they were doing (plus ça change). Had they been born twenty years later, you can be quite confident that the Python crew would have aimed in a quite different direction, the four Yorkshiremen turning into effeminate BBC luvvies affecting a proletarian world-view, most likely.
As for today, few Englishmen now have the first clue about their own past, as Peter Hitchens and Anthony Daniels (Dalrymple) well know. What price decades of dumbing down? Well, look around and in the mirror. With almost no exceptions, Americans and Canuckistanis know even less. One majestic accessible exception: Mark Steyn. He actually knows stuff, and understands what he’s looking at — cf. nearly all the other self-styled experts on this site and elsewhere.
A very interesting article which brings up a lot of good points one could debate endlessly.
I’m not sure I agree that Monty Python helped undercut the culture of the UK. Their humor, such as the Argument Sketch, or the one about Spam or the man who insults only every other sentence tended to be generic rather than specific.
Still, Monty Python was more specific than say, the Marx Bros. Though there was truth in Python’s humor it was after all humor and not a blanket denunciation and call for change, as if they were actually commies practicing a type of diabolical propaganda.
I thought it amusing that Cleese wonders if Life of Brian could be made today. Of course it could, with even fewer problems. The real question is: could they make Life of Mohamed. The answer is that the courageous troop wouldn’t dare. Maybe in ’79, not today – no way. Heads would, not figuratively but literally, roll.
Cleese’s remarks about diversity are spot on. The question I’d ask an Englishman were I in London is, “What in the world have you done to yourselves?”
Don’t they for one minute understand that if all these Third World immigrants were so equal they wouldn’t have come to Britain in the first place? Do you see Americans running to Russia or Egypt, sneaking in and huddling in groups hoping for a job or going to a welfare office.
Equal is as equal does. That’s not racism, that’s an observation of reality and the boxscore of the ballgame. The ballgame where liberals call balls and strikes depending on your, sigh, race, class and gender.
The other question I have is, where is a Monty Python today to show that the biggest racists in the West are anti-racist liberals. There’s a lot of work still to be done, but today’s humor, ala Sat. Night Live, is still tiresomely stuck in Ozzie and Harriet myths that were never true in the first place.
I was just looking at a list of science fiction and fantasy books from 1912 to 1920. There was less conformity than in those same fields today, though the authors have a hundred years to pronounce and take advantage of their supposedly superior morality and views on race and gender. Sadly, the non-conformists predictably come off as rednecks compared to Burroughs, Francis Stevens and Abraham Merritt. The frickin’ head of the Science Fiction Writers of America, moron John Scalzi, wrote a short ditty about how whites all suffer from white privilege. In 100 years, men like Scalzi have devolved, not evolved.
Well, Scalzi is a bigot *and* is completely aware of who writes his checks. He doesn’t write for a publishing house known for its tolerance of a wide range of views; he writes for one of the Big Houses that considers themselves tolerant for accepting both Maoists and Stalinists.
Scalzi may be a PC opportunist jerk, but “Redshirts” is still humane, sweet, crack-up funny and thoroughly satisfying. Why are so many writers wiser and more realistic in their fiction than in their supposed non-fictional statements?
Scalzi’s a failure as a thinker, humorist, satirist, writer, and artist. His most potent weapon is his political correctness and the blog he uses to snare other PC nitwits to read his dreck.
He’ll go back to milking the “Old Man’s War” universe throughout eternity. That’s what hacks incapable of creativity do – endlessly replicate their one smell of success. Or steal stuff that’s marginal in the first place like fuzzies.
Orson Scott Card is like a salmon with his “Ender’s Buttocks,” “Ender’s Hernia,” “Ender’s Comeuppance,” “Ender’s Grocery List.”
Scalzi himself is like an old man, an old beta-male. Monty Python was made to offend people like him.
“Orson Scott Card is like a salmon with his “Ender’s Buttocks,” “Ender’s Hernia,” “Ender’s Comeuppance,” “Ender’s Grocery List.”
Damn that’s funny, and painful. The soda that I spewed out my nose is going to burn my nasal passages for a while.
I wholeheartedly agree on the Three Yorkshiremen. Perfect comedy!
My absolute fave is “Splunge!”: the sketch where a Hollywood producer (Graham in a cowboy hat) fires a roomful of screenwriters one by one. One of the panicked writers (Jones) invents the catch-all answer of “Splunge,” which means “It’s a good idea, but maybe not, and I’m not being indecisive or a yes-man.”
My other fave also slams Tinseltown: The making of “Captain Scott of Antarctica.”
I for one love Mr. Pither’s Cycling Tour of North Cornwall(with a detour through the U.S.S.R):
Pither: A very good morning to you too, Doctor
Doctor: I understand that you had an accident?
Pither: Yes, my pump got…
Doctor: …caught in your sock.
Pither: Yes, and my fruit cake was damaged on one side.
Doctor: Well…
Pither: It’s got grit all over it.
Wendy,
It’s great to hear from someone who liked my favorite Python skit. I think it’s been overlooked by many because the first twenty minutes were somewhat slow. The firing squad sequence still makes me laugh, almost forty years later. “My, what an amazing escape!” To this day I still think of Michael Palin as Mr.Pither.
“I don’t like spam!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anwy2MPT5RE
I have always been partial to the sketch of King Arthur and Dennis from the Movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
The condesention and convolusion presented as being superior and simple to ‘the man’ always struck me as spot on regading the leftist attitude.
That and the Palestinian…oops, I mean the Judean “freedom fighters” from Life of Brian.
The peasants who were in an anarcho-syndicalist commune? The ones who were worried about the plight of the working masses? *Those* are the ones who you see as the opposition to leftists in this little scenario?
“*Those* are the ones who you see as the opposition to leftists in this little scenario?”
No sir, if you read what I said you will see that “Those are the one’s I see AS leftists in the scenario”
This is begging to sound like the argument sketch.
And by the way, “It’s a Man’s Life in the British Dental Association”.
Both King Arthur and Dennis are despicable (in this skit). King Arthur stands for the Obama admin, Dennis stands for OWS. You should be very careful not to be associated with either of them … and yet, I have much more sympathy for Dennis. (Though not for OWS.)
Item: Dennis gets all the best lines (eg “farcical aquatic ceremony”);
Item: Dennis wins the argument when Arthur resorts to violence “inherent in the system”;
Item: Dennis offers cogent criticism of the establishment, while Arthur/Obama has no argument to offer against Dennis/OWS;
Item: nobody is forced to join Dennis’ anarcho-syndicalist commune, but everybody is forced to join Arthur/Obama’s brave new world.
Go re-watch it, guys. It was even-handed, poking fun at the leftists and the conservatives. You’re forgetting about when Dennis is explaining how the commune works:
“Each of us takes turns being a sort of executive officer of the week. However, all the decisions of that executive must be ratified at a biweekly meeting…”
Dennis CALLS it a collective, explains how it functions (bureaucratic dysfunction mandated by the idealist members). Plus, each side takes for granted that their worldview is the correct one and essentially tries to shout the other down. Like ogres, Python has LAYERS. Same planet, different worlds. Kind of a ridicule of the disconnect between left and right, practicality and idealism, etc.
I find this forum to be an appropriate place to admit that I lost my virginity to a theater major who was enchanted that I, a Chemistry major, could recite from memory essentially all of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
And by enchanted, I mean enchanted right out of her pants. If you know what I mean. Wink wink. Nudge nudge.
Say no more.
Astonishing to read that once upon a time in the ’70s one could get laid by quoting Monty Python.
After 1980, the Dungeons & Dragons dorks ruined it for everyone.
If I was a purist, I’d point out that the Four Yorkshire Men sketch isn’t technically a Monty Pyhton sketch. Good thing I’m impure….
BTW, when I have movie parties and need a short subject between features, I’ve reached for the Four Yorkshires. I’ve also run with Upper Class Twit Of the Year. That one builds nicely…
Upper Class Twit of the Year? Didn’t John Kerry win that once….
He retired the trophy.
He wins every year.
Next year he’s up to lead the Ministry Of Silly Walks.
I thought that was Piers Morgan.
I take the heretical view that SCTV was more consistently funny — and better acted — than Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
Fine. Unlike other people, you’ll be able to expect the Spanish Inquisition.
I liked SCTV too, but as an American Kid they were too “recognizable”.
Part of the fun for a 12 year old with regard to Monty Python, was the fact they were different than anyone we’d meet, they were “English”, with funny accents and more of that nervous, utterly unmasculine high energy you just didnt get from American Comedy.
Anyone behaving like that with “American Accents” would appear “foolish”, but for the Brits (who we assume to be uptight to begin with) the silliness just works better.
Steve Marin at his rediculous best still has a more “masculine” kind of American coolness than any of the Pythoners. It was their near childlike enthusiasm qand silliness (the dead Parakeet?) with all the over-the-top shreaks and hollering that made them so much fun to watch as a kid.
Fish Slapping Dance. All I’ll say.
Jesus, thanks for killing some hilarious sketches. Can’t you just enjoy the comedy? Why do you care what their politics are? And thanks for filling us in on your miserable childhood. Couldn’t have done without that.
You might actually READ what she wrote! The major point she made was that their comedy was and is their politics and destructive to the culture. That destruction corroded the best and the banal, while leaving the worst untouched.
Really, does everything have to be viewed through a right-wing/conservative lens? If someone doesn’t toe your political line, they’re no good? Springsteen, the Dixie Chicks, and now John Cleese? I’m a raging liberal, but I still enjoy people whose politics I disagree with. Kelsey Grammar. Kid Rock. P. J. O’Rourke.
What sad, stunted little lives you must lead.
That’s noble of you but did your actually read the article?
I love Monty Python, but the one thing that used to bother me about them was that they never finished a sketch. They all seem to end with some kind of nonsense instead of coming to a natural conclusion.
And then I finally figured out years ago that they did that on purpose. It was part of the gag. They were very smart, very funny, and no matter what your political persuasion they can be appreciated.
Just don’t listen to them outside of the sketches.
Heavens, yes. What insights could possibly be gained from the opinions of a half-dozen suberbly educated, world-traveled, massively successful, risk-taking comedians and authors?
Ever hear the story about the donkey that was in every one of Napoleon’s campaigns?
“… suberbly educated, world-traveled, massively successful, risk-taking…
Dude,
It was a TV show…
Get over it
We hear all the time from satirists that tyrants cannot bear being
mocked, and therefore with enough well-aimed spoofs and SNL sketches, we
can bring down the powerful. Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, to cite just one example, proves this self-congratulatory theory to be absolute bosh.
So I take your position as this: “After Munich, civilization’s only chance to prevent war was the October 1940 release of an American comedy. Entertainers assured us this would work; Hitler would return Poland and resign. But to the world’s dismay, the movie failed, and millions died in the resulting tragedy — a tragedy that stretched on until the 1970s, when Monty Python finally completed the destruction of England. Personally, I only recognized this after Reagan and Thatcher’s attempt at a Restoration failed, resulting — for the first time in history — in cities where more than one language was widely spoken.” Does that sound right?
Oddly, with Obama, I seem to see more and more every day how his narcissism is his weakness. Mockery might not bring him down, but at least his life would suck as much as the economy does if we had comedians with more backbone in America.
The Left, like all narcissists, has always regarded civilized behavior on the part of its opponents as a weakness to be exploited. That’s what made traditional Western values so easy to mock; turn the other cheek and all that. On the other hand, leftism has made it clear over the decades that it is perfectly willing to resort to uncivilized behavior to get what it wants. The comedians know this in their heart of hearts, even if they won’t admit it to themselves.
Surely the Dennis Moore sketch was the most conservative sketch ever written! “Blimey, this redistribution of wealth is trickier than I thought.”
Then there were the Goonies.
“When come the Revolution, we will all eat strawberries!”
“But I don’t like strawberries.”
“When come the revolution, you will like strawberries!”
Hard to have a favorite, but the Piranha Brothers needs mentioning.
Also a movie with some Pythons and some really funny takes was Yellowbeard (written by Graham Chapman), yes it was “uneven” as the critics say but had some great lines, the best being, “It was that shark wot jogged my mem’ry,” perfectly delivered by Madeline Khan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowbeard
“We Yellowbeards are never more dangerous than when we’re dead!”
Slogan for 2014 elections…?
And no one mentioned my favorites; the world’s funnest joke, and the deliberately miss-translated Hungarian-to-English phrase book.
In the world’s funnest a joke, a joke writer, one Ernest Scribbler, thinks of a joke so funny, he dies laughing. His mother enters the room, reads the joke thinking it is a suicide note, and dies laughing herself. The authorities soon catch on, and have the joke translated into German under “joke proof conditions,” and unleash it upon the deadly enemy. The German soldiers, hearing the joke on the field of battle, begin telling it to each other as they die laughing, decimating their own ranks, and lose the war.
So I suppose you could say the sketch was prophetic. Except the joke was on England. And therefor, us, the US. Because if England has laughed itself to death, than so have we.
But even more prophetic, or revealing you could say, is the miss-translated phrase book. It is an exact description of the left’s method in our educational system. In the sketch, a Hungarian national enters a tobacco shop with a phrase book, and begins speaking pornographic gibberish. This results in a violent altercation between the hapless Hungarian, and the shop owner. Eventually, the true culprit is brought to bear. It was the publisher. He was accused of deliberately miss-translating his Hungarian-to-English phrase book, in a attempt to cause “a violent breach of the peace.” Which is exactly how the left took over America from within through education. A deliberately miss-translated Hungarian-to-English phrase book, which has indeed led to a “violent breach of the peace.”
If you think not, well think again. We were all taught taught, for instance, not to take humor so literally. To do so would be conservative, therefor, up-tight, or square. This is how the left has defended itself during censorship cases. At least in part. Only fools take everything literally, right? Or doesn’t that sound familiar to you? It does to me. That’s why, whenever Monty Python, and Saturday night Live, maybe even SCTV, would make jokes about Marxism, we thought they were kidding. It was just more satire, right? If Marxism isn’t worthy of satire, what would be? Except, and here’s the funny part, THEY take Marxism seriously. They never question it!
So again, we, and England, seem to have laughed ourselves to death. Or at least into bankruptcy. This non-literal mind set is what makes it so difficult when arguing with liberals. That is why facts and history do not add up for them. They are non-literal in almost everything.
Simplistic, I suppose. But I think true. Did humor kill us though? No. But a stubborn non-literalism seems to have. Because Obama and his minions could not take their Marxism more seriously. Me, I could use a good laugh right now.
I’m trying to imagine what you might funny.
Please, always remember…”If they can’t see you, they can’t get you”
I can’t agree with the idea that making fun of our “leaders” is something bad. I can’t even imagine living in a country where it was frowned upon to make fun of the president…(uhhhhh,wait a minute…)
* Spanish Inquisition
* Funny Walks
* Argument Clinic
… and of course “Spam!” has had the greatest effect of all, thanks to the Internet.
But anyone could name another dozen favorite and/or influential skits.
The Cheese Shop and of course, the Dead Parrot Sketch.
Yes, Cheese Shop–I was waiting for someone to mention it! It has that internal logic that the author mentions. Also love the Dead Parrot. And wasn’t there one about an exploding penguin?
Kathy–
I had the same reaction when I read The Abolition of Britain. Hitchens’ inclusion (never mind writing) of that chapter is a piece of utter bosh in a book full of startling and sometimes spot-on interpretations of a deliberate and dehumanizing social process at work in Western society that seems to have begun well before WWI. That doesn’t mean that all of his points are valid, and his assault on the satire of the ’60s, which in the case of Cook and Moore was at least as counter-counter-cultural as it was anything, notably detracted from the impact of a work that could make even the most dogmatic liberal think twice. Which is how it affected me, beginning me on my path away from the left and into what I can only describe as the loneliest of limbos in between.
All I can say is don’t throw the baby out with the bath-water. Artists– and I should know, I am one– have no real political views; they simply adopt poses and don mantles in order to gain themselves attention and please a wide audience. Just as blogs do. Nothing can detract from the brilliance or the fond memory of Monty Python in its prime, not even the squalid sight of its members babbling in their dotage. Nobody ages well, especially not artists.
I always wanted to be……
A Lumberjack.
MP was on channel 13 in NYC on Sunday night. I hated when the show was over because it meant having to go to sleep for school the next day and I hated school. Terry Jones was my favorite Python but they were all very funny. One of my favorites was the election night coverage skit. The Silly Party with Michael Palin dressed as a clown wearing a silly grin is hilarious. Election night for real in America may even be funnier. Nancy Pelosi has the same kind of clown-like look on her face most of the time. American humor these days is so one sided. Phony cowards like Jay Leno make me puke. No wonder we keep falling over the cliff.
Thanks, Kathy, for bringing back some fond memories.
“Fawlty Towers” was my favorite Cleese serial.
I was in Cocoa Beach about 20 years ago, and found a Fawlty Towers Motel, I couldn’t pass up the chance to stay there.
I was with my 80 year old mother, and she didn’t know the connection I appreciated about the place.
When my room key didn’t work in the door, I thought it was part of a gag, and went back to the office. The attendant came back to the room with me and the key worked without a problem for him.
That night was additionally memorable because a cold front was passing through with about 40 mile an hour winds whipping through the pool/patio area from north to south. The pool had 4 foot waves in it; I swear.
The motel is still there, but now it’s a clothing optional motel. It’s gone from Fawlty to lewd.
Two Words: Benny … Hill
About 5 years ago I was accompanying a group of 7yr olds on a trip into Central London on the Underground to visit a museum. Suddenly all the children (about 30)came asking for the Underground maps they had given to us to look after and went rushing down to the other end of the carriage from where I was sitting and asking a gentleman sitting there to sign said maps for them. One of the mothers with us had recognised Michael Palin and all the children decided they too wanted his autograph. Wonderfully this celebrity, who had a program on touring Asia on the TV at the time, patiently signed for each child. I was very impressed!
I too have had to reevaluate my Pythonmania over the years. I still love the more whimsical stuff: the Skyfy Sketch and the original mockumentary on Ewan McTeagle the Scottish poet whose poems were letters asking for money. But there was a powerful anti-Christian animus in there as well. Go on YouTube to see John Cleese and Michael Palin in a particlarly snarky mood as they debate Malcolm Muggeridge and the then Bishop of Southwark about the new move LIFE OF BRIAN. It’s ugly and bigoted and smacks of the arrogance of the old establishment they were very much part of. I’ve met two Pythons while working in the book business — Eric Idle who was having a bad day and Terry Jones who was absolutely unaffected and friendly. One last note: in a PBS documentary on Monty Python, the boys are interviewed about the late Graham Chapman who was bi-sexual. They tell the story of shooting on location in Scotland and Chapman comes on the set in the morning with bruises on his face. Suddenly Palin and other can’t quite look the camera in the eye as they allude to the darker side of Chapman’s life (“rough trade” they call it in the UK). It’s that unwillingness to look at the underside of the culture that replaced the old establishment that has always bothered me about the culture industry, especially among its most talented.
As a philosopher, I loved the Australian philosophy department sketch where everyone is named Bruce. And as a soccer fan, I loved the sketch showing the game between the Bournemouth Gynecologists and the Watford Long John Silver Impersonators. And as a native of Minneapolis, I thought it was pretty cool when in the credits of one of the half-hour shows they for some reason listed their hometowns, and Terry Gilliam’s listed Minneapolis.
But there’s really too many to list. The fight with the lion in Scott of the Antarctic, the firing squad in the bicycle tour, and the housewives debating Sartre would be just a few of the many others I cherish.
Yes–wasn’t the Cleese character saying “Get ready to torpedo the cat!” or something, when they were inexplicably on their way on a submarine to visit Jean-Paul Sartre?
Any time they were dressed as women… Terry Jones as a woman…
What about Graham Chapman in the D. H. Lawrence parody?
I thought one of the best “non-funny” Monty Python skits was in the movie “The Meaning of Life”. There’s a boardroom with a bunch of execs discussing the business of the day. One of them has been tasked with finding out what was creating the general malaise in the the human condition. He said that there were two reasons. 1) People weren’t wearing enough hats and 2) [a long discourse of feelings of futility and emptiness, etc.]. It’s obvious that everyone is lost on his long existential speech. Finally, one of the members says “What’s that about hats”. He replies, “People aren’t wearing enough of them”. Suddenly everyone is energized and a full blown discussion about hats ensues.
I always liked this skit because it’s something that I’ve picked up in the business world. When pressed with solving a difficult problem, most people will segue off on a tangential, yet more easily solved, problem. Leaving the initial problem unresolved. But congratulating themselves on their problem solving skills.
I thought this was a great observation on how institutions go about solving problems. Kind of like Obama’s solution to the gun violence issue.
God: What are you doing now?
King Arthur: Averting our eyes, oh Lord.
God: Well, don’t. It’s just like those miserable psalms, always so depressing. Now knock it off!
God: Every time I try to talk to someone it’s “sorry this” and “forgive me that” and “I’m not worthy”…
One of my favorite sketches is one they wrote for the TV show but never performed until the live appearances: the Pope/Michelangelo sketch. It turns out it’s based on an actual historical incident! It wasn’t between the Pope and Michelangelo, however. The Renaissance artist Paolo Veronese painted a Last Supper with extraneous elements such as contemporary German soldiers and a jester. The Inquisition finally caught up with him and investigated. When they asked him about the additional stuff, he basically pled artistic license. They ordered him to paint out the added stuff, but instead he really did just rename it–to “The House of Levi.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paolo_Veronese#The_House_of_Levi