Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition : cultural contexts in Monty Python

208 Pages·2014·1.65 MB·English

by  Jones

Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition
Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition
Cultural Contexts in Monty Python
Edited by
Tomasz Dobrogoszcz
Foreword by Terry Jones
ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD
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Copyright © 2014 by Rowman & Littlefield
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passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition : cultural contexts in Monty Python / edited
by Tomasz Dobrogoszcz ; foreword by Terry Jones.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4422-3736-0 (cloth : alk. paper) – ISBN 978-1-4422-3737-7 (ebook) 1.
Monty Python (Comedy troupe) I. Dobrogoszcz, Tomasz, 1970– editor.
PN2599.5.T54N63 2014
791.45'028'0922–dc23
2014014377
TM The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
But remember, if you’ve enjoyed reading this book just half as
much as we’ve enjoyed writing it, then we’ve enjoyed it twice as
much as you.
Acknowledgments
The editor of the publication would like to express his most
earnest thanks to Terry Jones for honoring the book with his
foreword, as well as for his invaluable comments and kind words
of encouragement. The editor’s gratitude also extends to Darl
Larsen, a fountain-source of expert Python advice and
warmhearted support. The inspiration for the idea of the book
came from the Monty Python Conference held in Łódź, in
October 2010. The efforts and enthusiasm of all its participants
are genuinely appreciated. The editor is also deeply indebted to
Andrew Tomlinson, whose most punctilious and ingenious
copyediting allowed us to produce a more lucid and elegant
text.
Kevin Kern would like to extend sincerest thanks to Terry
Jones for being so generous with his time in reading and
responding to earlier drafts of this manuscript. Also reading an
earlier draft were Dr. Christopher Stowe, Dr. Michael Levin, Dr.
Martin Wainwright, and Christopher Garrett-Kern, and Kevin
must thank them for their helpful suggestions. Kristie Kern,
Kenton Kern, and J-C Jones-Kern also deserve credit for their
patience and support in the course of this research. Last, Kevin
must thank the University of Akron Department of History for
generously providing funds to defray the cost of presenting this
research in Lodz, Poland.
The chapter by Katarzyna Małecka is a greatly revised and
expanded version of the article that originally appeared in
Studia Neofilologiczne VII (2011) under the title “‘Oh . . . and
Jenkins . . . apparently your mother died this morning’: Monty
Python’s Meaning of Death.”
The research for the chapter by Miguel Ángel González
Campos was funded by the Andalusian Regional Government
(Proyectos de Excelencia de la Junta de Andalucía): Research
Project P07-HUM-02507.
Lastly, Prof. B. S. Gumby would like to express his most
spontaneous and frank imbecility.
spontaneous and frank imbecility.

*

All quotations from Monty Python’s Flying Circus are taken
from the book The Complete Monty Python’s Flying Circus: All
the Words, vol. 1 and vol. 2 (London: Methuen 1990). The
references in parentheses use volume number, followed by
page number (e.g., 1.123 is vol.1, page 123). All italicized parts
in quotations are action description and appear in this form in
the scripts book.
The DVD version used for reference in this book is: Monty
Python’s Flying Circus. The Complete Box Set. Dir. Ian
McNaughton. Perf. Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry
Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. 1969–1974.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2008.
All quotations from Monty Python feature films are taken
from their DVD versions, with further assistance of the Internet
site www.montypython.net (perhaps the most reliable and
comprehensive site featuring Monty Python scripts).
The DVD versions of feature films used for reference in this
book are:
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Dir. Terry Gilliam and
Terry Jones. Perf. Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam,
Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. 1974. Columbia TriStar
Home Entertainment, 2003.
Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Dir. Terry Jones. Perf. Graham
Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and
Michael Palin. 1979. The Criterion Collection, 1999.
Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. Dir. Terry Jones. Perf.
Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry
Jones, and Michael Palin. 1983. Universal Studios Home Video,
1997.
All quotations from the German television show Monty
Python Fliegender Zirkus are taken from the DVD version: Monty
Python’s Fliegender Zirkus. Dir. Ian McNaughton. Perf. Graham
Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones,
Michael Palin. 1971–72. Rainbow Entertainment, 2002.
The preceding sources are not mentioned in references of
The preceding sources are not mentioned in references of
particular chapters.
Foreword
I never realized Monty Python was taken so seriously in the
academic world, until I learnt of the Monty Python Conference
taking place in Łódź (pronounced, I believe, “Wodge”) in Poland,
28–29th October 2010. These chapters are the residue of that
conference, and I must say I find them fascinating! Well I would,
wouldn’t I? It’s all about what I, and a few friends, were doing in
our late twenties and thirties. And we still remain friends, after
all this time—doing nothing together for over thirty years.
Maybe that’s why we’re still friends.
I have to confess to having a terrible memory. So it’s really
great to be referred back to some of the things we’ve done in
the past—like Edyta Lorek-Jezińska’s “The Corpse and
Cannibalism in Monty Python’s Flying Circus Sketches”—I’d
totally forgotten about the life-boat sketch (“I’d rather eat
Johnson”). Or Eric Idle playing with the Bonzo Dog Do Da Band
in Do Not Adjust Your Set in Richard Mills’ “Eric Idle and the
Counter-Culture.” I’d also totally forgotten that. And where else
can you find Monty Python sketches referenced to Bakhtin,
Foucault, Freud, Shakespeare, and Swift?
Katarzyna Małecka, in “Death and the Denial of Death in the
Works of Monty Python,” starts from the premise that
psychologists claim that we tend to deny the reality of our own
death, “but can conceive our neighbor’s death, . . . [which] only
supports our unconscious belief in our own immortality and
allows us—in the privacy and secrecy of our unconscious mind—
to rejoice that it is ‘the next guy, not me.’” She concludes:
“Thus, being struck on the head with a large axe while trying ‘to
recite the Bible in one second’ and being able to say only ‘In the
. . .’ is not as far-fetched as it may seem, reminding us yet again
that the beginning and end might be nearer each other than we
expect.” She obviously has a sense of humor.
There are real insights too in this book. Katarzyna Poloczek,
writing about “The Representation of the Woman’s Body in
Monty Python’s Meaning of Life,” claims: “It is argued here that
despite the seemingly surreal content, the aforementioned film
[The Meaning of Life] aptly addresses vital gender issues,
frequently exhibiting a poignant critique of patriarchal society.”
And you know, it does! When I started the chapter I was afraid
that she was going to tear us to shreds. But, of course, in the
childbirth scene at the start of the film “the experience of
childbirth is depicted as a purely medical procedure, controlled
entirely by male doctors, the role of a woman in labor is made
virtually redundant.” I guess we knew what we were writing
about when we wrote it, but I don’t think we knew that if “the
Pythons had employed one of their own group members to act
out the scene, its mock-documentary ‘realism’ would be
destroyed, as the audience’s attention would be focused on the
male performer, and not on the surrounding milieu.” We just did
it instinctively.
Stephen Butler and Wojciech Klepuszewski, in their chapter
“Monty Python and the Flying Feast of Fools,” link the bishop
sketch, where the bishop becomes an avengers-type hero, to
the subverted role of the bishop in the Feast of Fools, “where
the Bishop, would be replaced by a Bishop of Fools, usually a
child elected by the congregation.” They conclude: “The irony of
this skit is that the Pythons themselves would face an equally
threatening bishop, the Bishop of Southwark, ten years later in a
television debate on the blasphemy of The Life of Brian.” Things
I’d never connected before. They conclude: “Rather than seek
to transform the existing order, the Feast’s job was to ensure
that the hierarchies would remain in place. Whether the same is
true of Python’s comedy is difficult to state with any degree of
certainty, mainly due to the conflicting statements of each of
the members.” And it’s true. I think that we just jumped onto
the bandwagon of critiquing authority, which was all the rage in
the late sixties. I don’t think we ever thought our little show was
going to alter things, but I do think Monty Python was a
synthesis of all our ideas.
Justyna Stępień claims that the “TV programs contain well-
used patterns which viewers would never normally recognize as
kitsch” and goes on to prove that “the retro kitsch used by the