o/t Did Morecambe and Wise have it right?

Were Monty Python funny?

  • Yup

    Votes: 38 65.5%

  • Nope

    Votes: 20 34.5%

  • Sooner have Monty Panesar!

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    58
Films were excellent, very tightly scripted,

The TV show was a mixture. Some brilliant stuff, some less so. You could say the same about most comic performers though.

You can't deny they changed the rules of comedy and students still recite the sketches even now. hat could never be said of M&W, who were very different anyway.
 
coppiceman said:
Films were excellent, very tightly scripted,

The TV show was a mixture. Some brilliant stuff, some less so. You could say the same about most comic performers though.

You can't deny they changed the rules of comedy and students still recite the sketches even now. hat could never be said of M&W, who were very different anyway.
Click to expand...
Agree, some brilliantly funny sketches and some absolute dross. Each to our own though when it comes to humour.
 
Well of course we’ad it tough…there were ‘undred and fifty of us living in t’shoe box in middle o t’road. Cardboard box? Aye. You were lucky….
 
Some of MP's sketch shows are a bit rubbish but then so are some of M&W's, MP's films are top class though and they all went on to have fantastically successful careers outside of the group, did Morecambe and Wise do anything as good as Fawlty Towers or Time Bandits or Ripping Yarns for example? Eric Idle won a Tony.
 
coppiceman said:
Films were excellent, very tightly scripted,

The TV show was a mixture. Some brilliant stuff, some less so. You could say the same about most comic performers though.

You can't deny they changed the rules of comedy and students still recite the sketches even now. hat could never be said of M&W, who were very different anyway.
Click to expand...
I play all the right notes, not necessarily in the right order.

Arsenal
 
I adored Morecambe and Wise as a 12 year-old schoolboy, but didn't really understand Python.

I tried to watch M and W recently with my wife, to show her what the fuss was all about. It was embarrassing, to be honest.

Yeah, Python were hit and miss, largely because they were innovative ( Ok, Spike ) and took massive risks, some of which didn't come off.
M and W were rehashed music hall.
 
Whatever your thoughts about M & W, you can't deny that they were hugely popular with British audiences.
And earned a lot of money.
 
Wupert wanks higher??

We knew all the classic lines at school all those years ago, can still remember so many.


Both highly successful, but Python were creating new comedy and satire, pushing the obscenity laws (remember the church trying to ban Life of Brian?) whereas M&W were the culmination of 150 years of variety shows.
 
Lytham_fy8 said:
Some of MP's sketch shows are a bit rubbish but then so are some of M&W's, MP's films are top class though and they all went on to have fantastically successful careers outside of the group, did Morecambe and Wise do anything as good as Fawlty Towers or Time Bandits or Ripping Yarns for example? Eric Idle won a Tony.
Click to expand...
Loved the time bandits, I met one of them in a pub in Burnley once, really nice chatty little fella, saw him again a few years later in London it was quite embarrassing when my son who was 4 at the time said quite loudly “ hey look at that funny little man & he’s crossing the road & not holding his mummies hand”
 
Discojohndeary said:
I adored Morecambe and Wise as a 12 year-old schoolboy, but didn't really understand Python.

I tried to watch M and W recently with my wife, to show her what the fuss was all about. It was embarrassing, to be honest.

Yeah, Python were hit and miss, largely because they were innovative ( Ok, Spike ) and took massive risks, some of which didn't come off.
M and W were rehashed music hall.
Click to expand...
The Andre Previn sketch will always be bloody ace though.
 
Both have aged badly in terms of humour, in my opinion.
But as I wasn’t old enough to appreciate them at the time maybe it’s a misgiving on my part to say I find neither funny.
I think Faulty Towers is also sh*te 😳To me it’s just manic and silly but not belly laughing funny.
I am a massive Friends fan though and 30 years later still lol after watching any and every episode.
Humour is subjective, it doesn’t have to be clever, just innately funny.
 
Lala said:
Both have aged badly in terms of humour, in my opinion.
But as I wasn’t old enough to appreciate them at the time maybe it’s a misgiving on my part to say I find neither funny.
I think Faulty Towers is also sh*te 😳To me it’s just manic and silly but not belly laughing funny.
I am a massive Friends fan though and 30 years later still lol after watching any and every episode.
Humour is subjective, it doesn’t have to be clever, just innately funny.
Click to expand...
Innately funny, that phrase got me thinking.

The most innately funny actor/comedian I have ever seen was Peter Sellers (RIP). Wasn't a great fan of the Goons because it was a little before my time, but it's no surprise that nobody has successfully covered the Clouseau films since he died. He was pretty good in The Ladykillers as well...understatement

I liked Python, but much preferred the films (all brilliant) to the series. Grew up with Morecambe and Wise and thought they were brilliant as well. But for me nobody was as good as Sellers, although Leonard Rossiiter came close in the 70's and David Jason in the 70"s & 80's
 
Lala said:
Both have aged badly in terms of humour, in my opinion.
But as I wasn’t old enough to appreciate them at the time maybe it’s a misgiving on my part to say I find neither funny.
I think Faulty Towers is also sh*te 😳To me it’s just manic and silly but not belly laughing funny.
I am a massive Friends fan though and 30 years later still lol after watching any and every episode.
Humour is subjective, it doesn’t have to be clever, just innately funny.
Click to expand...
Ah come on Lala, there's this, Michael Palin is our greatest national treasure...

 
Lala said:
Both have aged badly in terms of humour, in my opinion.
But as I wasn’t old enough to appreciate them at the time maybe it’s a misgiving on my part to say I find neither funny.
I think Faulty Towers is also sh*te 😳To me it’s just manic and silly but not belly laughing funny.
I am a massive Friends fan though and 30 years later still lol after watching any and every episode.
Humour is subjective, it doesn’t have to be clever, just innately funny.
Click to expand...
Definitely subjective. Friends just makes me cringe! 🤣

I loved Python as a teenager and there's never been anything quite like it, although it obviously grew out of stuff like the Goon Show. It's dated now obviously. I like M&W but it was totally different, and was what the parents liked, Python was the anarchic surreal thing you discussed with your mates at school the next day, and recited bits. Wasn't for everyone, of course.
 
Dave62 said:
Innately funny, that phrase got me thinking.

The most innately funny actor/comedian I have ever seen was Peter Sellers (RIP). Wasn't a great fan of the Goons because it was a little before my time, but it's no surprise that nobody has successfully covered the Clouseau films since he died. He was pretty good in The Ladykillers as well...understatement

I liked Python, but much preferred the films (all brilliant) to the series. Grew up with Morecambe and Wise and thought they were brilliant as well. But for me nobody was as good as Sellers, although Leonard Rossiiter came close in the 70's and David Jason in the 70"s & 80's
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The Ladykillers is superb 👍 But thats more about nostalgia and my need to cuddle Mrs Wilberforce I think !
 
Are we talking about Monty Python or Morecambe and Wise ?

Monty Python - Good films and Life of Brian was a classic. Sketches etc, 10% brilliant and 90% chite and struggling to find it funny.

Morecambe and Wise - I'm not old enough to appreciate their Christmas specials and didn't use to understand why everybody raved about them but later in my life I changed and I am of the opinion that Eric Morecambe was genius.
 
I loved Morecambe and Wise, and Monty Python, Fawlty Towers and Porridge and Rising Damp and several others.
There seemed to be so much good comedy around in those days.
Not all of it has aged well though has it?
I struggle to find things that are genuinely funny on TV now though, and I do give most things a try!
If anyone can point me in the way of good new comedy I would be very grateful, and also a bit surprised.
 
Lala said:
Both have aged badly in terms of humour, in my opinion.
But as I wasn’t old enough to appreciate them at the time maybe it’s a misgiving on my part to say I find neither funny.
I think Faulty Towers is also sh*te 😳To me it’s just manic and silly but not belly laughing funny.
I am a massive Friends fan though and 30 years later still lol after watching any and every episode.
Humour is subjective, it doesn’t have to be clever, just innately funny.
Click to expand...

"I think Faulty Towers is also sh*te" - Post reported to moderators.
 
glasshalffull said:
I loved Morecambe and Wise, and Monty Python, Fawlty Towers and Porridge and Rising Damp and several others.
There seemed to be so much good comedy around in those days.
Not all of it has aged well though has it?
I struggle to find things that are genuinely funny on TV now though, and I do give most things a try!
If anyone can point me in the way of good new comedy I would be very grateful, and also a bit surprised.
Click to expand...

They just don't make 'em like they used to.
 
glasshalffull said:
I loved Morecambe and Wise, and Monty Python, Fawlty Towers and Porridge and Rising Damp and several others.
There seemed to be so much good comedy around in those days.
Not all of it has aged well though has it?
I struggle to find things that are genuinely funny on TV now though, and I do give most things a try!
If anyone can point me in the way of good new comedy I would be very grateful, and also a bit surprised.
Click to expand...
That's just age.
 
Just looked at this thread over breakfast with the sun piercing through the caravan window. Back to topic, back in the day my mum really didn’t get Python, my dad & I liked satire I vaguely remember That was the week that was & Do not adjust your set, they both set up future Python format & the latter was mainly the Python team anyway, Spike Milligan played a major part on this offbeat whacky comedy. It did divide opinion even back then & whilst all the episodes weren’t side splitting all the time, it was certainly worth waiting for the now classic bits. Mum got M&W who were also very watchable. I thought the early Phoenix Nights were absolutely brilliant, when few had heard of Peter Kay & I still find something I’d missed when I get the box set out again! Off for a shower then a walk, followed by a day of music & beer 🍺 courtesy of the Colne Rugby Club’s mini festival. I’ll be keeping an eye on the match though 1-2 let’s get winning.
 
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