A good friend told me once that Monty Python is funny, but that someone doing Monty Python is not, especially if they've memorized every line and nuance from every Flying Circus, movie, live performance, and audio recording. I have to agree.

Monty Python quotes do have their place in polite society however. A choice tidbit, well timed, will often flush like-minded folks out of a crowd. Their knowing chuckles signal that they too are in on the joke and that you most probably have some interests in common, such as gaming or computer science. I've survived and enjoyed many parties this way. Of course, this approach does entail a certain amount of risk. Your Pythonism could fall flat, causing everyone within earshot to gawk at you as if a triffid just popped out of your head. The best course of action then is to not even attempt to laugh it off, but take your beer and a bowl of party munchies and go sit in a corner.

Another more heinous result can be that your obtuse quip serves as the trigger word for some hypnotized Python fan who picks up where you prudently left off and continues to act out the entire skit, replete with kooky facial expressions and an atrocious Yorkshire accent. Afterwards, the person laughs themselves silly over Pythonisms real or imagined, completely oblivious to the wide berth everyone is now giving them. If you're particularly unlucky, the person is on you like stink on shit for the rest of the evening, calling out "Dinsdale!" at random intervals. These are the sort of folks that think it's cool to name their band "Toad the Wet Sprocket" even though they have no lead electric triangle.

The harsh reality here is that, for all its apparent zaniness, Monty Python is frighteningly inaccessible. It's not all exploding cats and farty noises. You've got the crème de la crème of the British establishment poking fun at itself with the tools it happens to have on hand, namely a top-notch classical education. Gumby Theater's presentation of The Cherry Orchard isn't as funny if you have no flippin' clue who Chekhov is. Add to all this a mountain of pop culture references that are 5000 miles and 30 years removed. Cyril Connolly and Reginald Maudling are just names. We're left with an oeuvre of kooky facial expressions, Yorkshire accent, exploding cats, and farty noises that we laugh at because it sure looks like it should be funny. No, you don't have to have graduated from Oxford or Cambridge to enjoy Python, but it wouldn't hurt. It just irritates me when people assume that anything random, rude, and vaguely British is Pythonesque and therefore funny. Liner notes and television introductions tend to be sprinkled with references to fish and bottoms or bums. Idiots at parties recite the cheese sketch while their friends make loud bouzouki noises. I just grit my teeth and endure.

I admit that I have stood, clothed in my green bathrobe, in front of a largish crowd of college students, professors, and their kin, to sing Python songs about oral sex and venereal diseases. I did this for a talent show because I have no talent. I rest my case.

Pakeha