Talk:Monty Python's Flying Circus

The "It's" Man-hermit or castaway?

Unless the Pythons themselves have described this character as a hermit, I think it's more accurate that he is a castaway, from a shipwreck or some other disaster. His tattered clothes tend to indicate that he has survived some disaster and a long period of isolation and a long trek back to civilization. Consider the show openings in which he came up out of the surf onto a shore. It's a minor detail, to be sure, but I recommend reviewing and updating this.---theBaron0530 5. October 2010 12:30 ET

Title - not from Goldfinger?

The text implies that in 1966, a group of Briton's reached back 50 years for an obscure WWI reference to create their name. Is there any confirmation that the title wasn't inspired by 'Pussy Galore's Flying Circus' from the popular 1964 British film Goldfinger. Seems like less of a stretch. PLawrence99cx (talk) 18:02, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Well:

1. Britons looks a lot better without the apostrophe.
2. It's not that obscure. A lot of people will have read WWI stories, seen films etc etc. There is no surprising usage here.
3. Probably not, but then confirmation of a negative is often a wee bit difficult to find. As far as I know there is also no confirmation that it wasn't telephoned to them by the Pope or discovered inside a fortune cookie.
4. No, it seems like much, much more of a stretch. When the programme title came out I was wholly unsurprised by it, assumed it was a WWI reference, and didn't try to connect it with James Bond. But that's all WP:OR so, y'know ... nah.

Best wishes, and sorry for the slow reply, 82.34.71.202 (talk) 23:01, 27 January 2018 (UTC)

The Pope?? Surely you mean The Bishop!!? Martinevans123 (talk) 23:19, 27 January 2018 (UTC)

"Transnational themes" section

This section seems rather contentious and is largely based on the work of one author. I think it should be removed. MFlet1 (talk) 11:29, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

There are ten different sources? Which "one author" is that? Martinevans123 (talk) 11:43, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

There are 10 citations but they all point to one of the following two:

• Dobrogoszcz, Tomasz (2014). Dobrogoszcz, Tomasz, ed. The British Look Abroad: Monty Python and the Foreign. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Kern, Kevin F. (2014). Dobrogoszcz, Tomasz, ed. Twentieth-Century Vole, Mr. Neutron, and Spam: Portrayals of American Culture in the Work of Monty Python. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield.

MFlet1 (talk) 12:21, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. And I'm not sure why they are all separate, as they do not specify page numbers. If the Dobrogoszcz (ed.) book is regaded as a WP:RS here, however, then I don't see a problem. Maybe the section needs to be trimmed for WP:WEIGHT? But I'm not sure which bit(s) should be trimmed. Martinevans123 (talk) 12:36, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

I'm sure there are lots of works analyzing the contents of Monty Python. Perhaps there should be a section noting this fact rather than going into the detailed thoughts of one particular person. If everyone with pet theories about the meaning of Python starts adding these to the article then it's all going to get far too silly. MFlet1 (talk) 12:58, 10 March 2015 (UTC)

It's not a question of "pet theories". It's a question of whether or not the book is a reliable source. Its title is in fact Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition: Cultural Contexts in Monty Python and it's available on Google Books if you want to browse it. It has 11 essays by 11 different authors, and a foreword by Terry Jones. So it looks wholly "legit" to me. Dobrogoszcz is assistant professor in the department of British literature and culture at the University of Lodz in Poland: [1] Martinevans123 (talk) 13:31, 10 March 2015 (UTC) Mr Neutron is a comic masterpiece in my opinion!

Lost Sketches re. Statue with long nose

This article makes reference to a sketch never aired about Chapman trying to make a statue of Cleese but not getting the nose right. It says this sketch was pulled "for reasons unknown." I've recently read that Chapman was too drunk to say his lines right when filming this. If anyone can find the citation for this, we should update the article. — Preceding unsigned comment added by DKPhilosophy (talk • contribs) 20:06, 18 September 2015 (UTC)

Selected anniversaries - Main page

Hi, just highlighting that if the many tags can be resolved, this article would be eligible for the selected anniversaries, which features on the main page, on Octber 5 for the first broadcast. Whizz40 (talk) 19:59, 11 October 2015 (UTC)

External links modified

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Music clarification please

Hello. The last paragraph of the lead has this:

The series' theme tune is the first segment of John Philip Sousa's "The Liberty Bell", as played by the Band of the Grenadier Guards, and chosen because it was in the public domain and thus could be used without charge.

- which is interesting, but makes me go "yeah but no but" a bit, and seek clarification on the following two grounds:

1. What do we mean "as played by"? What does that "as" do? It either was played by them, or it was not. So "played by" would be fine, if true, but "as played by" is weirdly ambiguous for no good reason.
2. When we say it could be used without charge we are probably referring to the tune but not the recording. It's very unlikely that no-one was paid for that; either Python paid recording session fees (rubs hands together greedily) or, if they used an existing recording, say one by the Grenadier Guards (see what I did there?) then they would have had to pay for that. I can't see how the Guards band would have made a charitable donation of the tune to the Beeb and if they did then I am sure it can be referenced here. Otherwise, what I suspect we mean is that they did not have to pay composer royalties ... which is nice, but not a total freebie unless the Pythons played it themselves.

It would be great if someone with the knowledge/sources could please sort this out a bit.

Thanks and best wishes to all, 82.34.71.202 (talk) 11:34, 27 January 2018 (UTC)