The Meaning of Python

Everybody remembers there first time, where they were, who it was with. I’m talking of course about the first time they saw Monty Python. I was 7 or 8 when I first saw Python, a perfectly normal trip to Blockbuster [R.I.P.] I can’t remember what film I was going to pick to watch with my Dad one Saturday evening but he seemed pretty unimpressed with my selection, at the last moment he saw his opportunity and he took it, grabbing a bulky VHS he said “Look, Matt you’ll like this. He presented me with the Holy Grail, well Monty Python’s Holy Grail, I recognised John Cleese name (I’d seen a few episodes of Fawlty Towers) we went home and that night my life would change forever.  As I sat on the sofa the epic music began the scene is set England 936AD a misty moorlands the sound of horses and knight on horseback, hang on there isn't a horse, wait are those coconuts? And from that moment on my life was completely changed, from then on I was on a mission to find as much Python as I could get my hands on.  I devoured as much Python as I could. I never liked sport and it would be a few more years before I discovered music so until then Python was all I had. I learnt entire sketches and even performed “Always look on the bright side of life” in a school assembly.

The genius of Python is that it works on so many levels originally I was sold on the silliness off it all (and that’s still the main appeal) but soon you discover that all of life is in Python philosophy, religion, science, history, the migration patterns of swallows.  I was drawn in by Gilliam’s anarchic animations but at different points in my life I have always favoured one of the Pythons more than the others, but today if asked who my favourite one is I couldn't tell you, for me there longitude is a result of the collective. The mixture of the surreal with well written witty dialogue, the combination of the absurd with the everyday, they work best as an ensemble which is why anything they have done since is dwarfed in comparison.   

In life everything has been viewed through the lens of Python like the Guards at the wedding watching Lancelot charging at them from a distance. When I first started performing I imitated Python, at the end of first year when I first began to write I took influence from Python taking the mundane and everyday and flipping it on its head.  When writing essays on Post Modernism I quote Python more than Barnes, the Avant- Garde looks pretty tame in comparison to Flying Circus. When I find myself entangled in complex debates on theology and philosophy  I find myself quoting The Meaning of Life, I was never able to stomach student politics as it all felt a tad Judean People’s Front or the People’s Front of Judea or the Popular People’s Front (you get the idea). Before I had music or theatre or love or spam there was Monty Python. And after it’s all gone as I lie dying in a hospital bed abandoned in the corridor of an overcrowded NHS hospital with nothing but the machine that goes ping for company, I’ll be there muttering the lines to Dead Parrot Sketch.

When people look back at the 20^th Century we will have to consider Python as one of the great artistic movements along with DaDa, the Cubist, the Surrealists, the Punks, but of course Python is better than all of these, why? Because they had the fish slapping dance! That’s why!

Looking back Python’s influence on me is pretty obvious, but it’s not just me it’s our entire society, nearly every comedian states Python as an influence. Everyone takes influence from them, Musicians, Journalists, even Politicians. The General Election is basically a real life upper class twit of the year competition.

A few weeks ago I saw Monty Python live, it’s an event I never thought was going to happen, I like many thought there days of touring were long past. It wasn't perfect; Cleese is too old for the Ministry for Silly Walks. Chapman is missing but not forgotten with many video clips of his brilliant performances. It was more than a comedy gig it was a celebration of the most influential comic group ever. They've all aged since I first saw then on that VHS tape all those years ago. Yes they will be older, maybe even a little wiser but just as silly. If you are see them tonight at the O2 or at the cinema enjoy it.