Monty Python

The big-screen revival is taking place Sunday, May 4 and Wednesday, May 7

The Monty Python-themed tabletop role-playing game, following a successful crowdfunding campaign in 2022, is available widely today. Formally titled Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme, it is the rare game that does exactly what it says on the tin. It’s just that the tin says “SPAM” on it, and the gubbins smell faintly of coitus and dead birds. If that’s not exactly your cup of tea, then look elsewhere for your merriments. But if you’ve got a pair of coconuts to clap together and are otherwise eager to commit to the bit, it looks like a fine time for the troupe’s most dedicated fans.

John Cleese and Eric Idle are continuing to duke it out on social media.

“I think all the Pythons are nuts in some way,” Eric Idle once wrote, “and together we make one completely insane person.” That insane entity, the comedy supergroup Monty Python, convened in 1969, with the BBC sketch show “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” Its six members—Idle, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and Graham Chapman, plus a lone American, Terry Gilliam—became the defining absurdists of postwar Britain, stomping their collective foot on polite society. You know the rest: the ex-parrot, the Comfy Chair, the Ministry of Silly Walks, the Knights Who Say “Ni!” If he had done nothing else, Idle would have given humanity an enduring gift with “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” the ditty that ends “Monty Python’s Life of Brian,” sung by a group of unlikely optimists while they’re being crucified. At one point, it was ranked the most played song at British funerals.

Sir Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam have launched a £120,000 appeal to fund a statue of the late Terry Jones, their friend and fellow member of Monty Python. High profile celebrities are backing the campaign for the bronze memorial in Jones' native Colwyn Bay.

Every time I think I’ve seen Magic: The Gathering’s most unexpected crossover yet – be that Hatsune Miku or the board game Clue – Wizards of the Coast figures out some way to surprise me yet again. This time it’s with a selection of cards set in the world of the Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

It is possibly the most famous foot in modern screen history as it stamps down twice during the opening credits of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Now it has been revealed that its inspiration is a 16th century painting in the National Gallery.

Three members of Monty Python have reunited to celebrate Michael Palin‘s birthday.

Prompt: Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

Even though it’s regularly held up as one of the greatest comedies ever made, the brains behind Monty Python and the Holy Grail have been happy to admit they were resolutely ill-equipped and under-prepared for making a feature film.

John Cleese is making it clear that he – and a few other Pythons – are in complete disagreement with long-ago co-star Eric Idle, who last weekend slammed manager (and daughter of Python co-founder Terry Gilliam) Holly Gilliam for what Idle suggested were the troupe’s dwindling finances.

From farcical mechanisms for supreme executive power to the average speed of an unladen swallow, Monty Python And The Holy Grail has become part of the cultural lexicon. It might be a silly film for silly people but, nearly 50 years after its release it remains an eminently quotable and enduring comedy classic. But it and the iconic British comedy team’s follow-up The Life Of Brian might not have got off the ground if it wasn’t for funding from some of the world’s biggest rock stars.

Back on Backerkit: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/dynamite-entertainment/monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-board-game

(edited to add the context from the original x-tweet)

Last year, the Monty Python legend announced that he would be hosting his own show on the news channel and that it would be a "no holds barred account of the news".

"The series had been sitting in the ITV vaults though mis-catalogued for decades, but through the identification programme we were able to make this remarkable find.

"CARP License" and "Redundancy must be free"

Should look pretty fancy. I'm hoping for a short cinema run with the new release, as was done with The Wicker Man.