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Monty Python's Big Red Book
''Monty Python's Big Red Book'' is a humour book comprising mostly material derived and reworked from the first two series of the ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' BBC television series. Edited by Eric Idle, it was first published in the UK in 1971 by Methuen Publishing Ltd. It was later published in the United States in 1975 by Warner Books. As well as the comedy content, the title itself is a humorous reference to Mao Zedong's ''Little Red Book''— despite the title, the book has a blue cover. To add to the confusion, the credits page refers to it as ''Monty Python's Big Brown Book''. The book contains some stills of footage shot for ''And Now For Something Completely Different'' but not used, including "Ken Shabby" and "Le Pouff Celebre/Flying Sheep". Shortly after publication the book ran into trouble when a music publishing company objected to the use of their trade name being used on the "Bing Tiddle Tiddle Bong" sheet music. After the first 75,000 copies were sold, all sub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Graham Chapman
Graham Chapman (8 January 1941 – 4 October 1989) was a British actor, comedian and writer. He was one of the six members of the surreal comedy group Monty Python. He portrayed authority figures such as The Colonel and the lead role in two Python films, ''Holy Grail'' (1975) and ''Life of Brian'' (1979). Chapman was born in Leicester and was raised in Melton Mowbray. He enjoyed science, acting and comedy and, after graduating from Emmanuel College, Cambridge and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, he turned down a career as a doctor to be a comedian instead. Chapman eventually established a writing partnership with John Cleese, which reached its critical peak with Monty Python during the 1970s. He subsequently left Britain for Los Angeles, where he attempted to be a success on American television, speaking on the college circuit and producing the pirate film ''Yellowbeard'' (1983), before returning to Britain in the early 1980s. In his personal life, Chapman was open ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Election Night Special
"Election Night Special" is a Monty Python sketch comedy, sketch parodying the coverage of United Kingdom general elections, specifically the 1970 United Kingdom general election, 1970 general election, on the BBC by including hectic (and downright silly) actions by the media and a range of ridiculous candidates. This sketch was featured in List of Monty Python's Flying Circus episodes, Episode 19 of the ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' TV series, first broadcast on 3 November 1970. A somewhat different version of the sketch (leading into The Lumberjack Song) was also featured on the ''Monty Python Live at Drury Lane, Monty Python Live at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane'' album. A longer edit of the ''Drury Lane'' version also appeared on the promotional flexidisc ''Monty Python's Tiny Black Round Thing''. The sketch also provides the basis for an item in ''Monty Python's Big Red Book'' in the form of a mock pamphlet for the Silly Party, which alongside characters from the original s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1971 Books
* The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events January * January 2 – 66 people are killed and over 200 injured during a crush in Glasgow, Scotland. * January 5 – The first ever One Day International cricket match is played between Australia and England at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. * January 8 – Tupamaros kidnap Geoffrey Jackson, British ambassador to Uruguay, in Montevideo, keeping him captive until September. * January 9 – Uruguayan president Jorge Pacheco Areco demands emergency powers for 90 days due to kidnappings, and receives them the next day. * January 12 – The landmark United States television sitcom ''All in the Family'', starring Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker, debuts on CBS. * January 14 – Seventy Brazilian political prisoners a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Tomlinson (singer)
Frederick Tomlinson (18 December 1927 – 17 July 2016) was a British singer, songwriter and composer. He founded the Fred Tomlinson Singers, who sang the music featured on ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', ''The Two Ronnies'' and other British television shows. Tomlinson also composed and wrote songs for Monty Python, including "The Lumberjack Song", which he co-wrote with Terry Jones and Michael Palin. He and his Fred Tomlinson Singers then performed "The Lumberjack Song" on ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' in December 1969, as well as the song "Spam" in 1970 while dressed as Vikings. Tomlinson was born on 18 December 1927, in Rawtenstall, Lancashire. His father, Fred, had created the Rossendale Male Voice Choir in 1924. His older brother, Ernest Tomlinson, was a composer. He won a scholarship to Manchester Cathedral choir school until it closed in 1940 due to the war. He was then at age 11 admitted to the Choir of King's College, Cambridge, attending King's College School, Cam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Derek Birdsall
Derek Birdsall, (born 1 August 1934) is an internationally renowned British graphic designer. Early life Birdsall was born in Wakefield, Yorkshire, in 1934 and attended The King's School, Pontefract, Wakefield College of Art and Central School of Arts and Crafts in London.Myerson, Jeremy, "White space, black hat", Eye 9, Wordsearch Ltd, 1993. "At Central, Birdsall came under the influence of Anthony Froshaug, who – alongside Herbert Spencer and Edward Wright – taught his students the difference between beautiful lettering and typography proper, with its pre-eminent concerns of clarity, directness and, above all, textual legibilityBirdsall failed to earn a diploma, however, and began his career in design in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Career Birdsall's career and fame were built on a variety of designs and commissions. During his long career—among much other work—Birdsall designed Penguin Books, Penguin book covers and Pirelli calendars; he art-directed several magazi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piranha Brothers
"Piranha Brothers" is a Monty Python sketch that was first seen in the first episode (titled "Face the Press") of the second series of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus''. Originally broadcast on television on 15 September 1970, the premise is a BBC current affairs documentary programme, inexplicably titled ''Ethel the Frog'', retrospectively covering the exploits of the brothers Doug and Dinsdale Piranha. The sociopathic criminals employed a combination of "violence and sarcasm" to intimidate the London underworld and bring the city to its knees. Dinsdale is also described as being afraid of "Spiny Norman", a gigantic imaginary hedgehog whose reported size varied based on Dinsdale's mood. The threat of Norman affected Dinsdale so severely that it led him to launch a nuclear weapon attack on an airplane hangar (where Norman was thought to have resided according to Dinsdale) at Luton International Airport (then Luton Airfield) on 22 February 1966. During the end of the sketch, which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Ministry Of Silly Walks
"The Ministry of Silly Walks" is a sketch from the Monty Python comedy troupe's television show ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', series 2, episode 1, which is entitled "Face the Press". The episode first aired on 15 September 1970. A shortened version of the sketch was performed for ''Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl''. A satire on bureaucratic inefficiency, the sketch involves John Cleese as a bowler-hatted civil servant in a fictitious British government ministry responsible for developing silly walks through grants. Cleese, throughout the sketch, walks in a variety of silly ways. It is these various silly walks, more than the dialogue, that have earned the sketch its popularity. Cleese has cited the physical comedy of Max Wall, probably in character as Professor Wallofski, as important to its conception. Ben Beaumont-Thomas in ''The Guardian'' writes, "Cleese is utterly deadpan as he takes the stereotypical bowler-hatted political drone and ruthlessly skewers him. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook
"Dirty Hungarian Phrasebook" is a Monty Python sketch. It first aired in 1970 on ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' as part of Episode 25, and also appears in the film ''And Now for Something Completely Different''. ''Atlas Obscura'' has noted that it may have been inspired by ''English as She Is Spoke'', a 19th-century Portuguese–English phrase book regarded as a classic source of unintentional humour, as the given English translations are generally completely incoherent. Plot A Hungarian (John Cleese) enters a tobacconist's shop carrying a phrasebook and begins a dialogue with the tobacconist (Terry Jones); he wants to buy cigarettes, but his phrasebook's translations are wholly inaccurate and have no resemblance to what he wants to say. Many of them are plainly bizarre (for example: "My hovercraft is full of eels.") and become mildly sexual in nature as the skit progresses (for example: "Do you want to come back to my place, bouncy-bouncy?"). After the customer uses gesture ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crunchy Frog
"Crunchy Frog" is the common name for a Monty Python sketch officially titled "Trade Description Act" (sometimes also known as the "Whizzo Chocolate Company" sketch), inspired by the Trade Descriptions Act 1968 in British law. It features two health inspectors interrogating the owner of a sweet shop about the increasingly bizarre ingredients in his confections, including the titular crunchy frog. Written by John Cleese and Graham Chapman, it originally appeared in episode 6 of the first series of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', and later appeared in several Monty Python stage shows. In the original sketch, Cleese and Chapman play the inspectors, while the sweet shop owner is played by Terry Jones. In later versions, the second inspector is played by Terry Gilliam or left out of the sketch entirely. The sketch Mr. Milton, the owner of the Whizzo Chocolate Company (Terry Jones) is approached by two members of the Hygiene Squad, Inspector Praline (John Cleese) and Superinte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Lumberjack Song
"The Lumberjack Song" is a comedy song by the comedy troupe Monty Python. The song was written and composed by Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Fred Tomlinson. It first appeared in the ninth episode of ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', "The Ant: An Introduction" on BBC1 on 14 December 1969. The song has since been performed in several forms, including film, stage, and LP, each time started from a different skit. At an NPR interview in 2007, Palin stated that the scene and the whole song were created in about 15 minutes, concluding a day's work, when the Python crew was stuck and unable to come up with a conclusion to the barbershop sketch that preceded it. On 14 November 1975, "The Lumberjack Song" was released as a single in the UK, on Charisma Records, backed with "Spam Song". The A-side, produced by Python devotee George Harrison, was recorded at the Work House studio in London on 3 October 1975 and mixed at Harrison's Friar Park home the following day. A year later this si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Upper Class Twit Of The Year
"Upper Class Twit of the Year" is a comedy sketch that was seen on the 1970 ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' episode "The Naked Ant" (series 1, episode 12), and also in a modified format as the finale of the movie ''And Now for Something Completely Different''. It is notable for its satire on dimwitted members of the English upper class. Its title is a reference to the Horse of the Year Show, because equestrianism is often regarded as an upper-class pursuit in the UK. Scenario To a horserace-style commentary by John Cleese, we view an obstacle-course race among five stereotypical, upper-class twits, to determine the 127th Annual Upper-Class Twit of the Year. The competitors are: * Vivian Smith-Smythe-Smith (portrayed by Eric Idle in ''MPFC'' and John Cleese in ''ANFSCD'') ** Has an O-level in chemo-hygiene (''MPFC'' only) ** Can count up to 4 (''ANFSCD'' only) ** Is in the Grenadier Guards (''ANFSCD'' only) * Simon Zinc-Trumpet-Harris (portrayed by Terry Jones in ''MPFC'' and Er ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spam (Monty Python)
"Spam" is a Monty Python sketch, first televised in 1970 and written by Terry Jones and Michael Palin. In the sketch, two customers are lowered by wires into a greasy spoon café and try to order a breakfast from a menu that includes Spam in almost every dish, much to the consternation of one of the customers. As the waitress recites the Spam-filled menu, a group of Viking patrons drown out all conversations with a song, repeating "Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam… Lovely Spam! Wonderful Spam!". The excessive amount of Spam was probably a reference to the ubiquity of it and other imported canned meat products in the United Kingdom after World War II (a period of rationing in the UK) as the country struggled to rebuild its agricultural base. Thanks to its wartime ubiquity, the British public had grown tired of it. The televised sketch and several subsequent performances feature Terry Jones as the waitress, Eric Idle as Mr. Bun and Graham Chapman as Mrs. Bun, who does not like Spam. T ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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