Monty Python and Philosophy by Gary Hardcastle (best novels for beginners .TXT) 📗

Thinking Outside the Batter’s Box (2004) Edited by Eric Bronson

VOLUME 7

The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am (2004) Edited by Richard Greene and Peter Vernezze

VOLUME 8

Woody Allen and Philosophy: You Mean My Whole Fallacy Is Wrong? (2004) Edited by Mark T. Conard and Aeon J. Skoble

VOLUME 9

Harry Potter and Philosophy: If Aristotle Ran Hogwarts (2004) Edited by David Baggett and Shawn E. Klein

VOLUME 10

Mel Gibson’s Passion and Philosophy: The Cross, the Questions, the Controversy (2004) Edited by Jorge J.E. Gracia

VOLUME 11

More Matrix and Philosophy: Revolutions and Reloaded Decoded (2005) Edited by William Irwin

VOLUME 12

Star Wars and Philosophy: More Powerful than You Can Possibly Imagine (2005) Edited by Jason T. Eberl and Kevin S. Decker

VOLUME 13

Superheroes and Philosophy: Truth, Justice, and the Socratic Way (2005) Edited by Tom Morris and Matt Morris

VOLUME 14

The Atkins Diet and Philosophy: Chewing the Fat with Kant and Nietzsche (2005) Edited by Lisa Heldke, Kerri Mommer, and Cindy Pineo

VOLUME 15

The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy: The Lion, the Witch, and the Worldview (2005) Edited by Gregory Bassham and Jerry Walls

VOLUME 16

Hip Hop and Philosophy: Rhyme 2 Reason (2005) Edited by Derrick Darby and Tommie Shelby

VOLUME 17

Bob Dylan and Philosophy: It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Thinking) (2006) Edited by Peter Vernezze and Carl J. Porter

VOLUME 18

Harley-Davidson and Philosophy: Full-Throttle Aristotle (2006) Edited by Bernard E. Rollin, Carolyn M. Gray, Kerri Mommer, and Cynthia Pineo

VOLUME 19

Monty Python and Philosophy: Nudge Nudge, Think Think! (2006) Edited by Gary L. Hardcastle and George A. Reisch

IN PREPARATION:

Poker and Philosophy: Pocket Rockets and Philosopher Kings (2006) Edited by Eric Bronson

U2 and Philosophy (2006) Edited by Mark Wrathall

The Undead and Philosophy: Chicken Soup for the Soulless (2006) Edited by Richard Greene and K. Silem Mohammad

To Kiah, Cheshire, and Quinn, who’ve never had to be told to think for themselves

—G.L.H.

And to Bruces Everywhere

—G.A.R.

1

“What’s All This Then?” The Introduction

GARY L. HARDCASTLE and GEORGE A. REISCH

Pythonist: A person who professes to prophesy through some divine or esoteric inspiration.

—Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged

England. Sunday evening, October 5th, 1969. A big surprise awaits those switching on their television sets and settling in for an evening of entertainment. A game show features Genghis Khan dying, his death scored by panelists. An advertisement for butter heralds its superior taste, all but indistinguishable from that of dead crab. And excited sportscasters cover Pablo Picasso painting while riding a bicycle through England (“It will be very interesting to see how he copes with the heavy traffic round Wisborough Green!”). It’s . . . Monty Python’s Flying Circus!

At the end of the 1960s—a decade of race riots, student protests, undeclared wars, political assassinations, Woodstock, the first moon landing, and the rise of the sensitive singer-songwriter—perhaps nothing could be entirely new and unexpected. Yet Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin—collectively, Monty Python—pulled it off week after week. When a tuxedoed John Cleese intoned “And now for something completely different . . . ” (mocking the BBC, naturally), he was completely right. Characters suddenly announced their desire to be not only lumberjacks, but cross-dressing lumberjacks. Sketches were interrupted by characters from other sketches. Viewers were taught self-defense techniques against fresh fruit. Somehow, the Pythons consistently found ways to move their audiences—within minutes, sometimes even seconds—from blunt incomprehension (the Fish Slapping Dance?) to fits of hearty, memorable laughter. Python fans vividly remember their first time.

For many of us, this kind of humor was just what we needed to survive the 1970s, not to mention the 1980s. By then, Monty Python had found its audience, wiggled into the collective consciousness, and become one of the most successful and influential comedy institutions of the twentieth century. After four seasons and forty-five episodes of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the Pythons did the proper British thing and established an empire of books, audio recordings, and feature films, notably Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979), and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983). As of this writing, the empire has conquered Broadway, where Monty Python’s Spamalot, a musical adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, plays to packed houses (well, at least, we can’t get tickets) while its creators, chief among them Eric Idle, try out various spots on the mantel for the Tony Awards© that the show has won. Indeed, much of popular culture has been Pythonized. Watch George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Steve Martin, Andy Kaufman, Mike Myers, and their comedic progeny, or Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, In Living Color, Kids in the Hall, Arrested Development, and their comedic progeny, and you’ll see Python again, echoed in dozens of ways. Read contemporary criticism of entertainment and culture, or nearly anything “postmodern,” and you’ll see the word ‘pythonesque’ or knowing references to “spam” or “nudge nudge, wink wink” that mark a common bond between author and reader—yep, Python fan.

Not everyone, of course, belongs to the club. We all know one or two who stare at a Python sketch the way a dog looks at a card trick. They just don’t get it. That’s okay, of course—just don’t offer them a Whizzo Chocolate or tell them you weren’t expecting the Spanish Inquisition, lest you get a blank stare in return. This book, on the other hand, is for people who do get it. Actually, it’s a book for people who not only get it, but who have, on occasion, wondered what that “it” is exactly. You’ve probably noticed the book’s title, so you won’t be surprised that we think that Monty Python’s absurdities bear a deep and interesting connection to philosophy.

Really? What sort of “deep and interesting” connection? It’s a good thing we didn’t have to answer that question before we found contributors and put this book together, for back then we didn’t have an answer. Fortunately, our philosophical colleagues