I think there are few people who are not familiar with them, but still for those of you who aren't, here is a very short introduction: Monty Python is a group of comedians who created Monty Python's Flying Circus, a TV comedy show, which was broadcast on British television between 1969 and 1974 and had a tremendous influence on the world of comedy. The show finished in 1974 but the group went on to make four films and a musical. Because of the absurdity of the sketches, people usually either love or hate the Pythons. Personally, I love them, not only because of their humour but also because the atmosphere of Flying Circus reminds me a bit of my first English books that were only slightly less bizarre.
The funniest Python, John Cleese, and his silly walk
Last November, the Pythons made their own channel on Youtube, partly because they were fed up with the illegal and often bad quality videos of their old shows on the site, and partly because this way they could advertise the sketches of the Flying Circus era as well as their films and their musical, Spamalot. Most of the videos are short and can be regarded as teaser spots, often ending at the best part. Fortunately, not all of them are like that. Look at this video, titled “Bicycle Repair Man”, which shows one of their best known and - in my opinion - one of their funniest sketches. The setting is a parody of the Superman comic book (with phoney American accents and a double-decker bus to make it more hilarious and grotesque!), and the hero is F.G. Superman, who can do a miraculous thing: repair bikes with his own hands! As you will see, the roles of hero and ordinary citizen have been mixed up quite a bit here.
Do some English exercises about the video.
Read the text of the video with language notes.
If you like this kind of humour you can watch some other videos on the Monty Python channel and download the scripts from here.
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