“Warning: Toxic Jocularity Enclosed!”
Huzzah! Or some such word of extreme cheer. I have discovered the Fountain of Youth! It exists in a compact oblong box decorated with photographs of some interesting chaps who appear to be acting rather silly. You guessed it, This is the Complete Monty Python’s Flying Circus Collector’s Edition.
I started giggling before I put the first disc into the player, and I have not stopped. Years have rolled away, and all the fun and jokes of this unique series are just as hilarious today as they were when we first saw them on late night television. Silliness is therapeutic; you suddenly forget to notice anything as mundane as aches and pains, and the world’s troubles back off for awhile.
The genius of Monty Python lives on in a collector’s set par excellence. Not only do you get every single episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, but there are episodes in German, special programs, the best of compilations and well, a whole lot more.
Part of the fun of having the whole set is to read through the accompanying booklet. Just the titles of the episodes and the sketches within them are enough to set up a chain reaction of laughter and memories. Beginning with “Whither Canada?” (according to the booklet one of the names considered by the group before settling on the now legendary “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”) and carrying through the last of the “Personal Best” series, there are laughs and surprises.
Every fan has his or her own favorites, and mine have always been Confuse a Cat, The Spanish Inquisition and The Exploding Version of The Blue Danube. I can’t explain why these particular sketches (among many others equally as funny or ridiculous) reduce me to hysterical laughter every time I see them, but they do. I daresay these and all the rest will bring out laughter and stir memories that you have long forgotten.
If you are new to Monty Python viewing, there is no better place to start than this, and be prepared to become addicted to the humor.
The Complete Monty Python’s Flying circus Collector’s Edition is attractively boxed in a nice bookcase sized package. This contains two folders with 21 discs of entertainment and an illustrated booklet containing notes on all the productions. The first folder contains episodes 1 through 45 of The Flying Circus, and the second folder contains “Everything Else” and the bonus features.
These bonuses are quite a collection, consisting of a politically incorrect deleted scene, additional Gilliam animations, post-Python troup highlights, bleeding critics, Consuing Musings, Pythonisms, Behind the scenes at John Cleese’s Personal Best, Terry Gilliams’s featurette A Retrospective of Python’s Animation, Personal Second-best featurettes from Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. Six 15-question, 15-ton megaquizzes, Python Troupe Biographies and credits, and deleted scenes.
As a great poet once said “come grow old with me, the best is yet to be,” but I think it is much better to simply watch Monty Python and regain your youth.
The Complete Monty Pythons Flying Circus - Collectors Edition Megaset is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for this version of the DVD in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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