From: "Motorau" <fjordland@xtra.co.nz>

It is sad that the UK is not producing humorous material like that of the Monty
Python in the 1970s
Perhaps the BBC might consider having a Next Generation of Pythons if Dr Who can regenerate itself and Star Trek can re invent itself Why not the Python Genre? Or are we not making funny people anymore...?

Aaron Nicholson
New Zealand

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From: "I Am *Not* Mentok" <CallMe@Home.Big.Girl>

I was amused to have seen *Motorau* write this:

It is sad that the UK is not producing humorous material like that of
the Monty Python in the 1970s

Perhaps the BBC might consider having a Next Generation of Pythons if
Dr Who can regenerate itself and Star Trek can re invent itself
Why not the Python Genre? Or are we not making funny people anymore...?

Not to be querulous, but were the follow-ups to said programs /really/ the same
or even on a par with the original? Well, in their own way, no, but even a re-invention would take a lot of wiggle room for viewers to develop a taste for
it. For example, when "Twilight Zone" was brought back (and for a mercifully short time) it just did not have the same tone, feel, tension or expectation as
what bore the imprimatur of its originator, Rod Serling. As for a Python-type show, only "Kids in the Hall" (from Canada) have come even close, and they had the support of the producer of "Saturday Night Live", Lorne Michaels, a show which itself was essentially a Python clone, following closely on the heels of the disbanding of that group in the early 70's.

Sure, a "new" Python may create a following, and there will certainly be detractors, but in today's creative uber-micro-management style, you end up with
a camel; a horse as designed by a committee. Not to mention the patronizing, ever-spiraling-downward dumbing down of what they think is "funny" nowadays. Python was inspired lunacy, derived from its diverse influences stemming from its authors coming from a school of comedy as developed in their respective adolescent, collegiate and post-graduate endeavors. Today's audiences are fed by people who believe they know /so/ much more than you or me as to what they think we as the audience will find funny; the "will-it-play-in-Peoria?" mentality, i.e., will the average viewer who lives outside of their entertainment-world-cocoon be amused? Control is in the hands of those whose main concern is the bottom line, not the belly laugh, people who have never even
heard of the comic influences of those whose artistic lives they hold in their overeducated fist.

Monty Python was a product of its time, its creators and the overall zeitgeist,
all of which were brought together in some manner of supreme comic cosmic convergence, never duplicated, always imitated, so to answer my own question - and in my opinion - any "Next Generation" Python would be merely a pale, flimsy
and clumsy carbon copy at best.

Also, considering the relative autonomy the Pythons had over their show, I seriously doubt that the practices of BBC management ('eck, the U.S. is even worse. Committees, focus groups, demographic studies, "Notes, notes, notes" all
serving to stifle the artist's inspiration) in today's market would allow such creative freedom and thus suffocate the baby in the crib.

So, it may (or more than likely, not) be funny as hell, but it just wouldn't be
the same.

--
The *Original* Captain Ozone

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From: Albert Sims <alsims65@nospamhotmail.com>

I Am *Not* Mentok wrote:

I was amused to have seen *Motorau* write this:

It is sad that the UK is not producing humorous material like that of
the Monty Python in the 1970s

Perhaps the BBC might consider having a Next Generation of Pythons if
Dr Who can regenerate itself and Star Trek can re invent itself
Why not the Python Genre? Or are we not making funny people anymore...?

Not to be querulous, but were the follow-ups to said programs /really/ the

same

or even on a par with the original? Well, in their own way, no, but even a re-invention would take a lot of wiggle room for viewers to develop a taste

for

it. For example, when "Twilight Zone" was brought back (and for a mercifully short time) it just did not have the same tone, feel, tension or expectation

as

what bore the imprimatur of its originator, Rod Serling. As for a

Python-type

show, only "Kids in the Hall" (from Canada) have come even close, and they

had

the support of the producer of "Saturday Night Live", Lorne Michaels, a show which itself was essentially a Python clone, following closely on the heels

of

the disbanding of that group in the early 70's.

Sure, a "new" Python may create a following, and there will certainly be detractors, but in today's creative uber-micro-management style, you end up

with

a camel; a horse as designed by a committee. Not to mention the

patronizing,

ever-spiraling-downward dumbing down of what they think is "funny" nowadays. Python was inspired lunacy, derived from its diverse influences stemming from its authors coming from a school of comedy as developed in their respective adolescent, collegiate and post-graduate endeavors. Today's audiences are

fed

by people who believe they know /so/ much more than you or me as to what

they

think we as the audience will find funny; the "will-it-play-in-Peoria?" mentality, i.e., will the average viewer who lives outside of their entertainment-world-cocoon be amused? Control is in the hands of those whose main concern is the bottom line, not the belly laugh, people who have never

even

heard of the comic influences of those whose artistic lives they hold in

their

overeducated fist.

Monty Python was a product of its time, its creators and the overall

zeitgeist,

all of which were brought together in some manner of supreme comic cosmic convergence, never duplicated, always imitated, so to answer my own question

-

and in my opinion - any "Next Generation" Python would be merely a pale,

flimsy

and clumsy carbon copy at best.

Also, considering the relative autonomy the Pythons had over their show, I seriously doubt that the practices of BBC management ('eck, the U.S. is even worse. Committees, focus groups, demographic studies, "Notes, notes, notes"

all

serving to stifle the artist's inspiration) in today's market would allow

such

creative freedom and thus suffocate the baby in the crib.

So, it may (or more than likely, not) be funny as hell, but it just wouldn't

be

the same.

Anyone remember "The New Monkees", "The New Munsters"??

Thought not... same would apply to a "New Python".

--
Albert Sims
West Monroe,Louisiana

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5
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From: "Motorau" <fjordland@xtra.co.nz>


I Am *Not* Mentok wrote:

I was amused to have seen *Motorau* write this:

It is sad that the UK is not producing humorous material like that of
the Monty Python in the 1970s

Perhaps the BBC might consider having a Next Generation of Pythons if
Dr Who can regenerate itself and Star Trek can re invent itself
Why not the Python Genre? Or are we not making funny people anymore...?

Not to be querulous, but were the follow-ups to said programs /really/ the

same

or even on a par with the original? Well, in their own way, no, but even a re-invention would take a lot of wiggle room for viewers to develop a taste

for

it. For example, when "Twilight Zone" was brought back (and for a mercifully short time) it just did not have the same tone, feel, tension or expectation

as

what bore the imprimatur of its originator, Rod Serling. As for a

Python-type

show, only "Kids in the Hall" (from Canada) have come even close, and they

had

the support of the producer of "Saturday Night Live", Lorne Michaels, a show which itself was essentially a Python clone, following closely on the heels

of

the disbanding of that group in the early 70's.

Sure, a "new" Python may create a following, and there will certainly be detractors, but in today's creative uber-micro-management style, you end up

with

a camel; a horse as designed by a committee. Not to mention the

patronizing,

ever-spiraling-downward dumbing down of what they think is "funny" nowadays. Python was inspired lunacy, derived from its diverse influences stemming from its authors coming from a school of comedy as developed in their respective adolescent, collegiate and post-graduate endeavors. Today's audiences are

fed

by people who believe they know /so/ much more than you or me as to what

they

think we as the audience will find funny; the "will-it-play-in-Peoria?" mentality, i.e., will the average viewer who lives outside of their entertainment-world-cocoon be amused? Control is in the hands of those whose main concern is the bottom line, not the belly laugh, people who have never

even

heard of the comic influences of those whose artistic lives they hold in

their

overeducated fist.

Monty Python was a product of its time, its creators and the overall

zeitgeist,

all of which were brought together in some manner of supreme comic cosmic convergence, never duplicated, always imitated, so to answer my own question

-

and in my opinion - any "Next Generation" Python would be merely a pale,

flimsy

and clumsy carbon copy at best.

Also, considering the relative autonomy the Pythons had over their show, I seriously doubt that the practices of BBC management ('eck, the U.S. is even worse. Committees, focus groups, demographic studies, "Notes, notes, notes"

all

serving to stifle the artist's inspiration) in today's market would allow

such

creative freedom and thus suffocate the baby in the crib.

So, it may (or more than likely, not) be funny as hell, but it just wouldn't

be

the same.

--
The *Original* Captain Ozone

Yes I guess the way the Current TV industry works the whole thing would end up like American Idol
with comedians. But it is interesting to think about why some things are a product of a time and a select group of individuals breaking the boundries. I hear places like Iran have come up with there own radical comedians pushing the
envelope. Maybe the spirit just moves on to fertile ground?
Motorau: Aaron E Nicholson

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From: "janek" <quoasis@(idon'tlikespam)poczta.fm>

if you like python genere show, try "the fast show" it was on bbc in the 90's. very good :) there's plenty of it on youtube

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5
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