It’s been 50 years of lumberjacks, dead parrots, and Spam.
(Now the show and other Python properties arestreaming on Netflix.)
Characters regularly addressed the audience and wandered in and out of sketches, commenting on how things were going.
Everett Collection
Meanwhile, women are frequently portrayed as ditzy sexpots or screeching old ladies.
Despite the show’s blindspots, much ofFlying Circusremains timelessly funny.
Below, EW celebrates 50 years of Monty Python by rounding up 20 of the most iconicFlying Circussketches.
But what sets this sketch apart is its commitment to absurdity (the bouzouki soundtrack!)
and two very serious performances from Cleese and Palin.
Made all the better by the audience’s scripted but still funny reactions of horror.
Man slaps another man with fish, high jinks ensue.
(Go, Nigel Incubator-Jones.)
The Killer Joke
Season 1, Episode 1: “Whither Canada?”
It’s later used in warfare, to devastating (and hilarious) results.
The Dead Parrot
Could anything else be No.
The parrot may be dead, but its sketch lives on.
