Python Anatomy

[womzilla]

I have spent much of my adult life having experiences of "Oh, so that's what that Monty Python bit referred to."

Just as an example, only within the last three or four years did I learn that two different sketches--"The Architect Sketch" and the less well-known "Mystico and Janet"--both refer to the Ronan Point scandal.

"The Architect Sketch" exists in at least two forms--the TV version and the album version on Another Monty Python Album. Both feature John Cleeses's design for an apartment building which is actually an abbattoir, but the televised version continues into Eric Idle's demonstration of a tower where even the demo is so poorly constructed that it cannot stand upright, balconies collapse, and eventually it bursts into flames. At this, the caption "SATIRE" appears on the screen. "Mystico and Janet" features Terry Jones and Carol Cleveland (the Billy Preston of the Pythons) as a stage magician and glamorous* assistant who erect council tower blocks by hypnosis.

*Pun intended.

As Wikipedia puts it,

Ronan Point was a 23-storey tower block in Newham, East London, which suffered a fatal structural collapse due to a natural gas explosion 16 May 1968.

The building was brand-new and barely inhabited, so only four people died.

So, my understanding of, and appreciation of, both sketches was deepened when I learned of Ronan Point. "The Architect Sketch" in particular must have seemed like SNL doing a piece in 2002 about how aircraft designer had deliberately disabled the "Don't Run into Buildings" function on the navigation systems. (It's not a coincidence that I first learned of Ronan Point on Sept. 13, 2001.)

What this is all leading around to is that I would love to see someone take on the task of annotating Monty Python before all of its cultural references are lost to time. Perhaps a big wiki project?

Comments

[avram]

You could start the wiki yourself, and see if it catches on.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I agree, and would help out. When I first saw Python, I was consumed with curiosity on the references in one episode to a couple of British politicians of whom I had then never heard, Reginald Maudling and Margaret Thatcher. I know them now, of course, and can reasonably guess that their names held amusement value as two of the more memorably tight-assed members of the Heath government.

Not long ago I heard an otherwise intelligent young man, a fan of Holy Grail, which was released a decade before his birth, refer to Dennis (the "look, strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government" guy) as a libertarian. I smote my brow. This guy could not recognize classic Marxist rhetoric when he heard it. Time has really passed.

[whumpdotcom.livejournal.com]

Interesting to see that Rowan Point was built by Taylor Woodrow Anglican, which I assume must be related to Taylor Woodrow, who has been building several row house developments throughout Silicon Valley in the past few years.

88 Keys

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know whether I'd liken Carol Cleveland to Billy Preston so much as to Nicky Hopkins.

It's still a man's life in the Army, needless to say, even before you release the tiger.