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frasedogga's review against another edition
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
e_cobbe's review
slow-paced
2.0
Very poor audio quality, and not very well planned out, unfortunately.
grahamlibrarian's review against another edition
3.0
I'm rating the audiobook so the 3 stars has mainly to do with the quality of the audio interviews. I liked learning the history of the Pythons and there were some humorous stories told but it was really hard to understand a lot of what they were saying because of the quality of the audio used.
hrisood's review against another edition
3.0
I listened to the audio version of The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons yesterday, which is a short listen at only around 2 and a half hours. The audiobook is a compilation of interviews with each member of Monty Python except for the passed Graham Chapman, though Chapman's relatives provide some reflections on his childhood. Despite all members involved being funny individuals, the interviews are quite serious recollections of their upbringings. All of them, except Terry Gilliam who is American, grew up in impoverished post WWII Britain. They shared similar views on their times at high school, a universally bizarre experience in hindsight it seems. Their schooling system was particularly conservative which shaped their satirical style of comedy. The conversations recall their meeting at university and development of experimental comedy. John Cleese mentions how from the beginning they were all writers, not actors, which meant they had constant disagreements about material, but never had problems as to who would perform what. It was interesting to gain some insight into the dynamics of the group. The recollections are honest and personal to each member. Over the course of the audiobook, there is increasingly mention of the tensions which arose from their altering views, and in Chapman's case, his alcoholism. The autobiography goes on to discuss their movies and famous skits, talking about the process of their creation. One of the insights I found most interesting was how they treated filming as a 9 to 5 job, despite the common perception of their job as being not particularly serious. Several of them recall miserable filming experiences, doing multiple takes in muddy swamps in Yorkshire among other things. Another point I was unaware of was how Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and others funded all of The Holy Grail, and that Beatle George Harrison mortgaged his house to provide $2 million for production of The Life of Brian.
I have always found it hard to place exactly how the silly humour and slapstick of Monty Python is able to convey profound ideas. Several interesting perspectives are offered which touch on this. Michael Palin talks early on about how civilised behaviour is always on a knife's edge, and how it is a sort of game that is played. He uses the example of a school assembly where someone gets up to speak - a situation so contrived to be serious - and imagines scenarios like a stark naked person ziplining across the stage, shattering the thin veneer of decorum. Monty Python uses equally absurd scenarios to expose how often fragile and ridiculous the nature of this roleplaying can be. One of my favourite examples of this is the Haggling Scene in The Life of Brian. Haggling, an established social convention, is so non-sensical in this instance that the merchant's blind insistence on it calls into question the whole purpose of such conventions in the first place. Eric Idle also mentions what he calls thesaurus jokes used in skits, like the dead parrot sketch and the cheese shop, where a character rattles off an excessive number of synonymous phrases. Idle notes that the characters know a lot, but understand very little, which is an interesting distinction to consider.
The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons is a background on the Monty Python group as described by its members. For anyone not familiar with their material, I would recommend watching the movies and sketches before listening to this. I wouldn't say there is any unheard of information about Monty Python in this audiobook, but it is an interesting and honest account of their perspectives. 3 stars.
I have always found it hard to place exactly how the silly humour and slapstick of Monty Python is able to convey profound ideas. Several interesting perspectives are offered which touch on this. Michael Palin talks early on about how civilised behaviour is always on a knife's edge, and how it is a sort of game that is played. He uses the example of a school assembly where someone gets up to speak - a situation so contrived to be serious - and imagines scenarios like a stark naked person ziplining across the stage, shattering the thin veneer of decorum. Monty Python uses equally absurd scenarios to expose how often fragile and ridiculous the nature of this roleplaying can be. One of my favourite examples of this is the Haggling Scene in The Life of Brian. Haggling, an established social convention, is so non-sensical in this instance that the merchant's blind insistence on it calls into question the whole purpose of such conventions in the first place. Eric Idle also mentions what he calls thesaurus jokes used in skits, like the dead parrot sketch and the cheese shop, where a character rattles off an excessive number of synonymous phrases. Idle notes that the characters know a lot, but understand very little, which is an interesting distinction to consider.
The Pythons Autobiography by The Pythons is a background on the Monty Python group as described by its members. For anyone not familiar with their material, I would recommend watching the movies and sketches before listening to this. I wouldn't say there is any unheard of information about Monty Python in this audiobook, but it is an interesting and honest account of their perspectives. 3 stars.
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