More from the Python Channel on YouTube. I came across this while fishing for free videos to download from the iTunes store. It’s a refreshingly straight un-ironic take on the influence of Monty Python on American comedy as seen by American comedians.
Jimmy Fallon has the best line: “If you play Dark Side of the Moon while you watch the Holy Grail, I guarantee that you are not getting laid.”
The Python Channel is now steadily adding content. Their experimental business strategy appears to be working very well. They’ve even got themed playlists now like the World Financial Meltdown Special. The Money Song is a surefire crowd pleaser, but I’ve always been fond of the Merchant Banker sketch: “I don’t want to seem stupid, but it looks to me like I’m a pound down on the whole deal.”
Rambles Blog at Star Chamber 
Courtesy of your Groundhog Day card, I have stumbled across your blog. As if I needed any help avoiding my to do list, the knowledge that there is a Monty Python YouTube channel has me trying to rationalize wearing the same pair of socks three days in a row so I can skip doing the laundry and spend my entire night watching this stuff. Good find and God Bless The Internets!
George O’D.
Glad you dropped by George! I think we all know that in the great scheme of things, socks take a back seat to the Holy Hand Grenade.
So, I have to ask. At what age will you show young Carolyn Holy Grail? Will you try to lay some groundwork first, or let her go in blind?
I’d recommend about 3rd or 4th grade, I think that was when I had my first taste. The first one was free, but little did I know the true cost; an entire scholastic career spent alienating my peers.
Well, she’ll be 6 in May, so perhaps it’s time to get started. Fortunately I have lots of guidance from Python-afflicted fathers with daughters (see comments here). I like Mike’s approach of getting them into the full canon: Previous Record, Matching Tie and Handkerchief, even (gulp) Contractual Obligation. The admissions office needs to see more than Grail Grail Grail.
By the way, one of the gifts of Python Tourette Syndrome is that you permit yourself to think that you are alienating your peers only because of your arcane knowledge of sketch comedy.
No, I’m pretty sure my peers would have enjoyed my smug sense of superiority combined with my insufferable know-it-all-ism, if only they could have gotten past the Monty Python quotes.
And I still contend that Grail represents one of the best entry points. It in and of itself wouldn’t make a good exploration of Pythonhood, but it’s the training wheels. If after a couples years she still hasn’t moved beyond it, then it’s time to bump things up.
I guess one side benefit of introducing your boy to Python is a sharp reduction in the probability that he’ll give you a grandchild years before he ought.
That’s gotta be worth something.
Couldn’t agree more about the Grail being the training wheels — or perhaps more correctly, the gateway drug — to the full Monty Python. Actually, the initiates were so taken by the Grail that they clamored for more and so out came the record collection. Yesterday, 8 year old John was singing Eric the Half-a-Bee through his breakfast, and 12 year old Minna has found a new group of friends who can quote from the Grail, at the expense of some of her “cool” friends. Ahhhh… success.
On a somewhat unrelated issue, the kids were asking over dinner if someone could eat so much that they’d explode. What to do, what to do, what to do…