Monty Python Day - pretty much as I predicted, except that the Silly party won.

I was in college in the late 80s, at a time when MTV was fully committing itself as a network to jettisoning that whole “play music videos” thing that had made them so popular and wealthy and groundbreaking, and instead were turning to all manner of non-music-video content. The upside to this - possibly the only upside to this - was that the network started running Monty Python’s Flying Circus every night, and it was the first time I’d ever seen it and had the chance to indulge myself nightly on it.

I have two lasting, milestone-type life-memories that were borne from this circumstance of programming.

I was taking a documentary film class at the time, and one evening we were watching a Nazi propaganda film. It was the usual stuff: columns of soldiers and tanks rolling by; Hitler and other dignitaries saluting and shouting; a palpable sense of dread, fear and historical hindsight. But over the soundtrack, for whatever reason, was playing The Liberty Bell march by John Phillips Sousa - you know, this music - and near the end, 70% of the student audience went “ppphhhttbb” at the exact moment where the Monty Python foot is supposed to squash down in the frame. I don’t even think we meant to do it - it was a conditioned response, having heard the theme every night on MTV when the show began, and all of us just automatically filled in the audio blanks, despite the bizarre juxtaposition of the sound to the images that were on the screen. After a moment of silence, everyone laughed - but a kind of unnerved, “how the hell did that happen” laugh.

The other great memory was my roommate and I laughing ourselves into near-incontinence by the name of the Very Silly party candidate in the great Flying Circus sketch Election Night Special:

“Malcolm Peter Brian Telescope Adrian Umbrella Stand Jasper Wednesday *pop-pop* Stoatgobbler John Raw Vegetable *horse whinny* Arthur Norman Michael *squeak* Featherstone Smith *whistle* Northgot Edwards Harris *pistolshot* *whoop* Mason *chuff-chuff-chuff* Frampton Jones Fruitbat Gilbert ‘We’ll keep a welcome in the’ *three pistolshots* Williams If I Could Walk That Way Jenkin *slide whistle* Tiger-draws Pratt Thompson ‘Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head’ Darcy Carter *horn* Pussycat ‘Don’t Sleep In The Subway’ Barton Mainwaring *hoot* *whoop* Smith”

Ladies and gentlemen, the most incredibly awesome Election Night Special sketch:

(the video’s a little jumpy, but I couldn’t locate a better one. aargh.)

In the comments below - what’s your favorite Flying Circus sketch and when did you see it for the first time?