Monty Python Giveaway: Make Us Laugh and Win DVDs!
We don’t do giveaways that often, but an opportunity like this was too good to pass up. We’ve received these DVD box sets, courtesy of A&E Home Entertainment, featuring the masters of sketch comedy, Monty Python:
- The Complete Monty Python’s Flying Circus 16-ton Megaset
- Monty Python: The Other British Invasion
- The Personal Best of Monty Python
Apparently we’re not allowed to keep them, though, so that leaves us to figure out a way of deciding who gets dibs.
While we’ve written before about how the Python gang has remained fresh, relevant and web-savvy over the years, at some point the mantle of awesome will have to pass to someone else. So here’s our question for you, dear readers: Who would you consider to be the modern-day online equivalent of Monty Python? Could be a sketch comedy group, a consistently hilarious scripted web series, even an entire destination web site — really, it’s up to you, so long as you can support your argument.
Send us your ideas at info at newteevee dot com — or leave them in the comments of this post — before Dec. 22, when we’ll determine the winner. The writer of our favorite response will receive the Megaset, and two runners-up will get the other collections. (We can’t guarantee you’ll receive the DVDs by Christmas, but we’ll try to get them out before New Year’s.) The group or site being praised gets…well, they get praised.
So start thinking! As inspiration, we offer this:
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I’ll throw this out first – I think the mass of consistently funny folks I follow on Twitter, most notably John Hodgman, is the modern analog to Python’s brand of over-educated silliness.
I vote for Rhett & Link.
http://www.youtube.com/user/RhettandLink
I initially voted for Rhett & Link because of the dry humor in their sketch videos.
Exhibit A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3HnFfS9iSI
Exhibit B: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-RLqLx1iYI
On second thought I think the comic stylings of Dave & Tom are closer to The Pythons than Rhett & Link. Dave & Tom crank up the silly a little bit more. <-Mean that in a good way.
What about Dave and Tom and their sketch show http://aoc.mevio.com or even their series Invention with Brian Forbes.
If you’ve seen them do sketch on the web or live you know they are the real ting and very very Pythonesque
You’ve got t give it to Tom Konkle as Sir Reginald Bo-Hey No for overeducated silliness.
http://www.daveandtom.com/invention.html
Oh and this one of many sketch bits he does, have a look
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzugeSPS3oc
I think you’ll agree. :-)
Hi well here is the arguments fir Dave and Tom
Good old fashion British humor is not dead. It’s being reinvented.
Invention is a fictitious show presenting new and innovative inventions… inventions so out to lunch, they could only have come from the brilliant minds of two Anglophiles, Dave & Tom.
This is particularly noteworthy since the humor is heavily influenced by the British surreal motifs along the lines of Monty Python’s Flying Circusand Benny Hill. In fact, Invention‘ setting is very similar to some of the Python sketches of pseudo-interviews that drift into the absurd.
The jokes are sometimes complex, sometimes blunt, sometimes straight-out rude, but those are its strong points. The acting is superb and the simplicity of the settings rely solely on the writing… no fancy sets or props. It’s the jokes and the actors who carry it along. And it works. We’re dealing with professionals and there is no questioning that. Both writers/actors have spent time in Britain and Tom has had stints alongside John Cleese — which brings the Monty Python influence full circle.
Shot entirely in LA, it is good to know that the brilliance of British humor doesn’t die once it hits the US.
Can we expect more genius escaping from under this writing team’s various hairdos? In fact, we canThe Archaeology of Comedy: the Search for Funny is yet another brilliant entry to the Theater of the Absurd, a magnificent romp through the hilarious surreal world of comedy that so well defines Dave & Tom. Technically Archaeology was their first foray into web shows and thus carries some of the duo’s best skits. Later shows such as Invention with Brian Forbes and Safety Geeks: SVI continued their particular fuse of Anglo-American humor, but it was with Archaeology that it all began. The short segments are loosely stuck together with the overall theme of a BBC-esq documentary series (or think Discovery Channel on crack).
It was also here that Dave & Tom established their British alter-egos. Tom’s Sir Doctor George Flightus in Archaeology bears a striking resemblance to Sir Reginald from Invention, and Dave’s Richard Lagina must be undoubtedly related to Brian Forbes. Both deliver a quasi Received Pronunciation accent, with Tom’s crawling deliciously out of his nose, while gumming out hilarious non sequiturs.
The skits are a crosscut of nonsense that are pointless to to explain: they have to be seen to be believed. Often complicated and elaborate, shot in a studio and even on locations, sometimes silly and at times unexpected intelligent and then suddenly just plain naughty. Sketch humor classics at their best come to mind, everything from Monty Python, Little Britain to SNL (the early years), but this comedy team does establish its own flavor of funny.. When they’re not busy making up outrageous
inventions that will leave you ROFLing.They are doing that.
I concur with this analysis
I should like to throw my own hat into the ring for this if I may!
http://aoc.mevio.com or why not try…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Btf_4lJd7s
Your,
Tom Konkle (Mrs.)
I’d like to have an argument for myself, but I haven’t paid. All the best Liz have a great new year.
May the best suggestor of good Pythonism win!
Why not me! http://www.daveandtom.com
Thank you guys for the comments so far! However, the winners of the contest are going to be selected based on the strength of the argument being made. So don’t just tell us who you think the next Monty Python is — go into detail. As they say in math class, show your work. :)
I should like to suggest the sketch stylings of Dave and Tom as well as these closest thing to Monty Python today.
They are in a word, extremely silly, especially when they are dressed as men. To wit, this lovely clip of multiple characters played by them having a chat about comedy
http://www.viddler.com/explore/daveandtom/videos/1/
I think the Pythonesque overtone (is that even a word?) are quite obvious especially in this bit which I have seen and in fact laughed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Btf_4lJd7s
or this one which literally changed my life (not really one of them has a rifle pointed at me) but still… I think Dave and Tom and their troupe McFwap are the most Pythoneque thing on the web in fact I got a google alert with their names and Monty Python in it which brought me here.
I would like the DVD’s very much.
Mike S.
I’m going to say Mitch Magee, creator of several webseries (many found at Channel 101 NY) and a man who really has a strong, set comedic voice.
His humor is definitely not as fast as that of the six members of Monty Python. However I would argue that to be the next Monty Python, the modern hit of the online video genre and potential cult classic, you should not replicate the stylings and humor of the Pythons. When Monty Python first emerged the thing that made them so engaging and charismatic was their complete disregard of the rules… they changed comedy from the first season of Monty Python, showing audiences that there didn’t need to be a beginning, middle and end to every sketch. Instead of making a cut and dry sketch show they created a stream-of-consciousness show that mixed high-concept comedy with complete goofiness. But most importantly they were creating comedy that appealed to the group… they broke boundaries and created a free comedy that they found funny. Completely unapologetically, and completely confidently.
Mitch Magee has created his own brand of humor. He definitely mixes high-concept with the silly (see his web-series Mr. Glasses about an architect trying to cure the world’s problems with Modernist Architecture, all the while wearing absurd glasses), he writes tight scripts and films them beautifully while maintaining a very subtle and confident sense of humor (see his web-series Sexual Intercourse American Style, which tells the story of a family of swingers with absurdist and existential crises every now and then) and ultimately he has found a very strong and confident comedic voice, which he attacks head on (see my personal favorite Welcome to My Study, the story of Mitchell, a man who’s lonely and collects things). The silly is definitely there, the high concept is definitely there, but really the reason I keep going back to him again and again is his strong confidence and his completely radical approach to comedy. I think of his videos as a huge cult classic, and a blueprint to change comedy, much in the same way I view Python’s legendary impact and cult status. It’s not “Anglo-inspired,” but really neither was Monty Python. They’re from Britain, yes, but Monty Python was revolutionary in Britain when they began… they simply created a free form show that they found funny.
If you don’t believe me I challenge you to check out his series:
Welcome to My Study, Ep. 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thTaP9TsVZ4
Mr. Glasses Episode 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ywo_v2YZNxA
Sexual Intercourse American Style Episode 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csFFedEduog
Or his youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/mitchmagee
You may at first be confused, but engulfed… so was I. But I watched all the series, and am confident in his future. Both as a cult icon, and a man who is able to change the face of web comedy and do more with the online medium.
Dru J.
http://www.theyearoftheblog.com