The legendary comedy group Monty Python was once a force of nature, influencing everything
that came after them with their surreal, absurdist approach to comedy.
So, why don't we hear from them anymore?
When Graham Chapman ceased to be in 1989, fellow Python member Terry Jones described
it as "the worst case of party-pooping [he'd] ever seen."
His death came the day before Python's 20th anniversary, and what followed was a bizarre
but fitting eulogy, written to pay tribute to the man who'd written a dead parrot into
one of the troupe's most famous sketches.
"Good riddance to him, the freeloading bastard, I hope he fries."
Chapman becoming an ex-person seemed to put a damper on any kind of authentic reunion,
but what about the others?
What happened to the late, great Monty Python?
Terry Jones's illness
When Michael Palin presented Terry Jones with the 2016 BAFTA Cymru for Outstanding Contribution
to Film and Television, he described Jones as the heart of the Pythons.
"His force of character and tireless workaholism kept us all up to the mark."
Just before the awards ceremony, it was announced that he wouldn't be giving any interviews.
He'd been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, a type of dementia that impacted
his ability to communicate.
At the time of the awards ceremony, Jones's son Bill spoke for him, and in February 2017,
he made another appearance at the Royal Hospital Chelsea at an afternoon tea organized to help
dementia and cancer patients.
At the event, it was announced that he could no longer write.
In the years leading up to his diagnosis, Jones had still been busy with non-Python
projects, including working on a series of kids' books that he started publishing in
1981.
In 2011 he released Evil Machines, a collection of stories based on the idea that machines
are actually out to get us.
"What's that for?"
"That's the machine that goes PING!"
In 2016 it was announced that The Truthful Phone was going to get the movie treatment.
So while Jones may be down, he's definitely not out.
Michael Palin's travel shows
Outside of Python, Michael Palin has been consistently busy with projects as well.
His ongoing series of travel shows started in 1980.
Even though he's not doing as many lately, there may not really be anywhere else left
on the planet for him to visit anyway.
The Amazon?
Check.
The Himalayas?
Check.
He's basically re-enacting the entirety of Nintendo's DuckTales.
He's also been writing books and spotting trains, but when it comes to non-Python projects
he's most proud of, that would be the Michael Palin Centre for Stammering Children, which
came about after his appearance as Ken in A Fish Called Wanda.
"... plenty of time."
(more noises)."
His stammering in that film was based on his father, who suffered from a pronounced stutter,
so Palin was happy to lend his name to the therapeutic center.
What's still on Palin's list of things to do?
The actor explained:
"Oh, quite ordinary things.
Observing the world.
Learning about trains.
Discovering new music.
[...] I just want to do … what I can do.
And be judged on that.
All of this comes back to what Ernest Hemingway said: 'Don't talk about writing; just write.'
And I sometimes tend to think: 'Don't talk about living; just live.'"
John Cleese's purism
In 2015, John Cleese took a look back at just why he left Monty Python's Flying Circus after
three seasons, and with uncharacteristic seriousness, said that it was largely because he was still
a purist while, for the others, it was all about having fun.
He told CBS,
"I was genuinely bothered that by the third series we weren't really doing original material."
That didn't keep him from feeling guilty about leaving, but he's also spoken about some pretty
tragic behind-the-scenes drama that had developed during the third season, specifically Graham
Chapman's alcoholism.
Between that, the time commitment, and the lack of originality, he'd had enough.
Clearly, it was all a bit too silly to continue.
John Cleese in particular feels that political correctness has done some serious damage to
the state of comedy, saying that if they took Monty Python's Flying Circus in front of the
BBC today, they never would have made it to air.
Basically, we haven't seen more Python because, according to Cleese, the world can't handle it.
Cleese has also been pretty busy.
In 2011, he kicked off his aptly-named "Alimony Tour," which was largely done to pay the £600,000
a year he owed his ex-wife.
"I call it the Alimony Tour: Year Three or Feeding the Beast."
Terry Gilliam's moved on
There's not enough time in the day to talk about just what Terry Gilliam has been doing
since he left the Pythons.
He's established a record for making some of the strangest, most complex, and most troubled
films in Hollywood history, including Brazil, 12 Monkeys, and The Imaginarium of Doctor
Parnassus.
Needless to say, it's clear that he's moved on to something completely different.
In 2014, Monty Python was gearing up for their long-awaited reunion, and Gilliam was less
than thrilled about the whole thing.
At the time, he was working on another project: The English National Opera's Benvenuto Cellini,
which was reportedly all but unperformable because of its complexity.
Sounds like it's right up his alley?
Absolutely.
But when it came to the 10 Monty Python shows at the O2, he told the London Evening Standard,
"Actually, the truth is I find it depressing that we're getting back together again.
It's like, we worked so hard to get careers beyond it, to get to this stage, and now we're
being dragged back again."
Eric Idle's Broadway ambitions
The success of the musical Spamalot proved just how much the world still loves the Pythons.
It didn't come without its challenges, though, and when Monty Python broke up, they agreed
that anything Python-related was going to be an all-or-nothing deal.
If one didn't want something to happen, it wasn't going to happen.
Eric Idle wrote Spamalot largely on his own, and only involved the rest of the group when
he had something complete.
Spamalot got the unanimous thumbs-up, although Idle has said, "If it flops, they can just
blame me."
And then they were sued for it.
In 2012, Holy Grail producer Mark Forstater claimed that he was the "seventh Python,"
and that he deserved a larger cut of the money from Spamalot, based in on a 1974 agreement
that said he was entitled to a share of 50 percent of Holy Grail's merchandising.
Uncoincidentally, the lawsuit came on the heels of Forstater's own declaration of bankruptcy.
Shockingly, he won the suit, leaving the Pythons to pay him even more money while still, presumably,
doing all the work themselves — probably less motivated than ever.
They want to finish on a good note
In 2015, the Pythons invaded the Tribeca Film Festival.
Shows were shown, movies were watched, and John Oliver assembled them for a frank talk
on life and laughs as a Python.
When they talked about where they were going from there, they said that there was always
a fear that they were embarrassing themselves.
When you're on and you do a joke and about six people in the audience go 'a-heh heh heh,'
you really want to kill yourself."
It was John Cleese who said he doubts that he understands his audience anymore, and that
the kind of comedy they were so good at is next-to-impossible when you don't understand
the audience you're in front of.
At the end of the Python's final appearance together, Cleese says that he realized something
— that what they were doing was a good thing.
The others agreed, with Eric Idle summing it up best.
"I think the thing that I really loved most was watching it come to an end, and how it
was dignified and touching and moving.
And not going on and on … I think that's right, I think it's lovely.
I think you want to finish on a good moment, and it was a great moment."
"How about a happy ending, sir?"
"Chris, thank God you're safe!"
"Nah, you wouldn't want that, would you?"
"Why wouldn't I want that?"
"That was terrific!"
"Great, yeah!"
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