Two Down, Four to Go (Terry Jones)

Cribbing shamelessly from John Cleese's post, I want to take a moment to recognize the passing of Terry Jones.  I've generally stopped commenting on the deaths of celebrities (after the double whammy of David Bowie and Alan Rickman in January 2016), but I will make an exception here, as Monty Python was such an influence on me growing up.  I know I watched this in the dorm when it was on late-night MTV(!) in 1988, though I most likely had seen a reasonable number of the episodes prior to this (most likely on PBS,* as we were definitely an NPR and PBS sort of household).  I'm sure I had seen Holy Grail and Life of Brian on VHS while in high school, and I definitely went to see Life of Brian at a university cinema club screening.

Terry Jones (surprisingly handsome when not dressed as a woman)

I didn't have the opportunity to see the Pythons live on their final reunion tour (and as much as I do like them, I wasn't going to try to fly to London!).  I have seen Eric Idle live twice, doing quite a few Python sketches and songs.

While in some ways Cleese and Idle may be even sharper (if somewhat caustic) comic writers, my favourite Pythons were Jones and Palin, who both seem like absolute top-form blokes.  The world will be a little sadder without Jones, but thankfully he (and the other Pythons) have left an amazing legacy.**  I've been planning forever to go through the Monty Python set (of all the original, uncut episodes).  There is no point in saying I am going to do that, starting tonight, as it just won't happen, but I probably can (and should!) plan to watch Holy Grail, Life of Brian and Meaning of Life over the next three weekends and ideally introduce my son and daughter to the Python-brand of humour.


* Interestingly, I found out about Red Dwarf from a NY-based PBS station in 2000 or so, but had never heard of it before.  I was also a relative late-comer to Blackadder, only finding out about it when visiting a friend in Victoria in 1995 or so.

** I know I shouldn't be surprised by this, but it's still astonishing that as late as the 1970s the BBC was forever wiping their old programs and reusing the tape with no thought that there would be reruns apparently.  Steve Coogan recounts that Terry Jones was responsible for storing the whole run of Monty Python, so there really would not have been much of a Python legacy without him.  Amazing.