Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition: Cultural Contexts in Monty Python
Language: English
Pages: 168
ISBN: 1442237368
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Monty Python’s Flying Circus was one of the most important and influential cultural phenomena of the 1970s. The British program was followed by albums, stage appearances, and several films, including Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian, and Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. In all, the comic troupe drew on a variety of cultural references that prominently figured in their sketches, and they tackled weighty matters that nonetheless amused their audiences.
In Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition:Cultural Contexts in Monty Python, Tomasz Dobrogoszcz presents essays that explore the various touchstones in the television show and subsequent films. These essays look at a variety of themes prompted by the comic geniuses:
- Death
- The depiction of women
- Shakespearean influences
- British and American cultural representations
- Reactions from foreign viewers
This volume offers a distinguished discussion of Monty Python’s oeuvre, exhibiting highly varied approaches from a number of perspectives, including gender studies, post-structuralism, psychoanalysis, and cultural studies.
Featuring a foreword by Python alum Terry Jones, Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition will appeal to anyone interested in cultural history and media studies, as well as the general fans of Monty Python who want to know more about the impact of this groundbreaking group.
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immortality and fame after death, offered “victory and spoils”—“the signs of divine election”—before entering the eternal kingdom (Ariès 194). “Immortality and immorality are closely allied,” observes Terry Eagleton in his discussion about death, evil, nonbeing, and religious fundamentalism (211). Medieval indifference in the face of death seems neither healthier nor more logical than the modern denial of death. The brutal ways of inflicting pain and death on Brave Sir Robin are in fact what
always artistically prolific and limitless in its range (the opening sketch supports this part of the thesis); second, death in all shapes and degrees is featured in the Pythons’ creative output and to what purpose it remains to be seen; third, the recurring theme of death and animals serves an additional and noble purpose in the Pythons’ works; fourth, the denial of death is as problematic and dangerous as the overeager acceptance of it; fifth, one of the best ways to address the absurdity and
placed by the Pythons. The Gumbies are usually presented as part of the intelligentsia, most often recognized as “professors” by on-screen captions, and they are asked for an expert opinion in all sorts of matters, either very trivial, about the proper way to arrange flowers, or more specialized, about the actual location of the Battle of Trafalgar. In the opinion of Prof. J. R. Gumby, the battle was fought not in the Atlantic off southern Spain, but near Cudworth in Yorkshire (episode 11):
narrator as a “Nürnberg cowpuncher and Deputy Sheriff of Dodge City.” In the second episode, a segment on wild west mouseboys wrangling and branding mice—accompanied by western TV music—leads into a piece about a prospector mining for chickens and the rich chicken mines of North Dakota. Although most of the Pythons’ American references pertain to the entertainment industry or cultural tropes, some relate to other types of American influence. Evidence of American economic hegemony most frequently
absurdity of human disrespect for natural order, reflected, among other things, in an unwillingness to acknowledge mortality while freely dealing death to others. Becker points out that the human animal is the most tragic of all animals Death and the Denial of Death in the Works of Monty Python 11 because “the knowledge of death is reflective and conceptual, and, [unlike humans], animals are spared it. They live and they disappear with the same thoughtlessness: a few minutes of fear, a few