Monty Python's Flying Circus/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Defictionalization: Several things, but perhaps most prominently the "Silly Party" of the Election Night Sketch inspired the Real Life Monster Raving Loony Party. The Overly Long Name of a candidate was also borrowed by a real British election candidate.
  • Edited for Syndication: In the first run (1975), show no. 38 started with a Party Political Broadcast that was choreographed. Upon the syndication rights changing in 1983, the brainiacs at Time-Life (first syndicators) erased it. It was replaced with brief superimposed titles. The first DVD release of the Monty Python 16-Ton Megaset delivered an even worse blow: the previews of BBC comedies ("Dad's Pooves," "Up The Palace," etc.) at the end were left out.
  • Executive Meddling: If the episode with the Tudor porn shop seems disjointed, that's because it had to be edited rather severely before it was allowed to air.
  • Forgot to Pay the Bill: In one episode the BBC runs out of money, and the gas and heat get turned off in the flat they use as their studio.
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Relatively few roles were played by anyone outside of the Pythons themselves, and were normally relegated to whenever they needed more than six men on screen at a time, and Carol Cleveland normally played the more buxom women.
    • However, the episode "Mr & Mrs Brian Norris' Ford Popular" closes with a fake talk show hosted by the "It's" Man. His guests are British singer Lulu and Ringo Starr. As themselves.
    • Also appearing as himself, Richard Baker, a well-known straight-laced news anchor of the BBC, who's rather confused about lemon curry.
  • Missing Episode
    • The "Political Choreographers" sketch was edited out of one episode after its initial broadcast and apparently only survives in a low-quality off-air recording.
    • Additionally, most episodes of the two Python precursor series, Do Not Adjust Your Set and At Last the 1948 Show, have been wiped.
    • There is an animated section in between the "Crackpot Religions" sketch and "How Not to Be Seen" involving Jesus and the two theives being crucified on telephone poles, while an Alter Kocker Satan (played by Idle) appears out of the ground. It was cut after its initial showing, can only be seen in low-grade, black-and-white footage, but the image of the crucifixes can be found in a split second when the episode is "recapped" in fast forward later in the show.