Does Flying Circus hold up?
Heresy! That’s what this article in the Independent (UK) by John Walsh no doubt is to some folks. On the 40th anniversary of the first airing of the first episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Walsh slips in a tape of that first shot fired in a comedy revolution and compares what the 55-year-old Walsh thinks with what the 15-year-old Walsh thought. The Halves of the Staff happened across some old episodes on our local PBS outlet a few months ago. We remembered many of the sketches vividly. A good number of them had fallen down the memory hole. We laughed heartily at about 25 per cent of the material. (We seem to recall being bored while watching some of the episodes the first time around, back in the mid-70s, so the .250 batting average this time around was not surprising or disappointing.) Walsh, viewing Episode 1 with 2009 eyes, sees a bit of elitism, some homophobia and some other flaws, but eventually gets to the heart of the show’s appeal, and to some of its flaws.Looking back,
