Monty Python

Latest Articles

Does this book make me look smart?

Somervillian mocks the cult of David Foster Wallace with Tumblr-tastic 'People Holding Infinite Jest'
The first and only complete passage of Infinite Jest Chris Braiotta ever read was tattooed on somebody's calf.
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | April 13, 2011

The proto-web utopian consciousness of Stan VanDerBeek

Psychadelic, man!
In April 1966, sheriff's deputies were hiding in bushes, peering into a mansion that had been turned into a headquarters and commune for LSD guru Timothy Leary and his pals at Millbrook, New York.
By GREG COOK | March 24, 2011

Monty Python takes the stage at MSMT

Airspeed + swallows
"Adult Situations," a sign in the theater lobby promises, though as my companion eagerly commented pre-curtain, the disclaimer should perhaps also include a warning of "Childish Situations."
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | August 18, 2010

Reality bites

The singular surrealism of Robyn Hitchcock
At some point or another, the greatest artists are pegged as oddballs, weirdos, freaks. Being a great artist does mean going out on a limb.
By DANIEL BROCKMAN | June 04, 2010

White losers rejoice: Fletch celebrates 25 years

Thrill of the Chase Dept.
This holiday weekend marks the 25th anniversary of Fletch , the uneven but wildly enduring 1985 Chevy Chase comedy about a wisecracking reporter embroiled in a potboiler mystery.
By PETER HYMAN | June 03, 2010

Blythe spirit

Opera Boston’s Offenbach, Thomas Quasthoff, the BSO, Boston Baroque, and BU’s Sondheim
Leaving the Cutler Majestic after the opening night of Opera Boston’s latest Offenbach, La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein , you could see the smiling faces of an audience that had had a good time.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | May 17, 2010

Nothing beats nothing

Jerry Seinfeld and Ricky Gervais return
Jerry Seinfeld held out on a Seinfeld reunion till last year, when he finally found a way to do a comeback that wasn't really a comeback. He and Seinfeld co-creator Larry David resurrected the greatest sit-com of the '90s as a show-within-a-show on David's Curb Your Enthusiasm . The reunion made Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer hilariously relevant again.
By JOYCE MILLMAN | March 02, 2010

Interview: Ozzy Osbourne

The belles lettrist tells all
Long before he bit the heads off bats and doves, Ozzy Osbourne worked in a cheerless abattoir in the hardscrabble Aston section of Birmingham, England, where for 18 months he held such titles as "cow killer," "tripe hanger," "hoof puller," and "pig stunner."
By LANCE GOULD | January 29, 2010

Review: The Book of Eli

The Road not taken
In a post-Apocalyptic landscape of ash and destruction infested by slack-jawed cannibal gangs with carious grins, a man walks resolutely toward the sea, bearing with him the light of humanity.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 13, 2010

Review: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Ledger-demain: Gilliam leaves nothing to the Imaginarium
Few filmmakers have suffered from the life-imitates-art phenomenon as has Terry Gilliam.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 11, 2010

Lite at the end of the tunnel?

Fun and games in post-apocalyptic Hollywood
If you had enough of the end of the world with 2012 , you might be relieved when it comes to 2010.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 04, 2010

The Pythons' Gonzo Gospel

Jesus never had a chance
The scene is familiar: the vast blue sky, the expanses of sand, and, atop a distant hill, Jesus delivers the Sermon on the Mount to a rapt throng. But on the fringes of the crowd, His listeners behave like rowdies at a rock concert, yelling at one another and brawling until no one can hear the Savior's words. What's that He said? Blessed are the cheesemakers?
By STEPHEN SCHIFF | October 05, 2009

Review: Monty Python's Flying Circus: 30 Musical Masterpieces from the Infamous Television Series

DeWolfe (2009)
Such is the legendary status and posthumous influence of the original run of Monty Python's Flying Circus on BBC One in the early '70s that it's easy to forget how low-budget British comedy production was in those days.
By GUSTAVO TURNER | August 25, 2009

Review: In the Loop

Armando Iannucci wags the war
Six years ago, Armando Iannucci's slick and merciless political satire might have drawn more blood, but even now it blows away the recent satiric competition with its sharp, sardonic screenplay and uncompromising cynicism.
By PETER KEOUGH | July 23, 2009

Madcap laffs

The Mighty Boosh comes to DVD
Come with us now, on a journey through time and space to the world of the Mighty Boosh.
By MIKE MILIARD | July 15, 2009

Cursed films

"Le Film Maudit" at the HFA
At some point while watching the features in the Harvard Film Archive's "Le Film Maudit" ("cursed films") series — perhaps during the "Circle of Shit" chapter in Pier Paolo Pasolini's SALÒ, OR THE 120 DAYS OF SODOM — you might ask yourself, which is more cursed, the movies or anyone unfortunate enough to be watching them?
By PETER KEOUGH | July 17, 2009

Review: Year One

Not everything Judd Apatow touches is gold.
Mel Brooks and the lads from Monty Python stormed through this territory with fierce farce. Here there's little farce, just a fusillade of flaccid dick jokes.
By TOM MEEK | June 23, 2009

Play by Play: June 12, 2009

Plays from A to Z
Boston theater this week
By JEFFREY GANTZ | June 11, 2009

Play by Play: June 5, 2009

Plays A to Z
Boston's theater schedule
By JEFFREY GANTZ | June 02, 2009

Booty call!

The Huntington plunders Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance
"Ladies and gentlemen," a cheerful female voice informs the Huntington Theatre audience, "the Caribbean Light Opera Society is proud to present Pirates! (Or, Gilbert and Sullivan Plunder'd)." The governor, she continues, wants to assure us that there is almost no danger of a pirate attack during the performance.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | May 27, 2009

Turkey Terror Tale

Tom Foolery
Violent crime, gang activity, and general thuggery are not recurring themes on the Brookline police blotter. But that civic paradise is plagued by another kind of scourge — one that manifests all three of those crimes in avian form. And it isn't bird flu.
By LANCE GOULD, WITH ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY EMILY MELLO | May 13, 2009

Excerpts from the MIT Esperanto Club's list of 'useful expressions in Esperanto.

Festu plu!
A sampling of Esperanto
By EVA WOLCHOVER | January 08, 2009

Connected

"NetWorks 2008" at AS220, 5 Traverse, and the NAM
In 2004, AS220's StinkTank put out a paper titled "Compost and the Arts."
By GREG COOK | December 16, 2008

Chilly scenes in winter

The year ahead on Boston stages
The drama of the holidays (and I don’t mean A Christmas Carol) may be behind us, but there’s plenty more drama — and comedy and musicals — ahead to light up long winter nights.
By LIZA WEISSTUCH | October 27, 2008

Blood sport

Ninja Gaiden II scores a flesh wound
To judge by the way they’re portrayed in video games, ninjas are suffering from an identity crisis.
By MITCH KRPATA | June 17, 2008

Creative compost

Brian Chippendale’s masterful Human Mold
It's a vision of feral characters wandering a world jerry-rigged from recycled scraps of a collapsed plastic mass-produced disposable civilization.
By GREG COOK | May 20, 2008

Funny business

As the AltCom Festival arrives at the Somerville Theatre, we look at the roots of the indie comedy boom.
“Ashlee Simpson’s new album sold so poorly,” snorted the headline on Yahoo! this past week, that “it was beaten by a comedy album.”
By MIKE MILIARD | May 08, 2008