Life of Python Page #4

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We'd say, "No, it isn't."

They might have been right,

but we wanted to say we do know.

The six of us know what is right.

We started off

having group meetings.

We'd meet and talk about

what we wanted to do,

what we should avoid,

The shape of the show--

Get based, then a Gilliam cartoon--

It would go through and link and flow,

and it wouldn't have stop-starts.

Terry Gilliam had done this

stream animation of consciousness.

It was definitely a conscious idea

that we create a whole show

that was a stream

of consciousness.

All the kids really wanted to hear

was that we were heavily into drugs.

Nothing else interested them.

We were all by then pushing 30.

We'd all been working

for a very long time

and were disciplined,

hard-working guys

doing a terrible, boring business

of trying to make people laugh.

They would be terribly,

bitterly disappointed

that we're not sort of--

"Hey, wow, let's do this.

Let's do that."

You can't get a knight in armor

and a chicken just like that.

You've got to plan it.

We cheated slightly in that

we stuck to our own usual

writing groupings--

Terry Jones and myself,

Eric Idle writing on his own,

Terry Gilliam doing

his animations on his own,

And John and Graham writing together.

Graham is a very, very clever writer

and the best judge

of whether something's funny

that I've ever come across.

If ever I was not sure,

I would always take

Graham's opinion.

He seemed to be a sort

of perfect litmus paper

with just extraordinary judgment.

And that was unbelievably

valuable, I think,

to the group and to me as a writer.

John always has to

write through someone.

He needs to focus his

ideas through someone.

The Graham-John partnership

worked extremely well

'cause Graham was always

able to throw in

this really bizarre...

Now and again he'd say "Mongoose,"

which would set the whole thing

careering off in another direction.

Funny that penguin being there.

What's it doing there?

Standing.

I can see that.

Perhaps it comes from next door.

Penguins don't come

from next door.

They come from the Antarctic.

Burma!

Why did you say "Burma"?

I panicked.

The "Nudge-nudge" sketch,

I'd actually written

for Ronnie Barker

for a Frost On Sunday.

I thought it was

a funny character.

It was only afterwards I realized

why he never did it.

Because the script says,

"Know what I mean?

Know what I mean?

Nudge nudge. Say no more.

Know what I mean?"

There's no jokes in it or anything.

I read it out very tentatively

at one of the early Python meetings,

and they laughed like

crazy at the character.

Is your wife, uh, a goer?

Know what I mean?

Nudge nudge. Nudge nudge.

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