Why Exactly Are All Our Favorite Comedies So Pythonesque?

Another day, another dollar, another war, another video made by a struggling Critical Theory PhD to explain exactly why your most beloved comedies are so funny. Please watch so he can get a few pennies from YouTube ads. This video from Wisecrack tackles the broad-reaching influence of Monty Python and how their blend of postmodernism, political satire, and absurdity have been copied by so many other comedies – including Rick and Morty, South Park, and Deadpool – that there is an adjective for it: Pythonesque.

I super love this video, because I super love Monty Python. The Dead Parrot Sketch was in one of my lit textbooks in high school, so I have unconsciously viewed them as intellectually superior to other comedies, and I am glad to learn that I was right! It’s also just really fun to rewatch a bunch of great jokes and scenes and talk about what makes them funny. (The English Lit AP exam my senior year had a prompt that was just like, read this and explain why it’s funny, and it was the most fun I’ve ever had taking an essay test, which is admittedly a low bar.) What is your favorite Python or Pythonesque comedy?

Just look at comedies today ‘South Park’, ‘Rick and Morty’ or even ‘Deadpool’. All hilarious in their own unique ways, but without Monty Python, they probably wouldn’t even exist. Monty Python paved the way for comedy as we know it combining absurdity satire and postmodern reflexivity into some of the most influential and quoted comedies ever…they defied convention concocting, a brand of comedy so singular that a word has been created just for it – ‘Pythonesque’ today their brand of humor permeates every facet of the comedic landscape.