And Now For Something Completely Different (1971)

It is possible, if maybe a little unlikely, that you are not familiar with the concept of Monty Python. If so, that is a shame, because this collective was one of those revolutionary forces in comedy. They are among the ones that elevated absurd humour to a whole new level and thanks to the success of their show, introduced countless people to the madness that is Python.

It is also bloody funny.

But in order to reach new crowds beyond their native UK, they decided to reshoot several of their more memorable sketches from their first two seasons and link them together in a film and that is precisely what this one brings.

It is rather hard to try and make sense of this all. See, there is no real narrative to speak of. Sometimes sketches flow into one another through the loosest of threads, sometimes a Terry Gilliam animation links them (even though there is no connection whatsoever) and in other cases when even the Pythons didn't know how to do it, they just got John Cleese somewhere literally saying: "And now for something completely different."

But oh, how there are great sketches present!

'Upper-Class Twit of the Year', 'The Dead Parrot'-sketch, the 'Lumberjack Song', ... it is a lot to take in. But it is tasty. Should you not know what to expect, then the opening sketch ('How Not To Be Seen') will surely fill you in on the absolute madness that is to follow. Suffice to say that if you didn't like that one or didn't laugh at it, maybe Monty Python's style is not your cup of tea, and that's fine.

But if you fell over laughing, chances are you won't stop right until the end (and then some). It is tricky to explain this concept, because it is so all over the place with ingenious ideas, sometimes downright silliness, but always with clever writing and great performances from the entire group.

Is it their best cinematic exploit? No. That will always remain a toss up between 'The Holy Grail' and 'Life of Brian', both of which do have a narrative to speak of. But as a glorious introduction to a wonderful world af absurdism, you can do no wrong with this one.