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I can still remember my first encounter with
Monty
Python's Flying Circus. It was my freshman year in college,
and some friends and I were on a road trip from Rochester to Toronto.
In those days before CDs, entertainment was a hit-or-miss proposition,
a mix of our own ability to amuse each other and regular scans of
available radio frequencies. But we got lucky shortly after getting
near the Canadian border: what I remember as an "all comedy, all the
time" station. (Which may have been nothing of the sort, my few hours
of contact and thirty year old memories notwithstanding.) And I
remember this strange routine about a candy company with the most
disgusting confectionary. This was of course the
Whizzo
Quality Assortment. And from that moment I became a Python addict.
The Pythons have long since gone their separate ways, a few returning
to help with each other's projects. But before their separation, they
had the very real problem mentioned in the title of this album: they
still owed one more record to Arista before they could walk away.
And, true to their ability to defy expectations at every stage of
their career, they managed to come up with a collection of shocking
and very funny material that's equal to the best of their earlier
work. Now if only I could find that sense of humor from the long ago
me, so I can appreciate them the way they deserve.
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