h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Personally, my first experience of anything to do with Python was 'Always look on the bright side of life' by Eric Idle. I was very young and didn't even know what Monty Python was, but I liked the words and it has been imprinted on my mind ever since.

Then I somehow found a pirate copy of Life of Brian with the end cut out. That completely piqued my curiosity and I was hooked.

Be interesting to see how it has come into other peoples lives. Especially non-brits or even people who were around when it started.

When video recorders were still a fantastic new invention my Father sat me down and made me watch a couple of episodes of the Flying Circus. I was probably about 9 at the time and didnt know what an earth to make of it (or my Father). A couple of years later he bought me "The Life of Brian" for my birthday and it suddenly all clicked.
The strange thing is, my Father says he isnt really a Monty Python fan. I can only deduce from this:

a) He was trying to warp my fragile brain, which to be fair he probably did.
b) He thought I would like it, again he was right.

I was in England in the early seventies, Dad being in the U.S. Air Force. It was late on a weekend night in a friends' basement and something that apperred quite funny was on the telly. That is my first comfirmed memory of the Circus.
Last Sunday I watched the second 'German Episode' on a tape borrowed from the library; and when I saw the mouse being branded with a big S, it was as if 30 years melted away and I was in a R.A.F. Upper Heyford Base Housing cellar making my first pass at a new world.

The machine that goes "Ping"!

They put meaning of life on TV sometimes when I was a teenager. It was awesome! Didn't follow it at all which was why I loved it - it was just a series of silly, funny things.

For some reason, the midwives keep looking at me weird...

The first time I ever heard & saw the Pythons was through a showing of a commentary-tracked version "Monty Python & the Holy Grail" on a cable channel w/c was unluckily cut short. That was 10 years ago. The second time was when an edited "Life of Brian" was shown on another cable channel 9 years ago. The latter film was the catalyst for my Python interest since the damn movie was soooo funny (esp.the "Bigus Dickus" scene w/c even my siblings found funny). With the rise of the Internet,I finally got to read more about this silly group & get a few of their funny bits ("Parrot Sketch", "Spam Song", "Lumberjack Song" "Cheese Shop" & "Argument Clinic" among my latest downloads).
I even got a college friend into them and he's even a bigger Python fan than I am because he downloaded the scripts!!!!

My dad, being a huge fan of the Python boys, used to walk around the house shrieking "hello Polly!!" at opportune moments, and completely confusing my young self, until he sat me down and showed me some Flying Circus. I have to admit, I have been an addict ever since.

ayah, my dad was simlilar, except he just kept repeatadly saying:

Nobody excpects the spanish inquisition!

and telling me to avoid lumberjacks and pet shops

For me it was seeing the Meaning of Life and Life of Brian on TV and thinking 'what the hell is this?! I want to see more!' and i never looked back

aha, indeed, that aspect will allways be around python

after all what the hell is it?

Bloody good!

exactly!

*there is a short stock clip of women applauding*

I was in 2nd year at high school and sitting in the train station after school one day watching 2 boys from 5th year re-enact the Dead Parrott sketch (word perfect mind). After falling about laughing for about 15 minutes I realised that I had NO IDEA what I was laughing at which prompted some extensive detective work …the rest as they say is history!

word perfect????????????? thats a bit extreme in a way, but if it leads you to python ive nothing against it

I seem to think I've been vaguely aware of Python all my life... I remember hearing "The Galaxy Song" on the radio (once) when it came out as a single in 1983, and reading that the B-side was really rude (I later discovered that the b-side was "Every Sperm Is Sacred" )...

The first time I saw an episode of Flying Circus was in 1986, when BBC2 was celebrating some anniversary or other, and they showed a season of old progammes, one of which was the second ever edition of MPFC (not the first, for some reason). They then went on to show more repeats on BBC1 through 1987, and I was hooked.

I also remember seeing Life Of Brian on TV for the first time in 1991... it had been banned up until then!

That's the first time I saw Life of Brian too - 'what, it was banned? This I must see!'

I seem to remember my mum going to see it in the cinema when it was first out...

ah good memories

You know now that you mention it...looking back 'word perfect' might have been a tad generous! But then they were older boys and they were talking to a young chit of a girl (that would be me) and I was in awe...

That and what they were saying was damn funny!

So mayhap they were not word perfect but I second what you said: they introduced me to Python and for that I am eternally grateful!

Like many people, my dad introduced me to Python and Hitchhikers at about the same time when I was little, I got hooked. I remember that Meaning of Life was the first eighteen movie I ever saw and I was about eight, I love the Death at the dinner party sketch. Cracks me up every time, 'The Stilton's awfully good.'

"Oh, can I interest you in a conversation?"

The most fascinating thing is how on earth somebody can walk out of a fridge