A flail from Wednesday, originally made on Tumblr...

[rosiedoes]

L-R: Darren Boyd (John Cleese), Charles Edwards (Michael Palin), Rufus Jones (Terry Jones ♥_♥)
Steve Punt (Eric Idle), Tom Fisher (Graham Chapman), Phil Nichol (Terry Gilliam)

HOLY FUCKING FLYING CIRCUS, YOU GUISE!

If you didn’t watch it, go to iPlayer, or a torrent site, and find Holy Flying Circus — a comedy drama about the Pythons and the censorship battle over Life of Brian — and watch the fuck out of it.

I was always a huge Michael Palin fan (for those unfamiliar, the Nicest Man In The World Second Picture), ever since I saw him running around in a loin cloth playing an ex-leper, but I am now officially a huge Terry Tewwy Jones (third picture) fan. I especially like the idea of him as Michael Palin’s wife. It’s a fannish wet dream, I promise you. There’s a kiss and everything.

And I also now really fancy Rufus Jones, who played Terry. I want him to be my manwife with fake tits.

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And from a later post...

I have to admit... my little shipper heart is already building a little backstory about fictional!Mike and fictional!TerryJ getting together in University and how in the context of this film, Terry totally knows that John is in love with Mike, but he's pretty laid back about it because Mike is The Nicest Man In The World and there's no way he'd reciprocate, because "John is the Annoying One" anyway...




…and the whole thing with Terry as his wife is a running joke amongst the Pythons because as soon as they get in the front door they’re such an old married couple, even though they’re completely private about it outside the house.

The whole thing could be so utterly, gloriously ridiculous.

Is there literally nothing my little slasher brain will not fuck with?

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If you haven't seen this already, I will provide it for you. You NEED TO SEE THIS.

Comments

[moondarri.livejournal.com]

ahhhh, you genius, thankyou! oh my god, a dvd would make my life. i'm in the middle of watching the original friday night, saturday morning interview on iplayer, but as soon as i'm done watching that, i'm watching holy flying circus again so i can properly squee/enjoy all aspects of it without the awkwardness of slightly holding back when you're watching something with your parents.

it seems odd to criticise the programme for the caricatures, as if they were going for a realistic portrayal but just lapsed into exaggeration, when i'm pretty sure they set out with caricatures in mind from the off. & yes, exactly, it's what you'd get if you'd sat the Pythons down and made them affectionately scribble take-offs of each other on beermats. hence the excessively nice palin, the deliberately contrary cleese, & the spaced-out gilliam. but they didn't utterly rely on the caricatures like they were just doing one giant piss-take. there was a lot of heart to the characters, the humour helped to humanise them, & i came out of watching that with a redoubled fondness for the real people behind the python personas.

tl;dr, sorry, i just love it SO MUCH.

& god, i just want all the stories about michael & jones the wife. & in the context of this film, Terry totally knows that John is in love with Mike, but he's pretty laid back about it because Mike is The Nicest Man In The World and there's no way he'd reciprocate, because "John is the Annoying One" anyway... i just - HEARTS IN MY EYES. that bit at the end when michael leaves after the televison debate & john says i do love you to the empty doorway, & just, alskldkhjfk. ♥ ♥ ♥

brb, watching this forever.

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

Exactly - that's why I said the Pythons writing each other: because there was so much love in it. It was affectionately taking the piss out of all your best mates, in ways you know they'll sulk about petulantly but still laugh at if you keep poking them long enough because they know it's true and know it's meant with love.

I too, came out of it loving the boys even more than I did before. For years and years, Michael was my favourite, but Rufus has totally stolen my heart and given it to Jonesy.

Julie and I actually squealed when we saw the "I do love you, M-Mike..." bit. But also more when they actually did the Mike/Jones the Wife (or Telen, as I call her for short) kiss. Even Darren Boyd ships it and was saying on Twitter, when he live-blogged it, that it was probably the most loving and supportive relationship on TV.

It makes me terribly sad that this will probably be a small fandom with little fiction written in it. One of the first things I did was find a download, upload it and then send it to Sara to make her watch it.

By the way, are you on Tumblr?

[moondarri.livejournal.com]

oh michael has always been a favourite (him being so nice means i've never had to come up against an "i love you, but i wish you weren't so douchey sometimes" moment, which makes him easy to love), but rufus jones was amazing & adorable. i think watching this, though, has given new life to my fondness for john cleese. darren boyd's rant about offending people, & the very different way in which he approached standing up for himself compared to the "palin" approach was really thought-provoking. & the way in which they had the cleese character suddenly get nervous before the debate, & suddenly take the whole thing very seriously indeed, & of course the "i do love you" moment, gave the character this massive dose of complexity & humanity which actually made me think about john cleese in a way i never had before. like, he's not just a silly walk.

oh my god, the kiss though. i know that the whole thing was queered, what with rufus being in drag & all, but i never thought that i'd be so touched by a supportive, domestic husband/wife partnership. i usually don't much give a shit for marriage, but here i was absolutely in love with the notion of the palins & their home life.

yep, i'm on tumblr. focusfixated.tumblr.com. & i was just scrolling through the holy flying circus tag & i think i found you - rosiedoestumblr?

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

Yep. That's me!

I liked John in it, too. He reminded me a lot of myself. Tactless, contrary, loud, obstinate, stubborn, but all squishy and awkward underneath. It really showed his bolshie rudeness as a defense mechanism.

I have to say the slight sort of bickering between John and Terry fuelled my shipping a lot, as did Terry's protectiveness - especially during the green room stuff.

It was so beautifully done all the way through. I absolutely crave another part. In fact, I sort of wish they'd do a mini series or something. Expand to show us more of the others, different circumstances, more gaying gay gayness...

[moondarri.livejournal.com]

a miniseries would be brilliant. i'd love for them to give the other guys (especially graham, i need more graham chapman in my life) the same treatment they gave john/terry/michael, expanding on the characters, exploring new situations... i mean, that's fanfiction, isn't it? that's what this programme was. like you said, it was televised crack/slashfic. taking existing real people & giving a slightly caricaturised, compartmentalised version of them in a way that lovingly messes about with the original material & allows you to see the original material & the people behind it in a different light.

rightright, i'll add you on tumblr, then. :)

[rosiedoes.livejournal.com]

It could be absolutely glorious. There are so many delightful landmarks they could cover. They could start from the awkward beginnings at University and Mike and Jonesy meeting Eric and then getting all the Pythons together and then take it from there.

But at the same time, I feel like maybe it should be given its little capsule of awesomeness and kept safe and precious, without the potential for being touched by the hand of Fuckit It All Up.

I suppose this is where we come in. Even thought my heart does yearn to see more of it.