Spoken Word: 'The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief'
The humor [on "Monty Python's Matching Tie and Handkerchief"] is quick-fire, literate, demonic, and cheerfully laced with English sadism…. It's not possible to describe their routines in detail without spoiling them, but there are several choice ones here: the Church police investigating the death of a halibut; a discussion of medieval open-field farming supposedly sung by reggae star Jimmy Cliff and rocker Gary Glitter; an interview with a surgeon who's aroused controversy by "grafting a pederast onto an Anglican bishop"; and a particularly treasurable and lunatic sketch about a man in a record shop listening to something called "World War One Noises." There are some weak moments in the album, as there are in all Python outings, but the best of the material and performances here are better than my former favorite of their LP skits …: a concert by the Royal Philharmonic topped off with Pablo Casals taking a solo while jumping four hundred feet into a jar of hot fat. Noble Python, for this relief, many thanks.
Joel Vance, "Spoken Word: 'The Monty Python Matching Tie and Handkerchief'," in Stereo Review (copyright © 1975 by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company), Vol. 35, No. 4, October, 1975, p. 92.
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Short Takes: 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail'
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