Monty Python's Flying Circus

The ideal initiation into the cult of Monty Python — dead parrots, lumberjacks and all
When people say they love "British comedy" it's usually code for "Monty Python," the gang of intellectual goofballs who formed a groundbreaking sketch troupe in 1969, produced the Flying Circus program on BBC for five years and inspired stage shows, films and obsessive, ready-to-quote fans for decades to follow. The 19 sketches on this audiobook, recorded in front of a live audience, were originally released as the group's first album in 1970 and they still hold up as an early-period greatest hits collection. Like any such anthology, Circus includes the most overexposed numbers, like the seemingly murderous barber who morphs into a suspender-snapping lumberjack wannabe proclaiming his lifelong fantasy in song, or the customer who returns to the pet shop bearing an unmistakably lifeless bird — all of which will be familiar even to the non-fanboy contingent.

But there are also less frequently bandied-about MP memes here: the goading interview with filmmaker Sir Edward Ross as played by a prudishly proper Graham Chapman; the "Who's on First"-esque verbal morass of "Me Doctor," and the incomparably ridiculous "Interesting People," with its variety show parade of freaks, including a man that can send bricks to sleep. And then, of course, there's Cleese's self-defense instructor, teaching his charges how to disarm assailants wielding fresh fruit. Equally appealing to the already-initiated and soon-to-be members of the Python cult, this audio Circus proves that absurdity done well can make even a joke about a dead parrot feel timeless.