The Extended Life of Monty Python

 

IS there life left in the dead parrot sketch?

 

By DOUGLAS QUENQUA 

It has been 25 years since Monty Python was a living comedy troupe — the film "The Meaning of Life," released in 1983, was its swan song — but that has not stopped one alumnus from trying to convince the world that Python, like the parrot in its ancient skit, is just resting. For decades, Eric Idle has made sure the Monty Python name continues to grace books, DVDs, concert tours, a Broadway show, ring tones and video games.

Now he is helping take Monty Python to the Internet.

Pythonline.com, a social network and digital playground, offers clips of old material that people can use to make mash-ups, perhaps inserting their own pet in the killer-rabbit scene from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." The home page has a blog format with news about the surviving Pythons; elsewhere there are chat boards and e-mail forums. Membership is free.

Mr. Idle is a driving force behind the site, though his role could only be described as, well, something completely different.

"I write about football for them occasionally," he said, laughing. "I thought it was the most abstruse thing I could do for it."

Despite the continuing wit and charm of Mr. Idle, the Web site's current content is not very funny. The discussion forums tend toward comments like "Happy Birthday, Eric!" The classic clips, which are familiar, are now available on YouTube, where they are more likely to be viewed by younger people, for whom they are fresh and hilarious.

The other Pythons — John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin — are not active on the Python site. (Graham Chapman, the sixth Python, died in 1989.) Mr. Cleese was the only one who chose to comment on the digital venture, saying he was "vaguely aware" of Pythonline, but had no intention of contributing.

Mr. Idle tried to get Pythonline.com going on his own several times in the 1990s, only to set the project aside. "It was like Sisyphus," he said. "Every morning there was another mountain to push the pebble up. Then I got annoyed because people would deny it was me, so I would tell them to shove off and they would say, 'Oh, it is you.' "

In 2007, he signed a partnership with the New Media Broadcasting Company, a small outfit in Glendale, Calif., to jointly operate Pythonline. The site has been in beta-testing mode since the spring and will be officially introduced at the end of the month, said Scott Page, chief executive of New Media Broadcasting.

Mr. Page said the Python channel on YouTube had recorded 4.5 million video views and 52,000 subscribers in its first two weeks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/fashion/07python.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&th&emc=th

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