Book Review: And Now for Something Completely Different: Critical Approaches to Monty Python

In the introduction to their collection on Monty Python, editors Kate Egan and Andrew Weinstock state that the book’s purpose is ‘to contribute to the surprisingly slim - though growing – body of scholarship’ on the comedy troupe (pp. 3-4). They also, in a touch reminiscent of the greasy fingerprints that deliberately adorned the cover of The Brand New Monty Python Book (Idle, 1973), announce it as being published ‘on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the premiere of Monty Python’s Flying Circus [5 October 1969]’ (p. 3) – neatly ignoring the fact that the book came into print in October 2020, exactly one year after the programme’s golden jubilee.