Random Blog Post Time!
Those of you in the know should realise where the title of this blog post comes from and those of you that don't should really learn as you are missing out on a very great piece of British comedy. I am of course talking about Monty Python's Flying Circus and more specifically the 'Dead Parrot' sketch but for the sake of this blog post I am going to be talking about Monty Python in genreal.
So why am I doing this blog post you may ask, well first it is something that is interesting and not completely irrelevant from design work and second we are required to do blog-posts from outside sources other than games. The inspiration behind this post comes from the fact that I was recently lucky enough to purchase the complete flying circus box set on DVD and, while I knew about the most famous of their sketches (Dead Parrot, Cheese Shop, Kamikaze Scotsmen, etc), there were plenty that I never knew about. This got me thinking about the Pythons as a whole and what inspiartions and ideas they must have had when working on the series, hence leading me to think about design and thus games design.
The Python's work is regarded as some of the most random, extravagant and nonsensical comedy ever made but also some of the most funny comedy ever made. At the time that it was being thought up I'm sure that there were certain BBC executives that thought it couldn't work, people wouldn't take to it and the series would fail - how wrong they were.
When the series first aired in 1969 it was a huge hit and the Python's style of comedy became renowned world-wide, even being know to this day as being 'Pythonesque' - yes, the style of comedy has it's own word. Now, this got me thinking about games design and how there are games that come from a similar situation as the flying circus series - I'm sure there were, are and will-be games and game series that the publishers don't think will sell or get picked up but they soon become shining gems.
There isn't much to look into on that statement, I am merely saying that I personally believe that and I guess, in some ways, it is what keeps me going in games design - some of the more radical and unlikely ideas can become best-selling works and those ideas have to come from somewhere - why not my ideas, or the ideas of anyone I know.
In essence, this blog post is doing 2 things, it is both praising the Python's for the brilliant series (seriously, if you've only seen the films go on youtube and look for Dead Parrot, Lumberjack Song, Kamikaze Scotsman, Cheese Shop, Argument Clinic, Self-Defence with Fruit, Dennis Moore and Upperclass Twit of the Year - you won't be disappointed) and showing that there is always hope for people with ideas and a vision.
'Til next time - that's all folks!
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