- Robert Klein: You were six and of course, Graham Chapman passed away in 1989. He would have loved this.
- Terry Jones: He would have.
- John Cleese: But he's dead.
- Michael Palin: He is no more.
- Terry Gilliam: Stone dead!
- Michael Palin: He is no more. Ceased to be.
- John Cleese: Stone fucking dead.
- Michael Palin: Fucking dead.
- Robert Klein: [in German] Why did you decide to do TV episodes in German?
- John Cleese: [in German] What an asinine question. Could we please get to the clip? I need to use the restroom.
- Eric Idle: [in German] Yes, and I would like some Chinese take out - and Spam.
- Michael Palin: [in German] I can kill a bat with an egg spoon.
- Eric Idle: They said we'll take you on a writing recce. And nobody's ever heard of a writing recce? You know, it was like ten-days holiday in Bavaria. So, we said sure, we'll go. And we went to the airport. So, we flew to Munich and they met us at the airport with huge steins of beer. And we were going there to write sketches for Germany, to do comedy sketches. And they took us from the airport straight to Dachau. This is a true story. And as we drive to get to Dachau, everybody kept denying they knew where it was. We stopped and said, 'Where is the camp?' They said, 'What camp? You know, we've not heard of this.' And finally we got there and it was just closing. And, as we drove up, they said, 'No, you cannot come in.' And Graham said, 'Tell them we're Jewish'. God bless him and they let us in.
- Terry Jones: The thing was there's nothing funny about what Christ said and what's funny, really, is the fact that, you know, Christ said all these really good things about "Love thy neighbor" and everything and for the next 2,000 years people are killing each other and torturing each other because they can't decide *how* he said it.
- John Cleese: I hid in his room once. We got in from filming in Jersey and I was in the first car and they gave the key and I went up and I said it wasn't for my room it was for Michael's which was next door. So unlocked his door and I got the key and I thought I could take advantage of this so I went into his room and put the lights on and took a look around and there was a dressing table in the corner. So I got behind it and um, having turned the lights off, Michael came in...
- Michael Palin: As it was my room. You know, there was nothing kinky about that. It was MY room.
- John Cleese: And he wandered over to the dresser and started doing the
- [making gestures for taking out contacts]
- John Cleese: I could have reached over and touched him there. But he never saw me and he went over and started brushing his teeth, then he started taking his clothes off and he put his pajamas on, he got into bed put his glasses on got his book and started to read. And then I realized that the joke was on me! I didn't know what to do so I sat there for about five minutes and then I just got up and said, "I'm awfully sorry Michael but I have to go."
- Michael Palin: I remember what happened then, Carol shouted, "Get Out!"
- Robert Klein: Did you hide in her closet?
- Michael Palin: What? No. Well, I wasn't hiding. I'd gone to fetch something. I had left an adze in there. It's the sort of thing you use for planing wood and I'd left it in there and I wanted to use it in a show I was doing after we finish our show. Which I do this sort of carpentry show. Which I - it was a sort of improve thing about carpentry. And I'd left it and I thought, "God, where is it?" It was in Carol's bloody cupboard in her room. So, anyway, I sneaked in and I was there getting the adze when she woke up. The rest is history.
- John Cleese: [on how they came up with the name] Someone shouted out Python and then someone else shouted out Monty which made us all laugh because Monty to us means Lord Montgomery, our general from the second world war.
- Terry Jones: Oh I see!
- Michael Palin: I thought it was Monty Sunshine the jazz player.
- Terry Jones: Yes, Monty Sunshine the jazz clarinetist.
- John Cleese: There was a period when there was a lot of freedom.
- Michael Palin: No one kept an eye on us at all. We were paid very little. We just worked out of a basement. Put all our gear together, went around the country filming these ridiculous things. And nobody bothered at all until - we had the masturbation, um, problem. When we said - sorry, *I* had the masturbation - *I* had the masturbation - problem.
- Michael Palin: We did a sketch about the Sunrise Cruise Competition in which someone gave their hobbies - they were asked about hobbies. And he said, "Strangling animals, golf, and masturbating." Terrific roar of laughter from the audience. And the BBC came to us and they - the head of the BBC had a look at this and he said, "You cannot have masturbating. We cannot put masturbating on television." And we fought them. We went to have this wonderful meeting at the BBC, the six of us sitting around, with Graham, trying to reason with Duncan Wood, his name was, about the word - using the word 'masturbating'
- Terry Jones: "What's wrong with masturbating? I mean, you masturbate, don't you Duncan?" "Well, um..."
- Michael Palin: Behind his desk and all that. Anyway, in the end, they - they - they won. We had to cut out 'masturbating'. So, out came the sketch and he says, "Strangling animals, golf" pause - huge laugh. Enormous laugh for the word golf. I mean, it was ridiculous...
- Terry Jones: What was his thought that strangling animals is all right, but masturbating isn't?
- Eric Idle: The Germans came to us and they said, "Look, we don't have a sense of humor. But, we understand you do. Will you come to Germany and write a comedy show for us?"
- John Cleese: Comedy is incredibly brittle - and if something goes wrong with the atmosphere, you're dead.
- Terry Jones: I think one of the things we were trying to do with the show was to try and do something that was so unpredictable that it had no shape and you could never say *what* the kind of humor was. And I think the fact that "Pythonesque" is now a word in the Oxford English Dictionary, shows the extent which we failed in this attempt.
- Terry Jones: [about 'Life of Brian'] The film is heretical, but it's not blasphemous.
- Eric Idle: It's a heresy.
- John Cleese: I don't think it's a heresy. It's about - it's making fun of the way that people misunderstand the teachings...
- Terry Jones: Of course it's heretical, John! It's attacking the church! And that has to be heretical.
- John Cleese: No, it's not attacking the church, necessarily. It's about people who cannot agree with each other.
- Eric Idle: No, it's not!
- Eric Idle: The reason Carol was in the shows was because we were playing all the female parts, because we like dressing up, and we had one sketch which was really about - about sex - and it doesn't work when you play with a guy in drag. It has a different context.
- Eric Idle, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam: [singing] Always look on the bright side of life, Always look on the light side of life, If life seems jolly rotten, There's something you've forgotten, And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing, When you're feeling in the dumps, Don't be silly chumps, Just purse your lips and whistle, that's the thing, And, Always look on the bright side of life
- Eric Idle: Come on
- Eric Idle, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam: Always look on the right side of life, For life is quite absurd, And death's the final word, You must always face the curtain with a bow, Forget about your sin, Give the audience a grin, Enjoy it, it's your last chance anyhow...