Terry Jones, a Very Naughty Boy, a Python Like No Other
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4C • The Daily Sentinel • Sunday, January 26, 2020 DailySentinel.com IN MEMORIAM Terry Jones, a very naughty boy, a Python like no other BY CHRIS JONES Jones, of course, had a famous Chicago Tribune fondness for appearing in drag, which included playing Brian’s The Pythons — the living ones, mother, Mandy Cohen, in “Life of anyway — can be funny about Brian,” hence the famous mater- death. The point of this column is nal line, “He’s not the Messiah. to say surrealists like these guys He’s a very naughty boy.” should be funny about death. In the 1960s, of course, Jones Some of us could use the help. played a succession of female “Two down, four to go,” tweeted authority figures on the BBC’s John Cleese Wednesday, react- “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” ing with affection to the death many withering in their potency. of Terry Jones, maybe the least He did so with a confidence atyp- Pythonesque of the Monty Python ical for the era, even in the world comedy team, maybe the most. of the Pythons. And somehow Cleese’s kicker, referencing the when Jones appeared in a sketch death of Graham Chapman way you didn’t so much think funny as back in 1989, was consistent with surrealistic. a man who has in his Twitter pro- Jones was their reason they file, “Yes, I am still alive, contrary were not just another all-male to rumor.” comedy troop of upper-class “HE WAS A VERY NAUGHTY Oxbridge graduates who had used BOY!!” Tweeted Terry Gilliam, their intellect for silliness. Jones “and we miss you. Terry (Jones) was, even in the early days, par- was someone totally consumed taking of a transgressive artistic with life ... a brilliant, constantly movement, which is the reason questioning, iconoclastic, righ- why the Pythons, a strange and teously argumentative and angry AP file photo eclectic bunch, remain so beloved. but outrageously funny and In this Oct. 15, 2009, file photo from left, actors Michael Palin, John Cleese, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam and Eric Idle All the Pythons have to die, generous and kind human being ... attend the IFC and BAFTA premiere of “Monty Python: Almost The Truth (The Lawyers Cut),” in New York. Terry Jones, a of course. We all do. But when a and very often a complete pain in member of the Monty Python comedy troupe, died this week at 77. person has dementia, like Jones, the ass. One could never hope for it becomes harder to plan your a better friend.” the most iconoclastic. He never same day as Jesus Christ and he and the other Pythons were own death. Your own narrative Eric Idle, a man usually known allowed himself to be trapped in right next door. If you weren’t also using the core story as a has changed and old stories and for looking on the bright side of one genre, any single perception. around in 1979, it’s hard to imag- way to satirize a whole bunch of legacies are in process of slipping life, said that Jones’ death, follow- He could slip away. ine the indignation and outrage other things, from trade unions away. Quietness, blissfully, takes ing a lifetime of making people Jones wrote children’s books. that greeted the release of the to armchair progressives. Most of over. laugh, was “too sad if you knew He penned op ed articles. He film, even if the campaigns of that went over my head in 1979, But I hope Cleese, Idle and the him.” But if you didn’t? “You will wrote about Geoffrey Chaucer. He contemporaneous moralists like but I quickly figured out that this rest of them go out kicking and always smile.” came up with all manner of TV Mary Whitehouse only resulted was a crack in British religious grinning — after about fifty more Idle’s emotion, expressed with shows from fictions to documen- in more publicity. Still, numerous orthodoxy, that the Pythons years, of course. his typical concision, clearly taries. Michael Palin was correct local authorities in Britain out- were pushing the boulders as far David Bowie, their contempo- flowed from the diagnosis of Wednesday when he called Jones right banned the film. I remember as they could be pushed and it rary, treated his exit as a spectacu- dementia that Jones received in on his Facebook page a “Renais- vividly walking past picketing behooved any interested parties lar piece of performance art that. 2015. This had been, then, a slow sance comedian,” by which I think nuns when I defied my parents to jump with them into the hole. Once we eventually figured out goodbye, achingly familiar to any he meant that Jones used com- and went into the cinema to see The Pythons had other perceived what he was doing, it struck many family, be it of blood or not, who edy as a kind of creative entree, the film — which was, of course, peaks but it was “Life of Brian” of us as perhaps the greatest way has been afflicted with that hor- not just into different forms, but strikingly sweet and generous in that put them at the top of the to die, ever. Bowie was retiring ror. The Pythons were all about genres. Ideas, too. And activism. tone, not unlike Jones himself. BBC News. a character and also leaving us the quickness of their minds, and Jones directed films, including, In “Life of Brian,” Jones was And that, primarily, was Jones’ himself. one of their number had been brilliantly, “Monty Python’s Life satirizing religion and poking fun doing. People were so busy being Jones had a similarly broad losing his. Especially cruel, given of Brian,” a 1979 film about a guy at the irrationality of many of outraged they did not see the qual- range of guises. Just a different that of all the Pythons, Jones was who happened to be born on the his beliefs and assumptions, but ity of the direction. final exit, influence intact. ON GARDENING » From 1C Borgman Maybe no one gave me way to know. this bug. Maybe I gave it to But that doesn’t mean I’ll The year of the lantana, a myself-inhaled at the wrong stop wondering. 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