It is true that some of the writing here is simply wacky, surreal in the sense that Salvador Dali isn't so funny; a fair amount is fairly ordinary BBC-sketch stuff. But there are gleaming moments of perfect comedy, if such a thing exists. The Hungarian with the dodgy phrase book starts as standard farce humour:

Hungarian: (Cleese) I will not buy this record. It is scratched.

Tobacconist: (Jones) Sorry?

Hungarian: I will not buy this record. It is scratched.

Tobacconist: No, no, no. This ... tobacconist's.

Hungarian: Ah! I will not buy this tobacconist's. It is scratched.

But it is the way the sketch continues, the spot-on weirdness of the subsequent mistranslated phrases--"my hovercraft is full of eels", "drop your panties Sir William I cannot wait till lunchtime"--that shows the genius of Python. It is the same precision of absurdity that puts the singing Vikings in the back of the otherwise straightforward Spam sketch; difficult to say which that is so funny, so right, but it is. This book is required reading for anyone who wants to understand how comedy works, as much as it is for Python fans. --Adam Roberts

Book Jacket
The complete unexpurgated scripts of the original television series--except for the animation bits.

"As a naval officer I abhor the implication that the Royal Navy is a haven for cannibalism. It is well known that we now have the problem relatively under control, and that it is the RAF who now suffer the largest casualties in this area. And what do you think the Argylls ate in Aden. Arabs? Yours etc. Captain B.J. Smethwick in a white wine sauce with shallots, mushrooms and garlic."

"Your Highness, you are also like a stream of bat's piss." "What?" "I merely meant, your Majesty, that you shine out like a shaft of gold when all around is dark."

"Beans!!!"

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