Monty Python's Flying Circus, Disc 4 -

The last volume of the first season of Monty Python's Flying Circus packs the final four gag-filled episodes on one DVD. The aptly named Untitled is a disappointing episode in comparison to the others in this volume. In the show's highlights, Terry Jones attempts to enter the record books by leaping across the English Channel and eating a cathedral while a chartered accountant tries to get a job as a lion tamer (but only the short, squat kind with a big nose that eats ants). In the most inspired bit, a trio of interviewers attempts to open up hiring procedures for libraries by hiring only animals. While it offers its share of bizarre moments and hilarious humor, this is one instance in which the ideas are simply funnier than the execution. Episode 11, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Goes to the Bathroom, features an Agatha Christie detective parody in which reenactments of the murder lead to a heaping pile of dead detectives, the recurring Dying Pallbearers skit, a man who hypnotizes bricks, and Mrs. Rita Fairbanks and the Townswomen's Guild's reenactment of The Battle of Pearl Harbor. Episode 12, The Naked Ant, is highlighted by one of their funniest sketches ever: The Upper Class Twit of the Year competition, Python's thumb in the nose at boorish yuppies. Other skits include a politician who falls through the earth's crust while making a party political speech, the rise of the Bocialist party leader Mr. Hilter (who, he insists, was never in Germany), and businessmen leaping out of office-building windows. The final episode of the season, Intermission, features the first reference to the ever-popular Python cry Albatross. Other bits include Cardinal Richelieu's dead-on impersonation of Petula Clark, a little boy confessing he'd like Raquel Welch dropped on top of him (She's got a big bottom, adds his buddy), and a Special Crimes Squad that fights crime with voodoo, magic wands, and Ouija boards. Though these final episodes aren't as consistent or smooth as the midseason classics, they are full of inspired moments and infected with a brand of nonsensical comic absurdity that we've come to know and love. --Sean Axmaker ...