John Cleese: How to Irritate People

John Cleese: How to Irritate People


Starring:John Cleese, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Gillian Lind, Connie Booth, Dick Vosburgh
Director: Ian Fordyce
Studio: White Star
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
And now for something completely rare. This 1968 television special is essential for connoisseurs of British humor and, of course, Monty Python completists. A pre-Python John Cleese teams up with Michael Palin and Graham Chapman (with invaluable assistance from co-Fawlty Towers creator Connie Booth and Tim Brooke-Taylor) for sketches that serve as a master class in demonstrating insincerity, inefficiency, and all-around rude behavior "to help people become more neurotic." The tricky bit, Cleese teaches, "is to never push the unsuspecting victim too far. With skill and tact, we can keep tensions bottled up for weeks, months, eventually you may induce a nervous breakdown, or better still, actual damage to the brain cells." Cleese and company portray very irritating parents, moviegoers, waiters, and partygoers. Of special interest to Python fans will be an auto mechanic sketch that anticipates the classic "Dead Parrot" sketch, as well as the job interview sketch that later found its way into the Python repertoire. This time capsule gem is, as Cleese observes at one point, "effective, but not very subtle." --Donald Liebenson
Description
A pre-Monty Python British TV special which starred and was written by John Cleese and Graham Chapman, with Michael Palin and two or three other non-Pythons as actors, that will make you laugh and--if you follow the movie's instructions--highly unpopular, though that is, in fact, the point. There is a lot of great (and truly irritating) material in this movie. Scenes such as the restaurant sketch with John Cleese and Connie Booth; the car sales-man (an early form of the parrot sketch, so I am told), the bored pilots telling their crew not to panic, no the wings aren't on fire, please get out your life-jackets from above your heads, but do not leave your seats. This is really a wonderful collection of sketches and amusing comments and advice on irritation in between. If you want to laugh or to make others mad, buy this classic.
John Cleese: How to Irritate People
Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
  • John Cleese is Monty Python
  • A Disappointment for a Huge Python Fan
  • Not what I expected ....
  • Pre-Python, minus the surrealism
  • Mostly killer, some filler, but still worth a watch
 John Cleese: How to Irritate People
Starring: John Cleese , Tim Brooke-Taylor , Graham Chapman , Michael Palin , and Gillian Lind
Director: Ian Fordyce
Manufacturer: White Star
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

GeneralGeneral | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
Classic ComediesClassic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
John CleeseJohn Cleese | Comedy Stars | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
GeneralGeneral | Instructional | Special Interests | Genres | DVD | Video
Booth, ConnieBooth, Connie | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Chapman, GrahamChapman, Graham | ( C ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Cleese, JohnCleese, John | ( C ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Palin, MichaelPalin, Michael | ( P ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
DVDs Under $14.99DVDs Under $14.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video
( J )( J ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:
  1. John Cleese - The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It
  2. Clockwise
  3. John Cleese - Romance With A Double Bass
  4. Do Not Adjust Your Set
  5. The Human Face

ASIN: B00005A05C
Release Date: 2001-01-30

Amazon.com

And now for something completely rare. This 1968 television special is essential for connoisseurs of British humor and, of course, Monty Python completists. A pre-Python John Cleese teams up with Michael Palin and Graham Chapman (with invaluable assistance from co-Fawlty Towers creator Connie Booth and Tim Brooke-Taylor) for sketches that serve as a master class in demonstrating insincerity, inefficiency, and all-around rude behavior "to help people become more neurotic." The tricky bit, Cleese teaches, "is to never push the unsuspecting victim too far. With skill and tact, we can keep tensions bottled up for weeks, months, eventually you may induce a nervous breakdown, or better still, actual damage to the brain cells." Cleese and company portray very irritating parents, moviegoers, waiters, and partygoers. Of special interest to Python fans will be an auto mechanic sketch that anticipates the classic "Dead Parrot" sketch, as well as the job interview sketch that later found its way into the Python repertoire. This time capsule gem is, as Cleese observes at one point, "effective, but not very subtle." --Donald Liebenson

Description

A pre-Monty Python British TV special which starred and was written by John Cleese and Graham Chapman, with Michael Palin and two or three other non-Pythons as actors, that will make you laugh and--if you follow the movie's instructions--highly unpopular, though that is, in fact, the point. There is a lot of great (and truly irritating) material in this movie. Scenes such as the restaurant sketch with John Cleese and Connie Booth; the car sales-man (an early form of the parrot sketch, so I am told), the bored pilots telling their crew not to panic, no the wings aren't on fire, please get out your life-jackets from above your heads, but do not leave your seats. This is really a wonderful collection of sketches and amusing comments and advice on irritation in between. If you want to laugh or to make others mad, buy this classic.

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars John Cleese is Monty Python.......2005-10-19

What can I say? John Cleese is John Cleese! There is no funnier man in the world. Anything by him is 5-star!

2 out of 5 stars A Disappointment for a Huge Python Fan.......2004-11-12

Let me just say that I absolutely adore John Cleese and anyone associated with him. Maybe that's why I found this film so incredibly disappointing: because I expected too much from a man whom I admire more than you can imagine.

In terms of entertainment value: this film is fairly slow and has a lot of hit-and-miss jokes. Most of the sketches drag on too long so that they're no longer funny. There are a few very funny ones that I couldn't get enough of, but they are few and far between.

However, this is definitely worth a watch if you are a Python fan and want to see the beginnings of the Pythonesque humor. Python even re-recorded a couple of the sketches later on: the silly job interview, for instance (a-ding ding ding ding ding). So, a 4 for historical value.

I wish I could write a more glowing review of this film because I really, really wanted to like it. However, I'd have to say stear clear unless you are a big Python fan and want to complete your Python knowledge.

3 out of 5 stars Not what I expected ...........2004-10-04

John Cleese rules - no doubt about it. There are lots of laughs and the usual python style of humor. Basicly a collection of sketches. I had hopped for a more standup like thing where Cleese would share some of his wisdom. Instead he tries to use sketches to show (at times) pretty funny illustrations.

But no behind the scenes stuff? No interviews? I would have loved to hear Cleese's idea behind this format and message.

3 out of 5 stars Pre-Python, minus the surrealism.......2004-09-01


Chronologically, this 1968 show fits somewhere between 'Do Not Adjust Your Set' and 'Monty Python'. Although there are elements of wackiness, this is light-years away from the polished lunacy that was the first Python series. John Cleese is very irritating indeed -- no more so than when he introduces each sketch, reading from a tele-prompter in an echo chamber masquerading as a TV studio.

Half the Python team is here: Cleese, Chapman and Palin, plus Connie Booth pretending to have an English accent. The team clearly learnt by the mistakes they make here. I cannot recall Palin ever again browning up to play an Indian, for example. Every sketch here ends on a punch-line -- one of the rules the Python team was determined to abandon.

The other key player is Tim Brooke-Taylor who, it has to be said, plays a very fine old lady -- certainly up to the standard later set by Terry Jones. It has to be said that Graham Chapman also does not put a single foot wrong, but this film was made before the rest of the Pythons became aware of his drink problem.

There are a number of proto-Python sketches -- the 'Freedom of Speech' sketch, for example, is clearly a practice run for the 'Tell us about your latest film, Sir Edward' sketch in the first Python film. The 'First Letter of the Alphabet' sketch is an ancestor of the 'Spot the Brain Cell' sketch you can hear on 'Monty Python at Drury Lane'. Although most scenes were written by Cleese and Chapman, it's intriguing to see Marty Feldman's name appear on the credits.

But in the main, this is sub-Python humour -- an important historical document for Python completists in the same sense as those unobtainable items such as 'Do Not Adjust Your Set' on DVD, the Bert Fegg book and those three missing episodes of 'Ripping Yarns'. Coming to it new, I didn't find it as funny as many of the other reviewers here. Sorry.

4 out of 5 stars Mostly killer, some filler, but still worth a watch.......2004-06-27

First thing to note about this film: There are some sketches that really just don't matter. I'm not really much of a fan of the pre-Dead Parrot car sketch, and the one about the wife and the joke just really doesn't matter. Other than that, though, most of them are great.

Second thing to note about this film: I found it to be an acquired taste. It may take multiple viewings for you to appreciate it. Whether or not you want to take multiple viewings is up to you. It also helps if you have friends who like to quote movie lines...this one has GREAT potential for quoting, and that's really 80% of the value, probably.

All that said, there's some hilarious material here. Obviously "Airline Pilots" is amazingly hysterical, and "Silly Job Interview" is not too far behind. But other gems include the son home for Easter ("It's been so long since we last had you home for Easter." "I was home last Easter, mother." "Yes, but that was 12 months ago, dear..."), the dad who irritates his son enough that he gets the TV, John Cleese thinking of every possible way to get out of his date at the restaurant ("You know what I think? I think you're mad because I made you sit there..."), Mrs. Morris on the quiz show ("I'm 103! Today! And I have over 3,000 children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren!"), the pepperpots at the cinema, ("Who's that?" "Charlton Hitler...") the incredibly long intro to the talk show, and the closing sketch "Topic", a political discussion show where the host prevents all input from the guest (the pike used at the end is AWESOME! I want one!)

I have loaned this to several of my college friends, essentially all of whom have loved it. The filler material (which, because of the length of these sketches, seems endless) is a little bit too much of this video to the extent you'll want to fast-forward at some spots, but what's good is delightful. I definitely recommend it.
John Cleese Comedy Collection / How To Irritate People, Romance With A Double Bass, Strange Case Of The End Of Civilization
Average customer rating: Not rated
    		John Cleese Comedy Collection / How To Irritate People, Romance With A Double Bass, Strange Case Of The End Of Civilization
    Starring: John Cleese
    Manufacturer: White Star
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

    GeneralGeneral | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
    John CleeseJohn Cleese | Comedy Stars | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
    ( J )( J ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
    ComedyComedy | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video
    Similar Items:
    1. The Last King of Scotland (Widescreen Edition)
    2. Royal Flash
    3. Breach (Widescreen Edition)
    4. Becket
    5. WKRP in Cincinnati - The Complete First Season

    ASIN: B000NA2758
    Release Date: 2007-04-24

    Description

    From Monty Python through Fawlty Towers, John Cleese's creativity, innovation and hilarity altered the world of sketch comedy and sitcoms forever. These three comic gems in The John Cleese Collection are essential viewing for connoisseurs of British Comedy. Starring John Cleese with Python members Michael Palin and Graham Chapman, and Fawlty Towers' own Connie Booth. The set includes: How To Irritate People, The Strange Case of the End of Civilization and Romance with a Double Bass.

    How To Irritate People: And now for something completely rare. This 1968 television special is essential for connoisseurs of British humor and, of course, Monty Python completists. A pre-Python John Cleese teams up with Michael Palin and Graham Chapman (with invaluable assistance from co-Fawlty Towers creator Connie Booth and Tim Brooke-Taylor) for sketches that serve as a master class in demonstrating insincerity, inefficiency, and all-around rude behavior "to help people become more neurotic." The tricky bit, Cleese teaches, "is to never push the unsuspecting victim too far. With skill and tact, we can keep tensions bottled up for weeks, months, eventually you may induce a nervous breakdown, or better still, actual damage to the brain cells." Cleese and company portray very irritating parents, moviegoers, waiters, and partygoers. Of special interest to Python fans will be an auto mechanic sketch that anticipates the classic "Dead Parrot" sketch, as well as the job interview sketch that later found its way into the Python repertoire.

    Strange Case of the End of Civilization: John Cleese is hilarious as the descendant of Sherlock Holmes in this modern detective drama of international power politics and intrigue. Unlike his illustrious grandfather however, this Sherlock Holmes only succeeds in bungling every job he organizes. Also stars Arthur Lowe as the "bionic" grandson of Dr. Watson, Stratford Johns as the Commissioner of Police, and Connie Booth as Mrs. Hudson.

    Romance with a Double Bass: John Cleese and Connie Booth star in this delightful tale of comic romance based on the short story by Anton Chekhov. On a hot summer's day a musician (Cleese) decides to skinny dip in the royal lake, not knowing that the princess (Booth) has done the same. A passing thief steals both their clothes, and their attempt to return to the castle proves to be a hilarious adventure.
    How to Irritate People
    Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
    • John Cleese is Monty Python
    • A Disappointment for a Huge Python Fan
    • Not what I expected ....
    • Pre-Python, minus the surrealism
    • Mostly killer, some filler, but still worth a watch
    		 How to Irritate People
    Starring: John Cleese , Tim Brooke-Taylor , Graham Chapman , Michael Palin , and Gillian Lind
    Director: Ian Fordyce
    ProductGroup: DVD
    Binding: DVD

    GeneralGeneral | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video
    Booth, ConnieBooth, Connie | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Chapman, GrahamChapman, Graham | ( C ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Cleese, JohnCleese, John | ( C ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    Palin, MichaelPalin, Michael | ( P ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
    ( H )( H ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
    Similar Items:
    1. John Cleese - The Strange Case of the End of Civilization as We Know It
    2. Clockwise
    3. John Cleese - Romance With A Double Bass
    4. Do Not Adjust Your Set
    5. The Human Face

    ASIN: B00006FI38

    Amazon.com

    And now for something completely rare. This 1968 television special is essential for connoisseurs of British humor and, of course, Monty Python completists. A pre-Python John Cleese teams up with Michael Palin and Graham Chapman (with invaluable assistance from co-Fawlty Towers creator Connie Booth and Tim Brooke-Taylor) for sketches that serve as a master class in demonstrating insincerity, inefficiency, and all-around rude behavior "to help people become more neurotic." The tricky bit, Cleese teaches, "is to never push the unsuspecting victim too far. With skill and tact, we can keep tensions bottled up for weeks, months, eventually you may induce a nervous breakdown, or better still, actual damage to the brain cells." Cleese and company portray very irritating parents, moviegoers, waiters, and partygoers. Of special interest to Python fans will be an auto mechanic sketch that anticipates the classic "Dead Parrot" sketch, as well as the job interview sketch that later found its way into the Python repertoire. This time capsule gem is, as Cleese observes at one point, "effective, but not very subtle." --Donald Liebenson

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars John Cleese is Monty Python.......2005-10-19

    What can I say? John Cleese is John Cleese! There is no funnier man in the world. Anything by him is 5-star!

    2 out of 5 stars A Disappointment for a Huge Python Fan.......2004-11-12

    Let me just say that I absolutely adore John Cleese and anyone associated with him. Maybe that's why I found this film so incredibly disappointing: because I expected too much from a man whom I admire more than you can imagine.

    In terms of entertainment value: this film is fairly slow and has a lot of hit-and-miss jokes. Most of the sketches drag on too long so that they're no longer funny. There are a few very funny ones that I couldn't get enough of, but they are few and far between.

    However, this is definitely worth a watch if you are a Python fan and want to see the beginnings of the Pythonesque humor. Python even re-recorded a couple of the sketches later on: the silly job interview, for instance (a-ding ding ding ding ding). So, a 4 for historical value.

    I wish I could write a more glowing review of this film because I really, really wanted to like it. However, I'd have to say stear clear unless you are a big Python fan and want to complete your Python knowledge.

    3 out of 5 stars Not what I expected ...........2004-10-04

    John Cleese rules - no doubt about it. There are lots of laughs and the usual python style of humor. Basicly a collection of sketches. I had hopped for a more standup like thing where Cleese would share some of his wisdom. Instead he tries to use sketches to show (at times) pretty funny illustrations.

    But no behind the scenes stuff? No interviews? I would have loved to hear Cleese's idea behind this format and message.

    3 out of 5 stars Pre-Python, minus the surrealism.......2004-09-01


    Chronologically, this 1968 show fits somewhere between 'Do Not Adjust Your Set' and 'Monty Python'. Although there are elements of wackiness, this is light-years away from the polished lunacy that was the first Python series. John Cleese is very irritating indeed -- no more so than when he introduces each sketch, reading from a tele-prompter in an echo chamber masquerading as a TV studio.

    Half the Python team is here: Cleese, Chapman and Palin, plus Connie Booth pretending to have an English accent. The team clearly learnt by the mistakes they make here. I cannot recall Palin ever again browning up to play an Indian, for example. Every sketch here ends on a punch-line -- one of the rules the Python team was determined to abandon.

    The other key player is Tim Brooke-Taylor who, it has to be said, plays a very fine old lady -- certainly up to the standard later set by Terry Jones. It has to be said that Graham Chapman also does not put a single foot wrong, but this film was made before the rest of the Pythons became aware of his drink problem.

    There are a number of proto-Python sketches -- the 'Freedom of Speech' sketch, for example, is clearly a practice run for the 'Tell us about your latest film, Sir Edward' sketch in the first Python film. The 'First Letter of the Alphabet' sketch is an ancestor of the 'Spot the Brain Cell' sketch you can hear on 'Monty Python at Drury Lane'. Although most scenes were written by Cleese and Chapman, it's intriguing to see Marty Feldman's name appear on the credits.

    But in the main, this is sub-Python humour -- an important historical document for Python completists in the same sense as those unobtainable items such as 'Do Not Adjust Your Set' on DVD, the Bert Fegg book and those three missing episodes of 'Ripping Yarns'. Coming to it new, I didn't find it as funny as many of the other reviewers here. Sorry.

    4 out of 5 stars Mostly killer, some filler, but still worth a watch.......2004-06-27

    First thing to note about this film: There are some sketches that really just don't matter. I'm not really much of a fan of the pre-Dead Parrot car sketch, and the one about the wife and the joke just really doesn't matter. Other than that, though, most of them are great.

    Second thing to note about this film: I found it to be an acquired taste. It may take multiple viewings for you to appreciate it. Whether or not you want to take multiple viewings is up to you. It also helps if you have friends who like to quote movie lines...this one has GREAT potential for quoting, and that's really 80% of the value, probably.

    All that said, there's some hilarious material here. Obviously "Airline Pilots" is amazingly hysterical, and "Silly Job Interview" is not too far behind. But other gems include the son home for Easter ("It's been so long since we last had you home for Easter." "I was home last Easter, mother." "Yes, but that was 12 months ago, dear..."), the dad who irritates his son enough that he gets the TV, John Cleese thinking of every possible way to get out of his date at the restaurant ("You know what I think? I think you're mad because I made you sit there..."), Mrs. Morris on the quiz show ("I'm 103! Today! And I have over 3,000 children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren!"), the pepperpots at the cinema, ("Who's that?" "Charlton Hitler...") the incredibly long intro to the talk show, and the closing sketch "Topic", a political discussion show where the host prevents all input from the guest (the pike used at the end is AWESOME! I want one!)

    I have loaned this to several of my college friends, essentially all of whom have loved it. The filler material (which, because of the length of these sketches, seems endless) is a little bit too much of this video to the extent you'll want to fast-forward at some spots, but what's good is delightful. I definitely recommend it.

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