Sketch o’the Week: Graham Chapman!

We continue with our Monty Python series with the late, great Graham Chapman!

Of all the Pythons, Chapman always seemed to me to be the “quiet one”. He always seemed to play the straight man in sketches, and rarely was the one to play the “over the top” crazy characters. The other Pythons often cited Chapman as the best actor of the group, which is probably one reason why he played the lead in both “The Life of Brian” and “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”. I’m guessing he was also willing to be the straight man, while the others preferred to do the funnier, goofier roles.

I read that Chapman, who was openly gay, urged the others to avoid jokes with punchlines about stereotypes like race or sexuality. His recurring character “The Colonel”, who would often interrupt and end sketches just before the obvious delivery of a very charged and politically incorrect punchline by proclaiming it “too silly”, was a way to both include and avoid such jokes.

Chapman died in 1989 at age 48 of tonsil cancer that had spread to his spine. The world got a little less funny that day.