Monty Python Society adds a British touch
by Mark Green
The Daily Collegian, 1981

The president of the Monty Python society walked into the computer room cautiously, scanning first to the left then to the right.

"They look harmless enough," he said of the people seated around the room, "but they've been known to bite people's ankles."

Jon Pinchock was just kidding. That's what he and his organization are all about.

"We look at our mission as providing humor for the campus," he said

If you saw "wanted" posters of University Presidetn John Oswald posted around campus last year or the sign for Grang building reading "Strange" building at the beginning of this term, you have seen the work of the Monty Python Society.

The latest result of the society's "mission" was an advertisement in The Daily Collegian ridiculing the ads for LaVie, the University yearbook.

"The 1981 Lah Vee Yearbook," the ad read. "We're full of **it.

"We've dedicated Lah Vee 1981 to us. The yearbook staff. We're special. And we know it."

It went on to boast of "thousands of blurry photographs...boring trash...9000 pages of Penn State sports and 1.6 pages of Penn State clubs.

Pinchock said the ad was the society's form of revenge on the yearbook staff for scheduling the club photograph session before the club had its first meeting. e said LaVie refused to reschedule.

"Maybe they were up against the wall and had their deadlines and everything, but we were pissed off anyway," he said.

He said he and Chuck Sadelson, another Python member, took apart the real LaVie ad line by line.

Mark D. Miller, director of marketing for LaVie, said the yearbook staff was amused by the ad.

"It didn't hurt us at all," Miller said. "Like I've always been told, imitation is the highest form of compliment."

"We don't want to hurt anyone," Pinchock said. "We're not out for blood, we just like to parody things. The campus likes it and notices it."

The Python Society has been in existance since 1978.

It's charter states the group's purpose is to "promote the appreciation of British humor as exemplified by the comedy group 'Monty Python's Flying Circus.'"

"Yeah, that holds, that holds," Pinchock said about the charter. "But we've been known to go considerably further than that."

The society does bring Python to campus in the form of movies; "And Now For Something Completely Different" during Fall term and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" upcoming in the spring.

Pinchock said his group was also responsible for WPSX (channel 3) running the television series "Monty Python's Flying Circus" from Nov. 4 to Dec. 30.

Other influences from the British humor group abound in the society.

Old ads for Python meetings include an invitation for all "Village Idiots for a meeting on The Wall" ("Tarts, gumbies and loonies also welcome"), and a "Full Frontal Nudity Meeting" ("Ladies welcome").

The membership card for the society also features the Python's own "Mr. Gumby" saying "My brain hurts!" and a warning on the reverse of the card that "This is definately NOT the front of the membership card!"

Despite this preponderance of Python, very few of the society's activities are taken from the comedy group or reflect British humor in general.

Pinchock said that although many members have Python skits memorized and enjoy performing them in front of other society members, general audiences are sometimes antagonistic to British humor.

"We'd like to perform but people don't always see it in the right light," he said. "British humor is light years different from American humor. It's always been that way and always will be that way."

Instead, they take the essence of Python humor -- putting a twist to or finding humor in mundane things -- and apply it to University life, Pinchock said.

"Some stuff is funny no matter what," he said, "as long as you have the background for it."

The society does not have a set schedule of pranks and jokes for the year, he said.

Pinchock said the year usually begins with all the members having a lot of ideas but most do not occur due to lack of interest, impracticality, physical danger or fear of reprisal from the University.

"All of us want to graduate in the Python society, we really do," he said.

The projects that are undertaken are not haphazard, he said.