Dave Eggers talks about Monty Python. The news angle is that Mike Nichols has a new Broadway show, "Spamalot", opening in February. I have seen a handful of Broadway musicals, and they havent always been my cup of tea. But what I saw of Spamalot in rehearsals was hysterically funny, and I cant imagine it being anything but a good time. I think I must have been probably ten when I started seeing it late at night ... when VCRs and Betamaxes came out the first movie that we all watched endlessly and memorized was The Holy Grail. I was pathetic. Hank Azaria said something to the effect that Monty Python sort of made it O.K. to be smart. To be able to take that kind of material and completely make it ridiculous was -- its something that nobody else did, or does, really. "Arrested Development is really the only American show today thats in touch with a true sense of absurdity. Its not the most conducive environment right now to experimenting at all, or trying to push the form forward, in any media, really. Except, every so often, somebody will do something in film and get away with it. The Meaning of Life is far darker than Id remembered. I cant remember anything since being that dark. I mean, nowadays, only animated stuff, like The Simpsons and South Park, can get away with that level of anger and bile and that sort of dim world view -- but with them it goes down easier because theyre cartoons. They were addressing history itself. History and sheep. Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition | 
