A comprehensive and hilarious guide to understanding the many Monty Python jokes and allusions

Throughout their five seasons on British television (and well into the troop's movie sequels and assorted solo projects), Monty Python became a worldwide symbol not only for taking serious subjects and making them silly, but also for treating silly subjects seriously.

Monty Python provided a treasure trove of erudite "in" jokes, offering sly allusions to subjects as diverse as T.S. Elliot's "Murder in the Cathedral" (as part of a commercial for a weight loss product) and how to conjugate Latin properly (as explained by a Roman centurion to a Jewish zealot painting anti-Roman graffiti on a wall). It was this combination of the uniquely highbrow but silly humor that inspired countless followers (Saturday Night Live, to name one). This hilarious and helpful guide puts Python's myriad references into context for the legion of fans, scholars, and pop culture aficionados that still strive to "get" Monty Python.

DR. BRIAN COGAN is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Communication at Molloy College. The author of The Encyclopedia of Punk, he has also written numerous articles on punk rock, comic books, and the intersection of politics and popular culture.

DR. JEFF MASSEY is professor of English at Molloy College. He is the vice president of MEARCSTAPA, the coeditor of Heads Will Roll!: Decapitation in the Medieval and Early Modern Imagination, and the author of sundry articles.