The Brand New Monty Python Bok was the second book to be published by the British comedy troupe Monty Python. [1] Edited by Eric Idle, it was published by Methuen Books in 1973 and contained more print-style comic pieces than their first effort, Monty Python's Big Red Book. Postmodernism, you say? Sounds like the kind of thing that would have been mercilessly lampooned in the ‘philosophers’ football match’ sketch. But some learned writers have dated the emergence of this form of cultural collaging to exactly the period in which the Bok was taking shape. David Harvey, for example, in his famous study The Condition of Postmodernity (1989) pinpoints 1972 as the moment when a ‘sea-change’ began to occur ‘in cultural as well as social-economic practices’. The Pythons’ penchant for pastiching, parodying, collaging and re-contextualising (most evident in the Bok) could all fit nicely into this theory. But then again, if the Pythons were postmodern, does that mean the Goons were, too? As Mr Gumby might say: ‘My brain hurts.’ The Big Red Book is technically a TV tie-in and does contain material that appeared in the earlier episodes of Flying Circus, but there is more than enough original material to ensure it's not just repetition for those who have the script books. The entire team took the opportunity to use ideas which only worked in print and the results are worthy of the Python name. Eric Idle acted as editor and there's a lot of his wordy style although Palin's hand is clearly at work in a lot of places and Gilliam is given free reign to return to his comic book days as he provides the visual style. So now, Python print has made it into the Barbican, 3 and the very idea of a ‘Christmas book market’ sends shudders down the spines of right-thinking people. Perhaps, in this post-catchphrase, post-postmodern era of Internet-based satire, the time has finally come to close down the Ministry of Silly Books.

The books were conceived partly as an attempt to make the TV show live longer in the public imagination. Monty Python’s Flying Circus had been on air since 1969, and was steadily garnering a cult following. The team – John Cleese, Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, Eric Idle and Terry Gilliam – had coalesced into a formidable comedy unit, and was redefining comedy via a multi-sketch formula mixing satire with surrealism. The question was how best to represent those sketches on paper, as a kind of souvenir, in an era before video, DVD and the easy access of a remote control. Interestingly, Hepburn was ‘sympathetic to’ feminism at the time, and was simultaneously starting to work for Spare Rib. This brought her up against the Pythons’ notorious blind spot for sexism. ‘There would be images involving flashers, dirty old men, etc., and I wasn’t always comfortable. But we were working too fast to grind any axes.’ She ponders for a moment. ‘Also, I used to feel that often they were doing it with irony, taking a position on the sort of people who might be like that.’ The Pythons (under the editorial stewardship of Eric Idle) produced a few books tied in to their TV shows and films, pioneering this category of publication. Of all their releases ‘Brand New Papperbok’ is probably the most successful as it replicates much of the stylistic sabotage that the Pythons applied to other media. Just as they deconstructed the rules of sketch comedy TV, or as per ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’ film’s conventions, with ‘...Papperbok’ the accepted form of a book is disrupted Everyone always forgets the books. A lot of people forget the albums but everyone always forgets the books. I watched five hours of a documentary series about Monty Python on Netflix recently and it spoke about the shows and the movies a lot, touched on the live shows and very briefly mentioned the albums. But the books were ignored completely, which is a huge shame. What did the books achieve? Any comedian will tell you that it’s not so much the content of the joke, but the way it’s told. If nothing else, Big Red Book and Brand New Bok showed that design could be a crucial part of creating that joy. Some of the references (Reginald Bosanquet, Arthur Negus) are dated or incomprehensible outside the UK but the energy and typographic somersaults speak for themselves. There’s a case to be made that the books are a damn sight more entertaining than videos of the old shows.

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Additional photography - Camera Press, Hulton Picture Library, Barnaby Picture Library, The Mansell Collection, Graphic House Inc. Photography – Doug Webb, BBC News Picture Library, The Radio Times, Hulton Picture Library, John Horton, Tony Sullivan

In 2008 Monty Python's Big Red Book was referenced in the Doctor Who episode " Silence in the Library". There is a considerable amount of new or adapted material with much of the content echoing Idle’s skill at word play. It must also be mentioned that this is the most provocative of their books in terms of its sexual references. Python were never shy of using sex for humour, however they were relatively sparing in its application. Here it is far more apparent.

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One of the most original and groundbreaking humor classics of all time, the Papperbok was compiled for Methuen in the early 1970s by the young Monty Python team at the height of their surreal powers and was published on the heels of the improbable success of the Monty Python's Flying Circus television series. The editor of the Big Red Book was to be Eric Idle, and there would be contributions from the other Pythons, most especially from Terry Gilliam, whose illustrations would form the visual focal point. The design team was headed by Derek Birdsall, one of the leading art directors of the day and a friend of Idle’s, along with art editor Katy Hepburn, sister-in-law of Terry Jones, who was still a student at the RCA, but who was already working with Gilliam on animations for the show. The second book was more focused. The first one had shown that merchandising could work (‘We essentially invented the Christmas book market,’ says Idle). Now, Brand New Bok would be an opportunity to stretch things further in a way not so tied to the TV shows. To this end, the creative team were installed in offices in the Methuen building – a kitchen would no longer suffice – and asked to come up with something that could stand in its own right. Idle would edit, as before, but this time Hepburn had complete control over design. Fresh material was written by the Pythons (‘who now wanted a stake in what was going on’ – Idle), and crucially, Gilliam agreed to be much more hands on.