In past blogs, I have mentioned how the British elites, ever since the early 1990's, have embarked on a campaign to airbrush internationally famous comedian Benny Hill out of existence, in a manner not unlike the Soviet Union's airbrushing of political dissidents in the Stalin era.

Now comes word that the Royal Mail in Britain, a few years ago, voted down an attempt to include Mr. Hill in a series of stamps to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the commercial Independent Television (ITV) network, which took place in 2005.  The official party line for this rejection was that to include him in that tribute would have contravened their policies on "sexual harassment in the workplace."  Yes, folks, those in control of the Royal Mail are of the mentality that to like Benny Hill, or acknowledge that you like him, is tantamount to committing sexual harassment.  Such is the extent to which the well has been poisoned in Britain with respect to the late comedian.

But while this was pegged in the British media to "political correctness," that is the "Cliff's notes" version of the story. The real reason behind this exclusion of Mr. Hill from this series of stamps commemorating ITV's 50th has to do with the fact that many segments of the British government (notably places like the Royal Mail and various social agencies), as well as the British news media, the British entertainment industry (TV, radio, movies), the British psychiatric and mental health professions, and the British educational system (from kindergarten to college), are all controlled by radical homosexuals (whose agenda is notoriously anti-family and anti-Christian) and mean-faced, clipped-haired lesbian feminists (whose agenda is every bit anti-male) - and both groups have "had it in" for Mr. Hill for the last two decades or more.  From the former element, the continuing jihad against Benny is tied in to their assault against traditional values, one of the more egregious examples (among many) being their pushing to have the words "mom" and "dad" removed from school textbooks; from the latter, it is part of a pattern whose net result has included such travesties as boys falling further and further behind girls in educational achievement in school, as well as the increasing pandemic of fatherless households.  Both groups are particularly notorious for their equation with heterosexual mores and traditional family values with "sexism" and every other "ism" out there.

Yet as I've noted here and here, these are among the same people who consider Monty Python's Flying Circus to somehow be little more than "innocent, harmless fun."  One article wrote – in a way that nailed it totally – that that show (whose anniversary was played up by the world media just a month ago) was "politically correct . . . in a liberal, left-wing sort of way."

Anyone still have any doubts that the upcoming 40th anniversary of Mr. Hill's first show for Thames will be buried and swept under the rug by the media?

In my last article, I mentioned some factors as to why Monty Python's Flying Circus (which recently celebrated its 40th anniversary) is revered by the elites in the media and Hollywood, while trying to pretend that neither Benny Hill nor The Benny Hill Show ever existed.  In this article, I will mention some specifics as to why.

Five of the individual members of the Python troupe were members of what is now called the "Oxbridge Mafia."  Three of them – John Cleese, Eric Idle, and the late Graham Chapman – were educated at Cambridge University, while the other two, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, were alumni of Oxford University.  Both places of higher learning are where future elite decision makers in politics and academia had gone to receive their educations before going to their chosen paths; in a sense, both Oxford and Cambridge are to England what Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Brown etc. (the so-called "Ivy League" colleges) are to the United States.  The sixth member, animator/occasional sketch performer Terry Gilliam, was originally from the U.S., but moved to Britain, by his own open admission, to avoid being drafted to serve in Vietnam.  (It was for these same reasons, as mentioned in the previous article, that future president Bill Clinton went to Oxford in the fall of 1969 to continue his studies.)  The five homegrown Pythons were protégés of David Frost, a longtime favorite of the left-leaning media since the early 1960's when he first gained fame with the BBC's "satirical" That Was the Week That Was, which was in all likelihood the first (and certainly not the last) sketch comedy program to project an out-and-out liberal-left agenda.  (He was also involved in the American counterpart of the same name which ran from 1964 to 1965 on NBC, and which featured two key people who were important cogs in the early years of Saturday Night Live:  sketch performer Buck Henry, who was occasional guest host within SNL's first five years; and writer Herb Sargent, who was a creator of the fake-news "Weekend Update" sketches on SNL.)  For a time in the late 1960's and early '70's, he was ubiquitous on both sides of the Atlantic, hosting a daily syndicated talk show from 1969 to 1972 and fronting a sketch program, The David Frost Revue, in 1971.  But Frost's main claim to fame (and iconic status within the media) was derived from one of the most infamous examples (and perhaps a key template) of "gotcha" journalism, his 1977 series of televised interviews with former President Richard Nixon, the behind-the-scenes production of which was made into a movie (Frost/Nixon) a few short years ago by former Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days co-star Ron Howard.  Today, Frost is a senior correspondent for Al-Jazeera, which has been dubbed (and correctly so) the "Terrorist News Network" in certain circles due to its uncritical airing of al Qaeda propaganda.

In the years since Python's syndication breakthrough on taxpayer-funded public television in 1974, the group became even more inexorably connected to the liberal left.  Most of the troupe, for example, appeared on the ill-fated AM America (which ultimately gave way to Good Morning America) on the very day Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese Communists in 1975, after the South had been left to twist in the wind by Democrats in the House and Senate (including the late Ted Kennedy and now-Vice President Joe Biden).  Besides key Pythons hosting individual editions of SNL, they also cultivated connections to the world of rock music (another haven for woolly-headed, gooey-eyed left-wing globalists - think Bono, Stevie Wonder, Sting, Crosby Stills Nash & Young, the late John Lennon, the late Michael Jackson, et al.) when their Life of Brian received funding from former Beatle George Harrison, with some members of Led Zeppelin chipping in.  (After reviewing what the story and plot were about, and prior to Harrison coming to the rescue, EMI's Lord Delfont had withdrawn funding for this project.  This was the same Lord Delfont who, in late 1973, gave a blank check to Benny Hill to assemble the compilation theatrical feature The Best of Benny Hill whose production was modeled after, and which was inspired by, Ten from Your Show of Shows [itself a compilation of the 1950-54 sketch series that made household names of Sid Caesar and the late Imogene Coca], in the sense that actual filmed footage from Mr. Hill's show, plus color kinescopes of videotaped studio segments, were used to make the film, rather than filming the sketches over again as the Pythons had done with their own And Now for Something Completely Different.)  In recent years, Eric Idle toured the States with the "Greedy B*****d Tour" and recorded an obscenity-laden screed called "The FCC Song," the latter in response to the period after the firestorm that followed the Super Bowl performance of Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson of which no further explanation is necessary.  Terry Jones wrote a book called Terry Jones' War on the War on Terror, which essentially said we should not fight against those who would impose Sharia law on the West, and forcibly convert, enslave and/or kill everybody in their path.  (He was also one of many in the entertainment community who expressed support for Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, albeit in his "sarcastic" mode.)  Other surviving members professed their support for Barack Obama.

It is this background that explains a great deal of why, in certain areas, they were forgiven for various aspects in their sketches that would have had Benny Hill crucified had he even attempted them, let alone actually performing them.  The "Dirty Vicar" was but one.  Another sketch, from the first Python season, had an art critic strangling his wife outdoors on an open field.  It is revealing that author George Perry, in both versions of his Life of Python tome, was claiming how the Pythons' use of simulated rape in some of their sketches was indicative of their "intellectualism" and their determinations to push the envelope on what could be done and said on British television; yet let Mr. Hill try to do such a thing, and the same opinion-makers would then be quick to seize upon it as proof that he and his show were irredeemably sexist and had no place on British TV whatsoever.

One way in which the two shows' approaches differed had to do with the late movie director Sam Peckinpah, who was beloved by the media for his glorification of gratuitous violence in his films, plus presenting action scenes in excruciatingly slow motion. The former part was ostensibly "spoofed" in the Pythons' "Salad Days" routine (from the third-season episode of the same name); yet their emphasis on the "blood and gore" was more evidently done more for shock value than anything else, and would be copied by increasingly less talented filmmakers in comedy and otherwise in the years to come.  The latter part (the ridiculously slo-mo action sequences) was mimicked by Mr. Hill in his Western sketch "The Deputy" (from March 29, 1973), particularly in one scene towards the end where Benny's titular character shoots one of the villains (longtime regular Bob Todd) who then pirouettes in a "can't-he-get-it-over-with-already" manner before finally collapsing.  Hill's take was an example of how a comedy show could satirize a famed filmmaker without going "dirty" or gratuitously violent, i.e. down the level to that of whoever was being "spoofed."

And to get to Benny Hill, his background was as far from the Pythons' as one could get.  His primary "education," like so many entertainers of his generation and before, was in the music halls and summer end-of-pier revues of Britain, plus a stint in the military services during World War II (though, unlike many actors in both Hollywood and the British stage and screen, he never actually saw active combat) and, of course, his recognition of the endless possibilities of television in his ability to convey what he had in mind to the public.  His comedy was more for the common people, unlike Python whose particular brand was more for the elites, the champagne-and-caviar crowd, and the so-called "chattering" classes.  (During the 1960's and '70's, many of his sketches dealt with the foibles of British society, politics and culture in a far more direct way than the Pythons' roundabout approach.)

This was both a blessing and a curse:  As the former, he enjoyed high ratings for his specials, especially after he left the BBC for Thames in 1969; and his show, in various edited configurations, was sold to as many as 140 countries.  (The number of countries that aired Python has not been specifically pinned down, but the figure is doubtless considerably less.)  His curse came after the early 1980's, when under the so-called "guidance" of his final producer/director Dennis Kirkland, the program "jumped the shark" big time upon its direction changing away from his knockabout comedy, flair for impersonations and parodies, and so on, in favor of increasingly undistinguished and subpar silent sketches and other meaningless time-fillers; and, most ominously, a transformation of a good chunk of the show into a "Playboy magazine of the air," with an increasing emphasis on scantily-clad pulchritude and gratuitous displays of T&A in a manner more resembling pornographic material on both video and in magazines.  (Several girls who appeared on TBHS over the years had previously been in the pages of such men's magazines, plus the infamous "Page 3" section of the British tabloid The Sun.)  While some members of what had been now dubbed "Hill's Angels" went on to greater fame – most notably Jane Leeves, who went on to play "Daphne Moon" on the U.S. sitcom Frasier for its entire run; plus Louise English who went on to a long career as a widely-acclaimed stage actress in Britain – the majority ended up in virtual obscurity.  And the show began to be branded by certain politically-motivated special-interest groups as "all T&A, all the time" – even after that aspect was toned down considerably after 1984.  But as the years went on, the attacks against his show deteriorated into what after the Clinton era would be called the "politics of personal destruction," directed at Mr. Hill personally.  And these forces have been arguing with increasing ferocity that those four or so years of scantily-clad T&A on the show all but cancelled out the entire program, and thus should not be seen anywhere.

One of those who was crusading against Mr. Hill during the 1980's was Germaine Greer, one of the more (in)famous names of the feminist movement (along with her U.S. counterparts such as Gloria Steinem, Betty Friedan, Erica Jong, Andrea Dworkin et al.) in the 1970's and '80's.  Yet she was silent to the point of crickets being heard in the distance with respect to some of the Pythons' more misogynistic aspects (among them the aforementioned "Dirty Vicar" bit).  This may have been the case of a quid-pro-quo at work, since she had gone to Cambridge during future Python Eric Idle's time there in the mid-1960's – and it was due to Mr. Idle's lobbying and efforts that Ms. Greer was among the first women admitted to the heretofore all-male "Footlights" acting club at Cambridge.

But also, the attacks on the sexual aspects of his humor have been part and parcel of the radical Left's long-standing campaign to emasculate the genders, which include (but are not limited to) feminizing boys and turning girls into lifelong "butch" tomboys.  To these people, heterosexual behavior, mores and norms (the foibles of which were spotlighted by Mr. Hill in many of his sketches) are automatically equated with "sexism," and are thus to be smashed along with the rest of the "bourgeois" system.  And there is a larger political aspect to both the airbrushing of Mr. Hill and his show from the history of British TV comedy and the concomitant elevation of Python to iconic status in the media and the halls of academia, with its similarities to Communist regimes tearing down statues of national heroes of countries they have taken over and replacing them with their own brands of "heroes."  And the main thematic motivation for the hatred of Mr. Hill among the elites is not too dissimilar to their foaming-at-the-mouth hatred against Sarah Palin:  Because he wasn't one of "them."  He wasn't an Oxbridge Mafioso whose comedy appealed mainly to the elites.  He didn't go to the same higher places of learning as the wine-and-cheese crowd did, nor did he travel in the same circles, as the Pythons sure have many times over.

Then there's the issue of the increasing influence of radical Islam in Britain, with such matters as the banning of U.S. radio talk show host Michael Savage, and of Dutch politician Geert Wilders (the latter of whose ban was recently overturned by a British court), on top of the further embedded climate of "political correctness" as of a far greater scope than in the last years of Hill's show.  It is the Islamic influence that was a factor in leading to a ban, just a few years ago, of images of "pin-up" girls on military planes as were ubiquitous during World War II.  This creeping Islamization of Europe is also of importance with respect to the issues of Mr. Hill and the Pythons.

Later thoughts will follow in future postings . . .

In recent days, there were the usual notices from the media about the 40th anniversary of Monty Python's Flying Circus, which had its debut on Britain's BBC on Oct. 5, 1969, and the inevitable mention of such heralded sketches as the "Dead Parrot" and the "Ministry of Silly Walks."  By contrast, there is all likelihood that another important anniversary - of the start of British comedian Benny Hill's long association with Thames Television and his first show for them on Nov. 19, 1969 – will be swept under the rug, in keeping with the media's longtime campaign to drive him "out of sight and out of mind," in spite of the fact that his show was seen over the years in over 140 countries, and in Britain at the time these two programs were aired, garnered higher ratings than the "preferred" Oxbridge mafiosi.

This is no accident or coincidence, but yet another example of the political, cultural and social divide that has polarized America, Britain and other Western nations since the late 1960's.  There would not be this love for Python after all these years if not for the fact that their particular ethos has long been at one with the leftist-socialist agenda that the media particularly agree with.  A few examples are at order as to why they are beloved among the left-leaning media circles in New York and Hollywood:

• They attacked conservatives and anti-Communists as mentally deranged.  At the end of the "Bicycle Repairman" sketch of the Oct. 19, 1969 episode "How to Recognise Different Types of Trees from Quite a Long Way Away," the off-screen announcer (John Cleese) went on about how Bicycle Repairman was fighting international Communism – after which the camera cut to Cleese having a very public meltdown (" . . . smash the Communists, wipe them up . . . Mash that dirty red s*** . . . ")  The subtext in this was unmistakeable:  That conservatives in general, and anti-Communists in particular, are mentally deranged, unstable and unreasonably paranoid, and thus should not be listened to or paid attention to in any way, shape or form.  This was in keeping with the teachings of Theodor Adorno (a disciple of the "progressive" Frankfurt School father of the "authoritarian personality" theory) and Richard Hofstadter (who was an exponent of the belief that conservatives espoused a "paranoid" theory of politics; and whose attacks against small-town Americans and their values have been taken to heart by the likes of Barack Obama).

• They attacked the military.  In the opening moments of the "Army Protection Racket" sketch (from the "Full Frontal Nudity" episode of Dec. 7, 1969), a young soldier (Eric Idle) goes up to the colonel (Graham Chapman) of a recruiting office and announces his intention to leave the Army "because it's dangerous."  Python apologists have long cited this as an example of their "cute" reversals of form, but a revealing reaction came from the hard Left which agreed with the actions of Idle's character – and opined that other young men should follow his example.  In fact, there is and always has been nothing "cute" about promoting desertion from the military, which is clearly what was advocated.  It was this particular sketch, in fact, that entered this writer's mind three years ago when left-wing Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha, during a long and protracted debate about he Iraq war, advised young people not to register for military service.  But this was not the only time the Oxbridge mafiosi would promote a pacifist agenda in their sketches.  In their final film together, The Meaning of Life (1983), they performed a bit involving a military regiment that opted to forgo basic training.  One quote from a hard leftist sent chills down this writer's spine:  "As a pacifist, I would love to see all armies do this."

(It should be noted that Oxford University, from which Pythons Michael Palin and Terry Jones had sprung, are notorious for two sets of lowlights.  One was in 1933 – the year Adolf Hitler took power in Germany, and a decade before Palin and Jones were even born – when the Oxford Union Debating Society passed a resolution that under no circumstances would any of its members ever fight for king or country; this was one of several factors that convinced Hitler that Britain was weak and soft, and rife for his plans for European conquest as he effected in 1939-40 – which, in the U.K., would have all but happened had it not been for the resolute leadership of Winston Churchill who, in the 1930's, was marginalized to the fringes by the ostrich-like elites of those days who blinded themselves to the threat that Hitler and his regime represented to the European continent.  The other lowlight was in the year of Python's birth, 1969, when a future U.S. President, William Jefferson Clinton, went to Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship for the express purpose of avoiding ROTC service – and, in the spirit of Idle's character in the "Army Protection Racket" sketch, infamously proclaimed, "I loathe the military.")

• They attacked religion in general, and Christianity in particular.  Their worldview on G-d was in full view in their "Crackpot Religions" sketch from the "How Not to Be Seen" episode of Dec. 8, 1970; and the "Dirty Vicar" sketch of their third-season finale ("The British Royal Awards Programme," Jan. 18, 1973) where the titular character (Terry Jones) sexually abused women in such a manner that if Benny Hill had done that kind of sketch, he would have been crucified; but since it was the Pythons and they wrapped themselves in the mantle of attacking religion, they were given a pass (not too dissimilar to feminists who forgave Bill Clinton for his various abuses of women, all because he favored their anti-male agenda; in contrast to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas who was subject to relentless attack from these same feminists over the allegations by Anita Hill, and who to this day has never been forgiven by these interest groups).  These were but a warm-up, however, for their Life of Brian movie which justly received condemnation at the time for its anti-religious blasphemy – but for those very reasons is today absolutely beloved by the media elites.  It is instructive that the movie's 25th-anniversary release in 2004 was deliberately timed to fall at the same time frame as that of Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ, for which the media has never forgiven him to this day (notice the difference between their treatment of Gibson after his drunk-driving arrest and focusing on "anti-Semitic" slurs he made to a police officer, to their looking the other way at his former Lethal Weapon co-star Danny Glover's support of Communist dictators in Cuba and Venezuela, the latter of which has stoked the fires of Jew-hatred all around, to the point where synagogues have been vandalized and Jews' lives endangered).

They also mocked and ridiculed lower- and working-class Brits as ignorant and backward (again, a reflection of the elites' low opinion of small-town people), as well as seemingly making fun of the handicapped and retarded (as witness their portrayals of the "Gumbys" and the "Upper Class Twit of the Year" sketch; in the latter case, concerns about ridiculing the handicapped led one country to ban all airings of the show altogether in the 1970's).

Then there was the homosexual agenda.  It has long been mentioned that one of the members, the late Graham Chapman (who died in 1989), was openly gay.  But as noted in an encyclopedia of gays and lesbians in the media, it was noted that "The Mouse Problem" sketch of their second show ("Sex and Violence," Oct. 12, 1969) was an allegory of crackdowns on homosexual clubs that were taking place in Britain around the time (one could imagine the Stonewall riots in New York of the same period being referred to subliminally).  And then there was "The Lumberjack Song," from "The Ant - An Introduction" sketch of Dec. 14, 1969, in which the titular character sings more about his other life as a transvestite than his regular profession – humiliating his "best girl" (Connie Booth in the TV show and the And Now for Something Completely Different movie, and Carol Cleveland in stage performances) and reducing her to tears.  There wasn't that much that was truly funny about it, it was but one of several cases of the Pythons' deliberately "pushing the envelope" of taste and standards, and being out to make a "point."  And due to the standards of the time, everything had to be "cloaked" and "subliminal" and "inferred," rather than out in the open as has been increasingly the case in entertainment in recent years (think Brokeback Mountain or Milk).

Another reason why the elites love the Pythons so much has to do with their role in destroying standards of propriety and morality in television – and setting the template for Hollywood's own descent into a de facto sewer pipe.  In their second-season finale of Dec. 22, 1970, for example, they attempted to do a sketch about an undertaker who proposed to eat a potential customer's dead mother – which was only performed on the agreement that there would be booing and jeering, and outraged audience members storming the stage at the end.  Another example of how the Left's idea of free speech is being allowed to shout "Fire!" in a crowded movie theatre is their outrage over Python John Cleese's support of the BBC's axing of a third-season sketch involving wine tasters where the "wine" consisted of human bodily fluids.  Python has long been cited as an influence by the first wave of cast and writers of Saturday Night Live (to the point where certain members of the troupe, namely Eric Idle and Michael Palin, guest hosted individual editions within its first five years on the air); it should be noted that beginning with that show, "comedy" programs (including The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and Late Show with David Letterman) would be increasingly infiltrated by members of what could be called the "Ivy League Mafia," given that so many writers are alumni of places like Harvard and Yale.  They were also the exponents of what has long been termed by the elites as "edgy" comedy, which in their case had more than a dash (and veneer) of mean-spiritedness to it.

But why are they trying to pretend that neither Benny Hill nor his show ever existed?  There are the claims that his show is "sexist" and "degraded women" – but many moments of Python (such as the aforementioned "Dirty Vicar" sketch, as well as one in the first season where Cleese played a loutish boor who made degrading comments to a young woman, played by Carol Cleveland, who was reduced to tears and then fled the room, thoroughly humiliated) were, if anything, even worse.  It is also a known fact that the homosexual lobby has been increasingly in control of the media in both Britain and America, and has a long-standing hostility towards traditional values, the family, and common decency/morality.  (It should be noted that Garth Ancier, the head of BBC America who infamously axed repeats of Hill's show from the channel's schedule in 2007, is openly gay and was listed as among the Top Ten Openly Gay Entertainment Moguls at the time; his attitude towards Hill's show that it was "passe" is odd given that Python, topically speaking, has become even more dated – and that show still airs on that channel from time to time.)  They and the feminists have long equated heterosexual behavior and mores with "sexism."  But though Hill did neither himself, his show, nor his reputation any favors by allowing his show in the early 1980's to become a virtual "Playboy Magazine of the Air," there are some parts of his humor and comedy that may offer a clue as to why they have sought to erase his name and memory from the public consciousness:

• The "National Health Service" sketch.  On his March 14, 1979 special, Mr. Hill presented a sketch skewering Britain's government-run National Health Service.  Basically, the facilities at such places were hopelessly dilapidated and ill-kept, with doctors keeping themselves far from sanitary and wearing dirty smocks, and the treatment of ordinary people leaving way something to be desired.  Not exactly the kind of thing that those feverishly (and furiously) seeking to shove Soviet-style, socialized medicine (a.k.a. "Obamacare") down America's throats would want anyone to see.

• The hypocrisy of "bleeding heart" liberals.  Way back in 1964, Hill did a "tour-de-force" sketch called "The Lonely One," about a "jubilant" delinquent who leads an aimless life, drifting from job to job and going nowhere fast.  He played the main character, as well as his mother, a shop foreman, a counselor, and a few others.  At the end of the piece, the narrator advises how we should have pity and sympathy for his types and not hold him to account because of his background – but the minute his own car is stolen by this delinquent (as seen in that final shot), immediately stops the "hearts and flowers" routine and pursues after the fleeing car, yelling "Stop, thief! . . . Come back with my car!"

• Skewering of the media.  Mr. Hill also had the number of certain members of the so-called "Fourth Estate" – especially the "ambush" journalists, the precursors of those working for Dateline NBC who carried out the infamous faked "crash test" of GM cars, as well as the team behind To Catch a Predator.  On one of his last shows for Thames in 1989, Hill impersonated a British "journalist" who was notorious for his "ambush" journalism, invading the privacy of hapless subjects.  In one part of the sketch, Hill's character was yammering on about how we should all be helping the poor, but when an actual vagrant came to him begging for money, the journalist immediately told him to shove off.  The next part was after he invaded a house, intending to expose a shady businessman accused of exploiting his workers (sound familiar?), but finds to his chagrin that he went to the wrong house!  Afterwards, he himself is pursued by a gaggle of cameramen and reporters, asking about his continuous invasions of privacy and one aggressive female journalist asking, "What have you got to hide?"  In the end, he is literally chased to death, with the car he hijacks going off the road and down an embankment.  There are doubtless many Americans who would like to see the same thing done to today's media elites – not necessarily the chasing to death part, but rather making them accountable for their biases and advocacy of an agenda that is clearly against America's interests and those of the people.

In Part 2:  Another reason why the Pythons are loved by the media (and why Hill is loathed and despised by same).