And Now For Something Completely Different is a film spinoff from the television comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus featuring favourite sketches from the first two seasons. The title originated as a catchphrase in the TV show. Many Python fans feel that it excellently describes the nonsensical, non sequitur feel of the program.
Catchphrase
Many of the early episodes of the show feature a sensible-looking announcer (played by John Cleese) dressed in a sensible black suit and sitting behind a sensible wooden desk, which in turn is in some ridiculous ___location such as behind the bars of a zoo cage or in mid-air being held aloft by small attached propellers. The announcer would turn to the audience and announce "and now for something completely different", launching the show's opening credits starting with second series of the show. It derived from the kind of phrase used to link items in a TV "magazine show" such as the BBC's Tonight, which alternated current affairs and interviews with lighter human interest material.
The phrase was also used as a transition within the show. Often it would be added to in order to better explain the transition, for instance, "And now for something completely different: a man with a tape recorder up his nose." In later episodes the credits-launching was reduced to a split-second stock footage of the announcer saying "And now..." in a similar fashion as was done with its predecessor (the "It's" man). It was replaced by a nude organist.
Film
The film, released in 1971, consists of 90 minutes of the best sketches seen in the first two series of the TV show. The sketches were remade on film without an audience, and was intended for an American audience which had not yet seen the series. The announcer uses the phrase "and now for something completely different" several times during the film, in situations such as being roasted on a spit and lying on top of the desk in a small, pink bikini.
This movie is somewhat similar to the 1974 film "The Best of Benny Hill" which was a film spinoff from the television comedy series "The Benny Hill Show" featuring favourite sketches from the first two seasons. The difference in both films are that the Pythons recreated all the sketches while Benny used clips from the Thames years and edited them together to make the film.
The film did not offer anything extra for British fans, except the opportunity to see the sketches in colour at a time when many viewers still had black and white sets, and indeed many were disappointed that the film seemed to belie its title. It was funded by Victor Lowndes of Playboy magazine.
Film rating
DVD Releases
The film originally was on DVD in Region 1 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. In 2005, it's repacked in a new collector's pack called And Now For Something Completely Hilarious! which features the films Monty Python and the Holy Grail and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen in Region 1 format from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.