The BEST episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus season 3

Every episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus season 3, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus season 3!

And now for something completely different: Monty Python's Flying Circus was simply the most influential comedy program television has ever seen. Five Englishmen, all working under the constraints of conventional TV shows such as The Frost Report (for which the five Englishmen wrote), gathered together with an expatriate American in the spring of 1969 to break the rules. The result, first airing on BBC-1 on October 5, 1969, has influenced countless future men and women in the media and comedy since.

Last Updated: 4/8/2024Network: BBC OneStatus: Ended
Share:
The Money Programme
star
8.07
270 votes

#1 - The Money Programme

Season 3 - Episode 3 - Aired 11/2/1972

The Money Programme features a look at money `lots of it, on film and in the studio', song: The Money Song; credits; Erizabeth L: Episode Thlee: The Almada, a drama directed by Slit-Eyes Yakamoto with all actors on mopeds; Inspector Leopard of the Yard exposes phony director; animation- cops and robbers; `One dead unjugged rabbit-fish later', church police; animation- bouncing ball chases man in jungle; jungle explorers find a smashing little restaurant; violent ending of last sketch replaced by a repeat of Ken Russell's Gardening Club (1958); explorers discover lost city of Rayarama, explorer's club, explorers find a film crew filming them, Inspector Baboon strikes again; credits; BBC1 another six minutes of Monty Python; The Argument Clinic, Inspectors Fox arrests everyone, interrupted by Inspector Thompson's Gazelle; BBC-1 one more minute of Monty Python.

Directors: Ian MacNaughton
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Blood, Devastation, Death, War and Horror
star
7.96
206 votes

#2 - Blood, Devastation, Death, War and Horror

Season 3 - Episode 4 - Aired 11/9/1972

Blood, Devastation, Death, War and Horror presents a man who speaks in anagrams `If you're going to split hairs, I'm going to piss off!'; anagram credits; Mrs Scum has 12 hours to beat the clock; merchant banker loans to charity and has to sack a pantomime horse; a film on aggressive animal behavior with pantomime horses, pantomime Princess Margaret, pantomime goose, Jacques Cousteau and others; animation- The House Hunters; man wants to join WRAC, actor complains about lack of funny lines, people laugh at Mr. Ordin, back to the actor with no funny lines; The Bols Story, announcer explains pauses, but BBC1 keeps interrupting, BBC News; The Pantomime Horse is a Secret Agent Film; anagram credits for Tony M. Nyphot's Flying Risccu roll.

Directors: Ian MacNaughton
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Dennis Moore
star
7.92
162 votes

#3 - Dennis Moore

Season 3 - Episode 11 - Aired 1/4/1973

Boxing Tonight: Sir Kenneth Clarke meets a boxer in the ring for Oxford professorship of fine arts; credits; Dennis Moore steal lupins from the rich `Stand and deliver! Your lupins or your life!', song: The Ballad of Dennis Moore; housewives discuss astrology; doctors shake down patients; animation- ambulance drivers loot house; should there be a fourth TV network?; BBC1 announcements; George the 1st: Episode 3: The Gathering Storm, Dennis Moore rides again `In a bunch!'; Ideal Loon exhibition with French osteopaths, priests in custard and then there's the judging; animation- thief steals newspaper clippings; off-license sketch goes into poetry and then a short story `seems there was this chap called Dennis Moore', Dennis Moore returns; Prejudice! a TV show featuring Shoot the Poof! and miserable fat Belgian bastards; Dennis Moore attempts to redistribute the wealth; credits; losing judge contestant cries.

Directors: Ian MacNaughton
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Mr. and Mrs. Brian Norris' Ford Popular
star
7.79
209 votes

#4 - Mr. and Mrs. Brian Norris' Ford Popular

Season 3 - Episode 2 - Aired 10/26/1972

The Kon Ti Ki: RA 1, RA 2: Mr. & Mrs. Brian Norris's Ford Popular, The Norris's explore the migration of his ancestors from Surbiton and Hounslow; credits; headmaster calls in schoolboys for financial and gynecological aid; How To Do It- split an atom, play the flute, rid the world of all known diseases; Mrs. Knickerbaiter explodes; vicar comes selling encyclopedias; medical phenomenon of exploding as cure for illness; vicar still selling encyclopedias; doctor continues; animation- skeleton on doctors chart leaves; director of Covent Garden shows up on Farming Club; life of Tchaikovsky `Hello Pianist'; Trim Jeans theater presents `Beckett' and other classics; animation- mouth leaves inane announcer; fish slapping dance; animation- big fish swallows little fish; ship's crew prepares to abandon ship as women, children, Indians, and a sort of idealized version of the compleat Renaissance Man; survivors captured by South American Police, but production plagued by BBC's lack of money, Puss

Directors: Ian MacNaughton
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Cycling Tour
star
7.73
196 votes

#5 - The Cycling Tour

Season 3 - Episode 8 - Aired 12/7/1972

Mr. Pither crashes on his bicycle `the pump got caught in my trouser leg'; replaces sandwiches; falls again; tells woman in garden; falls again; falls again; asks doctor for directions; doctor gives him prescription; Pither goes to a chemist; does not fall off; falls off again; stops at pub for drink `just had a chat with your dad'; gets hit by Mr. Gulliver, a man keen on crash proof food, and they get into accident; Pither takes man to hospital; man thinks he's Clodagh Rogers `I'm just a jack-in-the-box!' and then becomes Leon Trotsky and escapes to Russia; Trotsky checks into the YMACA; Pither goes to British Embassy `Blingo! Blingo!'; secret police take Pither to Moscva `you're an ice cream salesman'; Russians hold clambake with Trotsky who turns into Eartha Kitt and Mr. Pither is imprisoned; execution goes awry and Pither dreams about escape; Eartha Kitt appears in Moscva and regains memory and goes in search of Pither, who is standing in front of firing squad again; one lucky esc

Directors: Ian MacNaughton
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Salad Days
star
7.71
176 votes

#6 - Salad Days

Season 3 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/30/1972

Credits; Biggles dictates a letter `Algy, are you gay?'; animation- flying things; climbing the north face of the Oxbridge Road; sailors mistake #24 Parker street for a lifeboat; two ladies spy on neighbors using high tech equipment `bring her up on the 6 inch Gladys'; housewife finds herself on lifeboat; Storage Jars around the world; animation- television is bad for your eyes; the Show So Far..., giant hammer hits announcer; the Cheese Shop sketch; review of `Rogue Cheddar' and Peckinpah's `Salad Days'; reviewer is shot as the credits roll; an apology; news about storage jars; Interlude: conquistador apologizes for short show.

Directors: Ian MacNaughton
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Grandstand (or: The British Showbiz Awards)
star
7.47
158 votes

#7 - Grandstand (or: The British Showbiz Awards)

Season 3 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/18/1973

Thames Television announcer; organist, announcer, Hermit; The British Show Biz Awards presented by Her Royal Highness the Dummy Princess Margaret, the remains of Sir Alan Whattle, new suit sketch, lemon curry, the Oscar Wilde Sketch `Your majesty is like a stream of bat's piss'; animation- lady powders nose, Charwoman!; more awards, David Niven's fridge, Pier Paolo Pasolini's The Third Test Match; Mrs. Zambezi gets a new brain; man wants to donate urine; wife swapping play by play, formation wife swapping, Grandstand- coverage of wife rugby; credits of the year; more Show Biz awards, The Dirty Vicar Sketch `I like TITS!'

Directors: Ian MacNaughton
Watch Now:Apple TV
The All-England Summarise Proust Competition
star
7.34
200 votes

#8 - The All-England Summarise Proust Competition

Season 3 - Episode 5 - Aired 11/16/1972

All-England Summarize Proust Competition; Mt. Everest, start again!; International hairdressing expedition to climb Everest; animation- coming attraction for `A Magnificent Festering'; Mervyn tries to reach the fire brigade about his dead hamster and his brother comes home from Dublin (telephone operators interested in shoe sizes), fire brigade come over for a drop of sherry; Party Hints by Veronica Small: How to deal with the Red Menace at Your Party; start again!; animation- Russians selling Communist Revolutions, Putrid Peter & Barry Bigot doll; man wants instructional tapes, Sandy Wilson's version of `The Devils' song: Hello Operator; Mr. Smoketomuch wants to arrange an adventure holiday `What's the point off going abroad if your going to be carted around like a sheep...'; Thrust: Anne Elk's theory about the Brontosaurus `AAAAhheeeemmm!'; start again!

Directors: Ian MacNaughton
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The Nude Organist
star
7.31
169 votes

#9 - The Nude Organist

Season 3 - Episode 9 - Aired 12/14/1972

East Scottish Airways faces a bomb threat; organist talks about the place of the nude man; announcer talks about laughter; credits; `and now for ten seconds of sex'; announcer talks about returning MPFC; new housing built entirely by characters from 19th Century literature; characters from Milton's Paradise Lost build an eighteen level bypass; flats built by Hypnosis featuring the Amazing Mystico and Janet `Yes Janet, a quiet shy girl...'; outburst of capital punishment; morgue attendants listen to Radio 4 and are toured by a judge `Iah, Iah, Iah I'm a good little doggie'; finals of the Olympic Men's Hide and Seek in the record times of 11 years, 2 months, 26 days, 9 hours, 3 minutes and 27 seconds; smarmy announcer, chicken knight; the Cheap laughs visit their neighbors, sixteen ton weight; Probe looks at bullfighting; animation- push of a button, two growing trees; live feed from the planet Algon where a simple pair of split crotched panties are virtually priceless; extortionist reads

Directors: Ian MacNaughton
Watch Now:Apple TV
E. Henry Thripshaw's Disease
star
7.20
164 votes

#10 - E. Henry Thripshaw's Disease

Season 3 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/21/1972

Tudor job agency, dirty book shop, the Life of Sir Phillip Sidney who personally captures 6,000 copies of Tits and Bums, animation-Gay Boys in Bondage; Reverend Arthur Belling from St. Looney Up the Cream Bun and Jam makes some converts; credits; animation- animals in shooting gallery; the Free Repetition of Doubtful Words Sketch; animation- horse with envelope; Is There? discusses life after death; Dr. E. Henry Thripshaw discovers a new disease and turns it into a media spectacular; silly noises; a vicar discusses his sherry supply problem with a salesman; credits; BBC-1 announcement.

Directors: Ian MacNaughton
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
The War Against Pornography
star
7.20
234 votes

#11 - The War Against Pornography

Season 3 - Episode 6 - Aired 11/23/1972

Housewives solve the labor problem and clean up the arts; credits; Mr. Gumby goes to have a lobotomy; animation- Good Evening; George and Gladys watch a program on mollusks `Yes, the mollusk is a randy little bastard!'; animation- baby sucking on pacifier; BBC news report mutates into different forms; politicians- an apology; reporter covering Naval expedition becomes Long John Silver, animation- Today's R.N., coverage continues of Naval expedition to Lake Pahoe located at 22A Runcorn St.; Mr. Badger answers questions about Magna Carta in mime; credits.

Directors: Ian MacNaughton
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV
Whicker's World
star
7.17
221 votes

#12 - Whicker's World

Season 3 - Episode 1 - Aired 10/19/1972

Njorl's Saga: Iceland 1126, organist, announcer, Hermit, credits with plumbing; man apologizes to court and police; animation- Spider escapes into himself, police follow; Njorl's Saga Part II; BBC drama office; restart of Njorl's Saga, finds North Malden; an apology; BBC programmer in pleads in court, defendant charged with being in Njorl's Saga escapes into self; animation- Spider still being chased; stock market analyzed; Mrs. Premise and Mrs. Conclusion argue over putting budgies down and call on Jean-Paul Sartre; North Malden intrudes again; BBC drama office again; Njorl's Saga starts again, but it is the housewives still looking for and finding Jean-Paul; Whicker's World; Whickered credits roll.

Directors: Ian MacNaughton
Watch Now:Apple TV
A Book at Bedtime
star
7.16
186 votes

#13 - A Book at Bedtime

Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired 1/11/1973

Quarrel over starting show with credits; credits; A Book at Bedtime featuring a poor reader whom gets help reading aloud; kamikaze Scotsmen, kamikaze advice center; more kamikaze Scotsmen; `No Time to Lose; advice center, animation- No Time Toulouse, the Story of the Wild and Lawless Days of the Post Impressionists; more kamikaze Scotsmen; back to the readers; animation- 2001 caveman; Frontiers in Medicine: Part 2 The Gathering Storm, The role of penguins in nature; animation- penguins in power; kamikaze Scotsmen in Russia, the Russian unexploded Scotsmen disposal squad in action; Spot the Looney!; two documentary hosts compete for air time; the poor readers finish the story; credits; BBC1 announcement; BBC1 previews Dad's Pooves and other new comedy shows.

Watch Now:AmazonApple TV