Television series
Ripping Yarns
Ripping Yarns is Michael Palin and Terry Jones's post-Python project: half-hour spoofs of the boys'-own adventure fiction that shaped a certain kind of Englishman - polar expeditions, POW escapes, imperial derring-do, stern northern childhoods. Each episode stands alone, played dead straight by Palin as an assortment of stiff-upper-lipped heroes. It's slower and more narrative than Python, funny in a drier, more affectionate register.
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Monty Python's Flying Circus1969
The mother ship. Same creators, same fascination with pompous Englishness and absurd authority, and you'll spot the seeds of every Ripping Yarns joke here first, just fired off in thirty-second bursts instead of a full story.
But No plot to hang onto - it's sketch anarchy, and the tonal whiplash can feel scattershot next to Ripping Yarns' tidier structure.
Fawlty Towers1975
Palin's Python contemporaries at their sharpest, farce engineered with the same obsessive precision Ripping Yarns brings to its parodies, just compressed into one hotel and one exquisitely unravelling man.
But Claustrophobic by comparison - one set, one escalating disaster per episode, none of the globe-trotting adventure spoofery.
Blackadder1983
Same delight in puncturing British historical self-mythology, with scripts polished to a similar shine, though it trades Palin's deadpan for something broader and more overtly cruel.
But Louder and more cartoonish than Ripping Yarns' straight-faced comic style, especially in its earliest, patchier series.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
King Solomon's Mines1937no page yet
Ripping Yarns spoofs this exact genre of stiff-upper-lip imperial derring-do; watching the source material unparodied shows you precisely what joke is being told.
This is the genuine article Ripping Yarns is quietly ribbing - a sincere, thumping colonial-adventure picture, stiff heroism and all, that shows you exactly what straight face Palin was aiming his parody at.
But It's a product of its time in ways that are genuinely uncomfortable now, not just funny-uncomfortable - colonial attitudes played entirely straight.
More like this (6)
The Goodies1970
Contemporary silliness from the same BBC comedy scene, with the same fondness for sending up British institutions and derring-do, only turned up several notches into full slapstick.
But Broader and sillier throughout - less satire, more men falling over, and aimed at a younger audience.
Dad's Army1968
Shares Ripping Yarns' fondness for fading English types and gentle mockery of wartime nostalgia, built with the same care for character over spectacle.
But Warmer and cosier than satirical - a sitcom, not a spoof, with none of the parody's sharper edges.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail1975
Palin and Jones again, this time turning the same dry, meticulous parody instinct on Arthurian legend instead of Boy's Own adventure fiction, with quotable results.
But A single feature-length film, not an anthology, and far more surreal and non-sequitur-driven than anything in Ripping Yarns.
Yes Minister1980
The same care for precisely engineered scripts and a satirical eye on institutions, this time turned on Whitehall rather than empire.
But Talkier and more political, with none of the adventure-story trappings that give Ripping Yarns its shape.
Horrible Histories2009
A kids' show doing the same trick with real relish - parodying the myths and heroics of history with proper detail and a straight face underneath the silliness.
But Pitched squarely at children, with sketch-length jokes rather than Ripping Yarns' sustained single stories.
Inside No. 92014
Same anthology engine - short, self-contained, genre-pastiche episodes carried by a small creative team - just aimed at unease and shock instead of affectionate spoof.
A modern anthology built on the same bones - standalone half-hour stories, a small rotating cast throwing themselves at wildly different genres each week - but tipped into horror and dread instead of nostalgia.
But Far darker and twistier than anything in Ripping Yarns, often genuinely unsettling rather than gently funny.
People
Cast
Michael PalinVarious Characters