"With skill and tact, we can keep tensions bottled up for weeks, months, eventually you may induce a nervous breakdown, or better still, actual damage to the brain cells."

Filmed before a live audience, this is one of John Cleese's finest moments. Essentially, the film is a series of linked sketches detailing just how one can annoy, infuriate and generally irritate someone.

The film pre-dates Monty Python, bearing the copyright of 1969*, and contains many sketches which would later crop up later, slightly modified, in the Flying Circus. For example, an early version of the Dead Parrot sketch appears, this time centering around a car. Micheal Palin is the salesman unable to believe a car brought in by Graham Chapman is broken, even whilst the car falls apart before their eyes. Other sketches which can be seen to be like later Python skethes include Silly Job Interview, a gameshow very similar to Spot the Brain Cell, and a "suicidal Hindu waiter" who bears a distinct resemblence to the poor men featured in the Dirty Fork sketch. It also includes, as "a gold-plated bonus for Monty Python fans", the previously unreleased Airline Pilots sketch. Personally, this is one of the highlights of the entire tape.

As you may have guessed by now, the film is, to put it bluntly, very funny indeed. It combines the writing talent of John Cleese, almost always producing quality results, with the talents of such skilled gentlemen as Micheal Palin, Graham Chapman, Tim Brooke-Taylor (who would later star in The Goodies), Gillian Lind and Cleese's then wife Connie Booth (Incidentally, this was her first screen role).

The film is presented as a stage show and was recorded in front of a live audience. I would heartily recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Monty Python, or just Cleese. Excellent stuff. It can be ordered from Amazon on VHS and DVD.


Sources: The tape itself, amazon.com, and http://www.pythonet.org/irritate.html. This has been a Nodeshell Rescue for no apparent reason. Thank you, and good night.
* Anyone know if this is the actual release date, drop me a /msg.

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