When I was growing up in England in the seventies and eighties, Monty Python infused my childhood and youth. The TV series decisively shaped my sense of humor. At age fourteen, I attended a talk by Monty Python creator Terry Jones on Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales
. His display of wit, broad learning, and love of engaging big ideas left me with a lasting desire to teach and to write. And
Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life
was the only movie I ever sneaked in to see while underage. Python defined a certain generation of English schoolboys, of which I am one.