It mainly seemed like a joke about popular images and self-images of the US and the UK, contrived to get some good material from the lovely Reginald D Hunter. Racism is an endlessly-discussed, massive issue in Britain, and anyone who suggested it wasn't a problem would just look crazy. 
Maybe watch it again, and…

It's great that you've covered this lovely, lovely book; as a non-comic nerd I read it as a novel (which really works, BTW), but the context discussed here is really interesting.

It's great that you've covered this lovely, lovely book; as a non-comic nerd I read it as a novel (which really works, BTW), but the context discussed here is really interesting.

Good choice for your one-and-only fan letter. What an amazing book.

Good choice for your one-and-only fan letter. What an amazing book.

@avclub-15d496c747570c7e50bdcd422bee5576:disqus Spiney Norman: that sounds incredible.  I wasn't trying to 'knowledge' you, by the way; it just makes that sketch even funnier, somehow, if you think that those monsters were current news, and they'd been bayonetting people just a couple of years before.

@avclub-15d496c747570c7e50bdcd422bee5576:disqus Spiney Norman: that sounds incredible.  I wasn't trying to 'knowledge' you, by the way; it just makes that sketch even funnier, somehow, if you think that those monsters were current news, and they'd been bayonetting people just a couple of years before.

Or you could see the Pythons' apparent attitude to their society as the end of a process: the incredibly quick process in which the British view of the world and of themselves formed in the Edwardian era was largely thrown away. One of the things which we "lost" was blind complacency, and the process of losing it…

Or you could see the Pythons' apparent attitude to their society as the end of a process: the incredibly quick process in which the British view of the world and of themselves formed in the Edwardian era was largely thrown away. One of the things which we "lost" was blind complacency, and the process of losing it…

You were watching The Goodies and Dave Allen in Chicago in the late 70s?  We thought we were kind of, you know, doing that stuff in private.

You were watching The Goodies and Dave Allen in Chicago in the late 70s?  We thought we were kind of, you know, doing that stuff in private.

The Pirhana Brothers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wik…

The Pirhana Brothers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wik…

…and from a Robert Graves story, too.

…and from a Robert Graves story, too.

throw in the towel

throw in the towel

I remember really liking Loitering With Intent, his 1st memoir. He turned out to be a startlingly good writer (and why not, now I come to think about it?)

I remember really liking Loitering With Intent, his 1st memoir. He turned out to be a startlingly good writer (and why not, now I come to think about it?)

Damn right