It took months for the Pythons to come up with a name for their show. Many were chosen and discarded, and some of those were recycled and used as the titles for individual episodes. Finally, the BBC announced that their time had run out, and they were simply going to have to make a selection, whether they liked it or not.

The BBC had been referring to the show as “The Circus” in their scheduling books, and that eventually transformed into “The Flying Circus.” For a brief time, the BBC was referring to it as “Baron von Took’s Flying Circus,” after Barry Took, Head of Comedy at that time and a champion of the show. And so, there was a period in which “Flying Circus” was established, but no one knew exactly whose flying circus it would be.

Of course, that led to more meetings about the name. But before Monty Python was selected they considered a number of other ones, including the following:

Megapode’s Flying Circus

Arthur Megapode’s Flying Circus

Admiral Megapode’s Flying Circus

Ow! It’s Megapode’s Flying Circus

Gwen Dibley’s Flying Circus

El Megapode’s Flying Circus

Noris Heaven’s Flying Circus

The Amazing Flying Circus

The 37 Foot Flying Circus

The Fly Circus

El Thompson’s Flying Circus

Arthur Buzzard’s Flying Circus

Myrtle Buzzard’s Flying Circus

Charles IInd’s Flying Circus

El Trotsky’s Flying Circus

Nigel’s Flying Circus

Brian’s Flying Circus

Brian Stalin’s Flying Circus

Limb’s Flying Circus

El Moist’s Flying Circus

Sydney Moist’s Flying Circus

Stephen Furry’s Flying Circus

Will Strangler’s Flying Circus

Cynthia Fellatio’s Flying Circus

El Turbot’s Flying Circus

Norman Python’s Flying Circus

Bob Python’s Flying Circus

and…

Monty Python’s Flying Circus (seems like the obvious choice now, doesn’t it?)

I’ve been blogging a lot about Python lately, and I have a feeling it’ll continue that way for a while–at least through the end of July, when the Reunion shows end and I return from London. But I don’t mind if you don’t.