Stand-up has been hegemonic lately, because it lends itself well to podcasts/streaming/short-form, but Dropout (formerly CollegeHumor) is a new thing that I think does a good job with alternative formats (sketch, improv, game show)

The best stuff I’ve seen lately has all been in person unrecorded. The room gets slap happy over anything and so there are no filters unlike stuff packaged for streaming

> Is there anything even remotely comparable in quality to Monty Python right now?

I suspect that, like most things that we now recognise as classics, much of Monty Python wasn't recognized at the time as a classic. For example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python_and_the_Holy_Grai... suggests that, while reception was generally positive, there wasn't the sense we'd now expect of a great treasure having just been unearthed.

All of which is to say that, whatever is comparable right now, we probably think of it as so-so, and will have to await retrospective critical appreciation to find out what we should have been treasuring.

>much of Monty Python wasn't recognized at the time as a classic

Monty Python was a huge success in its day - which is why it spawed multiple seasons, movies, comedy albums, books, and of course multiple careers (for all involved, even the mere non-speaking ...cartoonist), and even live shows. And that's just in the 70s and early 80s.

>For example, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monty_Python_and_the_Holy_Grai... suggests that, while reception was generally positive, there wasn't the sense we'd now expect of a great treasure having just been unearthed.

Its funs where younger demographics. Mainstream reviewers of the time were notoriously out of touch. Hardly anybody more square than Ebert (at least he did gave it 3/4).

There are lots of examples of comedy comparable to Monty Python over the years, but with so many media outlets you kind of have to seek it out or stumble across it. Here are a few random ones that immediately spring to mind:

Green Wing [1], Channel 4 television series (UK)

Aunty Donna, Australian comedy troupe that has a lot of surrealist humour. A good introduction is this sketch [2] and their Netflix show "Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun".

The Frantics, a Canadian sketch comedy troupe. They are most known for their sketch "Boot to the Head", but their CBC radio series which ran from 1981-84 was (to me) very reminiscent of Python.

I'd imagine fans of The Mighty Boosh and Python intersect quite a bit.

The Mischief Theatre Company - the ones behind the "Goes Wrong" theatre shows, e.g. "The Play That Goes Wrong", the "The Goes Wrong Show" on BBC, etc.

Bleak Expectations by Mark Evans, BBC Radio 4 pastiche on Dickens (2007-2012) - one of my favourite pieces of comedy in any medium. Here's the first episode [3] on YouTube.

I've seen a lot of live comedy that reminded me of Python at places like the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

[1] <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Wing>

[2] <https://youtu.be/a5FGOaz__W0>

[3] <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdyYQeLR1kA>

It is my unhumble opinion that Western Civ hit a local maximum with Monty Python, Project Apollo, and Woodstock.

And PDP11, Lisp, and Unix.

Second tier, and not followed by clear decline. (IMHO, YMMV.)