Lets not forget what we are watching here. This is a Python like tv episode of early sketch comedy. For a present audience, yes, it has many gaps and holes with very little if no comedy. But don't forget, this was produced in 1968! Before Laugh In and seven years before SNL! For what Python was doing then, was not only genius what probably the funniest act on television to the date. So, before you act critical, think again. This is what motivated much of the sketch comedy we see on television today.

Here's an oddity - made the year before Python with most of the cast and the assorted Goodie. Truth be told it's not all that funny, and features an extremely offensive scene with Palin as an Indian waiter, but there are moments of interest, such as seeing an extended range of Cleese's acting abilities, the extremely funny airline sketch, and noting how Connie Booth hardly aged between this and Fawlty Towers...

This show seems to have been aimed at a more conventional crowd than Cleese, Chapman and Palin's work with Monty Python. In fact, it has very, very little of the subversive and hilarious wit they displayed in that comedy troupe. The premise doesn't give much room for anything but Cleese portraying an intentionally annoying character (a noisy father disrupting his TV-watching children, an overly considerate date, a loud middle-aged woman in a movie theater) and noticeably bothering a character usually portrayed by Michael Palin. The characters don't have anything very funny about them, they are very straighforward and do nothing but annoy or get annoyed in the exact way you would expect based on Cleese's narrated set-up. There aren't any twists. There are very few moments when you get any hint of how brilliant these guys could be on their television shows and movies as Monty Python. In fact, it's kind of annoying seeing such talented men wasting away in such an unfunny piece of work - even if you're a Python fan, theres nothing really necessary about 'How To Irritate People', though the dedicated will inevitably check it out since theres almost always a copy by the Flying Circus videos at any rental store.

Its funny but nowhere near as close to the genius of the Monty Python sketches. If you're a Monty Python fan like myself whos watched every episode about 12000 times, you won't be doing any harm in checking this out.