Near the end of a documentary about Monty python that was shown at the Ziegfeld Theater on Thursday, Terry Jones, one of the members of that influential British comedy troupe, describes the awkwardness that invariably results when all five living members of the group are assembled. “It’s as if we were always waiting for one other person to arrive,” he says in the film.

This is followed Von an admonition from Terry Gilliam, who warns that Fans do not really want to see the comedy group reunite — they just want to be young again.

After the film concluded, the Monty python founders appeared...