Jones: I did like getting into ladies' underwear, but while it's on ladies, not on me.

Cleese: I see some things have changed.

Jones: The others didn't want to do it. John made me.

Cleese: I like taking my clothes off completely, especially once I discovered it was the best way to have a box-office hit.

Do you think your sense of humor's changed over time?

Cleese: I don't know, what do you think?

Jones: I don't think I've changed since being a kid, really. I laugh at the same things.

Cleese: He laughs at everything. We had dinner a month ago, and we decided that we laugh more when we're together than when we're apart. I think you've heard most of the jokes when you get to my age. He totally broke me up the other day during a television interview when they asked him about his comic influences. What did you say?

Jones: Clark Gable.

Cleese: I totally lost it. I had to leave the interview. That sort of thing happens from time to time. The other thing is that when we were doing all that comedy, we thought, "The world is so stupid and so mad that if we make fun of it, it'll improve." It didn't. It never, ever does.

What do you two think of the popularity of gross-out humor like Tom Green and "Scary Movie"?

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Jones: [Sheepishly] Don't think I've seen them.

Cleese: I've seen a bit of Green, and while there are moments of humor, I find most of it not funny. But this is always the case. There were a lot of people in England who didn't think Python was funny. When writing comedy, once your story goes crazy, you can't go back to being more sensible. The craziness has to build. And once you're doing gross-out, how do you pull it back down? You start out gross, get grosser and grosser and somehow lose the energy that you got from the grossness in the first place. So I suspect that at some point, it'll fade, this gross-out humor.

Jones: In the end, what you want is something that's beautiful as well as funny, or something that emotionally engages you. That's why Woody Allen's my hero.

Cleese: The last movie I saw that I really, really liked was "When Harry Met Sally." It's not just having a laugh, because I laughed at "There's Something About Mary." But there was no attempt in that film to make it believable. "Dumb and Dumber" I liked. But no one attempts to make the thing believable anymore. The greatest achievement in comedy, I think, is to have it believable.

Jones: I know, I just saw "Kiss Me Kate" in 3-D, and it's the same thing; it's not believable at all.

Cleese: What are you talking about? Maybe I'm an old-timer but it's as though audiences don't expect the comedy to be believable. Maybe the psychology has changed. It's hard to say when you're 61.

Jones: 61? I thought you were 71?

Cleese: What do you mean 71? I'm 61. At least I'm not as fat as you.

Jones: [Sucking in his gut] Oh, well.

How much improvisation was there on the set of your films?

Jones: People always ask if we improvised on set, but the thing is, there was no improvisation at all in Python. We had five weeks to shoot the film, and we couldn't afford to shoot another word.

Cleese: Remember, we're writers. So what's on the paper is what we want on the screen.

[To Jones] How did you split the directing with Terry Gilliam?

Jones: I'd do one day, and Terry Gilliam would do the next day. Something like that. I think it scarred Terry for life, being the only American in this group of Brits. He certainly didn't like sharing the directing. When we did "The Life of Brian," there was one moment when I said something rather cross to Terry and he didn't speak to me for about a year.

Cleese: Oh, that's the trick, is it? You know, I must be off. I'm keeping someone waiting. I promised to have coffee with her. [Rises] Nice to see you after 20-odd years or so.

Jones: Likewise. [Aside] Now I can tell you all the dirt on John.

Cleese: [At the door] I heard that!

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