Rating: 
Summary: Pre-Python, minus the surrealism
Review:
Chronologically, this 1968 show fits somewhere between 'Do Not Adjust Your Set' and 'Monty Python'. Although there are elements of wackiness, this is light-years away from the polished lunacy that was the first Python series. John Cleese is very irritating indeed -- no more so than when he introduces each sketch, reading from a tele-prompter in an echo chamber masquerading as a TV studio.
Half the Python team is here: Cleese, Chapman and Palin, plus Connie Booth pretending to have an English accent. The team clearly learnt by the mistakes they make here. I cannot recall Palin ever again browning up to play an Indian, for example. Every sketch here ends on a punch-line -- one of the rules the Python team was determined to abandon.
The other key player is Tim Brooke-Taylor who, it has to be said, plays a very fine old lady -- certainly up to the standard later set by Terry Jones. It has to be said that Graham Chapman also does not put a single foot wrong, but this film was made before the rest of the Pythons became aware of his drink problem.
There are a number of proto-Python sketches -- the 'Freedom of Speech' sketch, for example, is clearly a practice run for the 'Tell us about your latest film, Sir Edward' sketch in the first Python film. The 'First Letter of the Alphabet' sketch is an ancestor of the 'Spot the Brain Cell' sketch you can hear on 'Monty Python at Drury Lane'. Although most scenes were written by Cleese and Chapman, it's intriguing to see Marty Feldman's name appear on the credits.
But in the main, this is sub-Python humour -- an important historical document for Python completists in the same sense as those unobtainable items such as 'Do Not Adjust Your Set' on DVD, the Bert Fegg book and those three missing episodes of 'Ripping Yarns'. Coming to it new, I didn't find it as funny as many of the other reviewers here. Sorry.
Rating: 
Summary: "How to Irritate People" isn't a good enought description...
Review: "How to Irritate People" isn't a good enought description on this film... It is hilarious.. you can only take it in little bits.. and actually... we've tried out some of their suggestions...with wonderful results... A++++
Rating:
Summary: Funny Funny Funny
Review: 'How to Irritate People' is one of the funniest movies I've ever seen! Cleese is just one of the funniest men alive. If you like Monty Python, you've gotta see this! Heck, even if you don't like Monty Python (which is crazy), you will still love this movie! It's hillarious! Absolutly Hillarious!
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time.....
Review: .....buying this or even reading reviews. It is not funny. Only pilot skit is funny, and not enough to justify the cost of the film. I am a die hard fan of John Cleese and Monty Python. The best way to irritate people is by making them spend money on this film. I don't think I have ever rated a film 1 before. There is nothing more to say. I hate to give such a bad review, but, you have been warned.
Rating: 
Summary: Funny flick for the unsuspecting...
Review: ...I first saw this when I found it in the "Free Community Service Self-Help" section at a local VHS rental place (haha). Great film, quite enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Everything I need to know in life, I learned from this movie
Review: A pre-Monty Python movie which starred and was written by John Cleese and Graham Chapman, with Michael Palin and two or three other non-pythons as actors, that will make you laugh and - if you follow the movie's instructions - highly unpopular, though that is, in fact, the point. There is a lot of great (and truly irritating) material in this movie. Scenes such as the restourant sketch with John Cleese and Connie Booth; the car sales-man (an early form of the parrot sketch, so I am told), the bored pilots telling their crew not to panic, no the wings aren't on fire, please get out your life-jackets from above your heads, but do not leave your seats; and John Cleese as the tired son home for Easter who just wants to get a drink and get out instead of visiting with his aging mother. This is really a wonderful collection of sketches and amusing comments and advice on irritation in between. If you want to laugh or to make others mad, buy this classic.
Rating:
Summary: Before they split the atom there was...
Review: Before Monty Python split the atom and changed the face of comedy forever, there were certain "standards" of sketch comedy (such as beginings, middles, and endings with clever witty punchlines.) - - The downside of this tape is that... well the sketches have them all... They're funny, but the Pythonesque formula of "sillyness & surrealism" isn't there, though the Pepperpots do make an early appearence... - - expect to see more "traditional" and sitautional TV sketch comedy (though as delivered by... may I repeat 3 comedic geniuses. - -All in all, the main reason to get this is that its a chance to see three Pythons working together in their pre-Python days... John Cleese, Graham Chapman, with Michael Palin... but don't expect a missing gem that's going to rival the DEAD PARROT SKETCH. (*PS. if you want to see or rather hear pre-Python Python, I suggest you get your hands on a British Radio Show called I'M SORRY I'LL READ THAT AGAIN... Supposedly that was the *radio* show in which Cleese also debuted his trademark silly work... though oddly enough on the radio it was said not to have worked as well (!) - - Once you get past the horrible Oxford speach impediments, its quite hillarious.) - - All and all... if you're a die hard Python fan... this tape is worth getting... but if its a choice between this and an episode of MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS missing from your collection, definitely go for that !
Rating:
Summary: Before they split the atom there was...
Review: Before Monty Python split the atom and changed the face of comedy forever, there were certain "standards" of sketch comedy (such as beginings, middles, and endings with clever witty punchlines.) - - The downside of this tape is that... well the sketches have them all... They're funny, but the Pythonesque formula of "sillyness & surrealism" isn't there, though the Pepperpots do make an early appearence... - - expect to see more "traditional" and sitautional TV sketch comedy (though as delivered by... may I repeat 3 comedic geniuses. - -All in all, the main reason to get this is that its a chance to see three Pythons working together in their pre-Python days... John Cleese, Graham Chapman, with Michael Palin... but don't expect a missing gem that's going to rival the DEAD PARROT SKETCH. (*PS. if you want to see or rather hear pre-Python Python, I suggest you get your hands on a British Radio Show called I'M SORRY I'LL READ THAT AGAIN... Supposedly that was the *radio* show in which Cleese also debuted his trademark silly work... though oddly enough on the radio it was said not to have worked as well (!) - - Once you get past the horrible Oxford speach impediments, its quite hillarious.) - - All and all... if you're a die hard Python fan... this tape is worth getting... but if its a choice between this and an episode of MONTY PYTHON'S FLYING CIRCUS missing from your collection, definitely go for that !
Rating:
Summary: Super - but don't fall off your chairs watching it
Review: British comedy is always appreciated by non-Americans. And this is one of the best!While watching it, I almost fell off my chair from continuous laughing. Stories are very cleverly done, and most people can relate to them. For e.g., there is one episode where John Cleese was irritating his date on purpose, by asking her silly questions constantly, and suggesting that she hated everything about the date; the irritating efforts finally drove her mad, and after she left angrily, John Cleese said, "thank goodness, I thought she'd never leave". And after watching it, I played one of the tricks on a friend of mine, and it works!!!! (For your information, he is currently still my friend after the trick!)
Rating:
Summary: it rocks!!!
Review: by far the best is the job interview
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