... writing for the PPC described as 'Monty Python's Improv Workshop', which I still think is pretty apt.

What it means is that a PPC story means taking whatever comes your way, such as:

-Being absolutely furious at a Mary-Sue ruining the Council of Elrond.

-Your co-writer making a typo in a common phrase.

-Your partner ruined your deck of cards

And, rather than glossing over it, using it (the Improv Workshop part), and putting a distinctly Pythonesque twist on it:

-Making sock puppets to tell the Sue off

-"It's a bit of a maze, unless you haven't noticed"

-Steal some from Saruman!

To use your example, while it might be funny once for someone to paint the walls with ketchup, random nonsense does not a good character make - "I enjoy pasta, because my house is made of bricks" is not a good personality type. Instead, how about a character who paints the walls with ketchup because they've heard there's a vampire in HQ and want to confuse it? Or because the Response Centre is made of chocolate and they want to stop their partner eating it? Both of those actions make sense - they're logical, if weird, responses to the situation.

And yes, sometimes people just do random things - and, because Jay was in fact a flake, "Monkeys have feet!" - but that's to do with the specific character, not the overall method.

As to why it's important... um, because it's one of the two reasons the PPC is funny, the other being snarky commentary on badfic. To turn the question around, if you don't understand that - what do you find funny about The Original Series?

hS

And deceptively simple to answer. I think "quirky/zany/silliness" is a good definition of PPC insanity, but it takes a lot of different forms, and not all agents have it to the same degree. Also, they're only "insane" relative to us here in the real world. In HQ, the quirkiness of agents is the norm; it's the saner ones who are weird.

Whatever it looks like, I think it's important because it's the thing that allows the agents to laugh and carry on in the face of surreal, illogical, and sometimes disgusting things that would otherwise wear them down, make them give up, or tip them over the edge into homicidal rage (a.k.a. "flamethrower-crazy"). If you or I saw someone with a literal "head of fire," to make up an example, we'd probably freak out and call emergency services. The average PPC agent would just break out the marshmallows.

In a more meta sense, it's important because it's a device that lets us make jokes about bad writing instead of just raging at it. Laughing is fun; being angry isn't. {= )

~Neshomeh

Well, the way I see it, PPC Insanity is sort of quirky zany crazyness. It's making castles out of bread, or making your entire RC a pillow fort "just because".

It's important, because that's one of the main points of the ppc. Sometimes, when The Words take something literally, it can be horrifying, but most of the time, it should be silly. Like, if a description lists everything except pants, the character won't be wearing any.