One way, using regular expressions:
>>> s = "how much for the maple syrup? $20.99? That's ridiculous!!!"
>>> re.sub(r'[^\w]', ' ', s)
'how much for the maple syrup 20 99 That s ridiculous '
\w
will match alphanumeric characters and underscores
[^\w]
will match anything that's not alphanumeric or underscore