Favorite Monty Python Movie/Sketch

Son of a Preacher Man · Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 09:15:21

The Holy Grail is first with the Life of Brian trailing not so far behind.

janine · Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 17:05:58

I have no idea if they've done my favorite on stage/screen, but I have a creaky old much-loved cassette tape of a guy coming in to an advertising agency trying to get help selling some ungodly huge amount of string. Miles & miles of it, apparently, cut up in two-inch snippets.

The insane inventiveness of the Cleese character as he comes up with uses for that blasted string - it's water repellent, it's water absorbent, you can kill household pests with it (strangle them!), use it in the bath - feature a shapely naked lady in the commercial advert, sex sells - put a doctor in the bath with her, that emphasises the hygenic properties of the Emperor Stringettes - stick a priest in there, maybe the Archbishop of Canterbury, or the highest Orthodox figure in Britain, whoever, just so it's a holy man, to "take the curse off it", to make the sex alright, I guess...

There's another where a man & woman are having Sunday breakfast, I guess, and the church bells keep getting louder & louder to the point where they're screaming at each other, as the cheeky Church of England advances on them... the guy eventually blows up the cathedral with a rocket launcher his wife had knit him for his birthday.

Makes you wonder if you need incontinence padding. :help: :D :crackup:

Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 21:45:20

Albatross!

janine · Wed Feb 26, 2003 - 11:54:38

Ah, to have an original Janine phrase thought of as possibly coming from the Python crew... high praise indeed...

No, it's not my church especially... or only in that my church is in my life, and my life is like that...

Jones518 · Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 00:20:13

So, if you are a fan, what are some of your favorites?

I loved the Meaning of Life, Holy Grail and the Life of Brian.

A great sketch they did once had to do with Hitler changing his name to Hilter and running for mayor of a small town called Meinhead.

I remember another about classical composers that featured a man with a name that was probably 100 characters long. Johann Gutenabend...... They were interviewing a man who knew him long ago, and as the man was repeating the name he actually died before he could finish. That was a keeper.

Jonesy

Jim Abb · Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 06:50:47

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!!!

One of my faves is the dead parrot sketch. John Cleese wacking the parrot's head on the table had me

!
Another one is the track and field take off with the British upper class twits.
I'm sure I'll think of more later....and be grinning too!
Jim

brandt · Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 09:34:35

I'm going to have to go with Life of Brian as my favorite. However, which one doesn't have classic sound bytes?

Brandt

kmv · Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 16:12:35

[!--QuoteBegin--][/span][table border=\"0\" align=\"center\" width=\"95%\" cellpadding=\"3\" cellspacing=\"1\"][tr][td]Quote [/td][/tr][tr][td id=\"QUOTE\"][!--QuoteEBegin--]Ni! (Bring me a shrubbery!)[/quote]

My son and his buddies can spend hours on this one. I have to say that 'Ni! Ni! Ni!' is much funnier done by members of Monty Python than by a bunch of fifth graders that you're stuck with for a whole Saturday.

janine · Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 17:09:09

Ooh! Ooh! How about the guys singing that medical love song, basically a whole song filled with tender-sounding assurances of love & sharing... of venereal disease.:0

Ye gods! I didn't know there were so many nasty conditions one could get from illicit intercourse! Oughta be taught in Sex Ed in school. :frowning:

Richard · Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 18:19:51

One of my favorites is the one with the old guys sitting around discussing how tough they had it when they were kids....each one trying to top the other.

It ends something like
"There were fifteen of us living in a rolled up newspaper in the middle of the road, each day we had to get up at 5:00, two hours before we went to bed, lick the road clean (and we were glad for the nourishment), and each night our dad would come home and chop us to pieces with an ax.

'Try telling that to your kids. They wouldn't believe you'"

I also like the line from Holy Grail where they are getting ready to burn the witch and one guy yells out
"She turned me into a newt!"
another responds "You don't look like newt"
to which the first guy says "Well, I got better."

How about the one where John Cleese comes in looking to pay the guy to have a good argument and they get into an argument about whether they are having an argument or not.

They are all funny.

Jeff · Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 19:57:39

For those of you who mentioned Life of Brian, I always thought that was a sacrilegous spoof on the life of Christ? Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I've stayed away from that one based on having heard that years ago.

I'm a big Python fan, and it has been a great cross-generational connection for my teenage son and me. He loves that dry British wit. My personal favorite is the "I don't like Spam!" sketch with all those Vikings singing "Spam, spam, spam, spam..." in the background.

Of course, you all caught the "borrowing" by Veggie Tales in the video "Josh and the Big Wall" of the scene from "Holy Grail" where the French are defying the British king from atop their castle wall?

janine · Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 20:19:41

I was a child when I saw Life of Brian, but if I remember aright, it was no more a sacriligious piece than any piece with both humor and God-stuff would have been.

In other words, some people take offense at any movie related in any way to holy things, if there is any humor or earthiness or... anything... anything besides ethereal British actors floating around like cool zombies with no human anything about them.

Now, having said that... something like LoB ain't for everyone. If you'd be wincing from things that felt sacriligious to you, you wouldn't enjoy the show.

Remember in Mel Brooks' History of the World, when Mel's character finds himself in Jerusalem serving as the waiter at the Last Supper? From time to time he'd mess up, and he really wanted to do the job right, I mean that's Jesus and his followers, fer goodness' sake!!! He'd mumble "Jesus" to himself... for almost everyone, that's "taking the Lord's name in vain", they'd see no humor in it...

But it appealed to me hugely for a couple of reasons. One, the way the actor playing Jesus was calm yet human about it... Mel would call His name and He'd answer, "Yes?" Mel's character would fall all over himself apologising. "Jesus" was patient with him; you just know ol' Mel would have blossomed if he could have stayed with "the Lord"!

Two, that's how I usually address someone who carelessly does that. I remind them He's here. I say they shouldn't call Him unless they want to talk to Him. If they're really getting ripe with it, I fuss 'em, reminding them He is coming back, and that they wouldn't want Him to get here while they were using His very name for an epithet!

All that to say this: if you've the right sort of sense of humor, Life of Brian is fine. If you know you're sensitive, though, don't rent it. Definitely look at it first before you show your kids.

crocless aussie · Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 21:37:30

Life of Brian was often spoken of as sacreligious. But Brian was "not the Messiah, he was just a naughty boy." to quote his Mum. I would have thought it was more offensive to Jews. It certainly takes the mickey out of the Jews of the day.

In those days long gone Wednesday night at 10:00pm was a must for Monty Python.

Have you guys ever heard "The Goons" - the old radio series (late 50's early 60's) with Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers and Harry Secombe (all now gone) that really laid the foundation for the likes of Monty Python?

marc · Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 22:06:50

I remember reading a review of Life of Brian in Punch complaining that the movie wasn't as sacreligious as they believed it should have been. They said they believed that at least "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" was properly sacreligious.

I saw it in a double feature with Holy Grail in a little theater somewhere north of Sydney all those years ago with a Norwegian/British friend who recommended it. I thought it was funny, but I liked the absurdity of Holy Grail better. We told some other Americans to go see it, though, and they were incredibly offended (said they couldn't get past the scene where the people with the bad seats at the Sermon on the Mount misunderstand what's being said--which Jones referenced above). Guess it all depends on your particular sense of humor.

Richard · Wed Feb 26, 2003 - 10:23:54

[!--QuoteBegin--][/span][table border=\"0\" align=\"center\" width=\"95%\" cellpadding=\"3\" cellspacing=\"1\"][tr][td]Quote [/td][/tr][tr][td id=\"QUOTE\"][!--QuoteEBegin--]survive any famine, plague, nuclear winter, IRS audit, mother-in-law, church family...[/quote]
Is that a single event?
Or a description of some church families?
Sounds a little bit like my current church right now (famine-plague-nuclear winter-IRS Audit-MIL church family)

Or is that another MP sketch?
;)

Richard

crocless aussie · Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 03:54:59

Why are you asking all these questions? I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition?

crocless aussie · Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 14:46:43

Jim -"British upper class twits" is tautological - upper class twits are always British :)

"Never give in" - is the message of the Black Knight in "The Holy Grail". Either that or "an idiot doesn't know when he's beaten".

Ni! (Bring me a shrubbery!)

James Rondon · Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 18:28:00

The Meaning of Life... Especially the "explosive" scene with the over-indulgent eater at the French restaurant. :yummy:

Jones518 · Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 21:28:48

"Blessed are the Cheesemakers?"
"I think he means all dairy workers in general."

"Blessed are the meek...what Jesus does not understand is the the Meek ARE the problem."

"Hey, be quiet, he might say something about Blessed are the Big Noses."
"You say something about my nose again and I will take you to the cleaners!"

Another skit that I found absolutely hilarious. The British Navy (I think) were looking for a lake. They had the address of the lake which turned out to be a bottom floor apartment. As they knocked on the door, the inhabitants were swimming in their living room with scuba gear. The major asked, "Is this Lake Victoria (not the real name of course)."

The woman responds, "I don't know about that but its pretty bleedin' damp in here." :D I remember laughing for a very long time at that one.

The marathon for incontinents was very good. All the runners constantly ducking in and out of the woods to urinate.

The soccer match of the Greek Philosphers VS. the Eurpoean Philosophers. Very funny. Whistle blew and all the members walk around pondering the philosophical implications of the game until at the last minute, Sophocles has a breakthrough and scores the goal. Confuscious was the referee along with St. Thomas Aquinas. That was a great one.

International hide and seek was good as well.

I will leave now with this.

"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!"

J

crocless aussie · Tue Feb 25, 2003 - 23:02:30

Unfortunately some people seem to forget that God gave us a sense of humour and displayed His own many times.

janine · Wed Feb 26, 2003 - 06:56:51

All I have to do is consider how I'm put together, physically and mentally, and I know my Designer was a hilarious Jokester, Who wanted to make sure humanity could survive any famine, plague, nuclear winter, IRS audit, mother-in-law, church family...

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