Monty Python's Life of Brian by...Monty Python

Monty Python's Life of Brian by...Monty Python

Another Divine Comedy

A different version of this note and thoughts on other books are available at:

-              https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEVa4_CsRStSBBDo4uJWT8BSWtTTn0N1E  and   http://realini.blogspot.ro/  

This may very well be the best comedy ever.

Albeit fundamentalists would hate this, if it ever pops up on their screens.

The BBC had in fact a talk show where they had invited John Cleese and Michael Palin on one hand.

On the other there were a high ranking official in the church, a bishop probably and a theologian.

For me, the members of the Monty Python team made sense, while the defenders of the holy scriptures were aggressive and dogmatic.

Certainly, Life of Brian has an irreverential tone, but comedians should be able to jest about anything.

Or else we invite the jihadists in to use their Kalashnikovs, as they did for the Charlie Hebdo team and in so many other horrendous cases.

Freedom of speech means accepting jokes, satires that we may find tasteless, but when we deal with taste...

-          De gustibus non est disputandum

After all, the aforementioned lunatics, members of the DAESH find ancient art insulting and they blew up parts of the patrimony of the world...

Most recently, the Petra site

Monty Python's Life of Brian refers to Jesus actually.

Everything about Brian is so evidently similar, if not identical with the details that we know about Jesus of Nazareth that there is no question hanging over what the comedy is about.

And yet, one could ask:

-          Why not?

-          First, why not tell a story about a different man, born under the same auspices and laugh with and about him

-          Second, "Jesus wouldn't mind that I was here with you" says Judas betraying him to the Farisees in Jesus Christ Superstar.

From what religious texts I have read recently I gathered that God and His Son, saints and all do not take so seriously all the kerfuffles erupting regularly down here.

And more damage to the cause is done by those who read and believe "literally" the text of the bible which contains myths, stories that have to be interpreted and whose messages are not to be ingested per se, without using the mind.

Creationists and ultra conservatives- like the American VP- who reject the theory of evolution are much more dangerous and ultimately blasphemous than a comedy.

Aside from this serious message and undertones of the film, the humor is absolutely

-          Magnificent

From the start:

We have the "Three Wise Men" coming to the birth place of Brian, only to be scolded by the terrifying mother, played by the sensational Terry Jones:

How can you call yourselves Wise Men coming at three o'clock in the morning!?

We have come for The Messiah

Go away!!

We brought incense and more...

Why didn't you say so!?

There is the ex- leper, played by Michael Palin...

I was minding my own business when this bloody man comes and cures me!

Then the Front:

Are you the Judean People's Front?

We're the People's Front of Judea

And the memorable, like all the lines really, list of what the Romans did for them:

Roads, sanitation, public baths and so much more

The stoning is a gem.

Questioning about the crucifixion

In fact I better include some quotes and eventually links to the YouTube scenes in question.

-          The Divine Comedy indeed!!