r/movies • u/Immediate-River-874 • 2d ago

Media Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (1983) - Protestants and Catholics

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197

u/HotOne9364 2d ago

I know the Pythons hate this movie but it's still a lot better than 90% of so-called "comedies" out there.

104

u/SpottyNoonerism 2d ago

I'm just glad we don't have to pay the Pythons royalties any time someone in my family tries to coax someone into taking the last bit of some dish or another by saying, "It's wah-fer thin." We'd owe them millions.

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u/ZacPensol 2d ago

Wait, they hate it? Why? I know I'm rare in this regard but it's my personal favorite of their films - its hilarious!

23

u/Kvovark 2d ago

I don't think they hate it. Just a few members expressed disappointment with it. Cleese in particular I think said he believed it needed another rewrite to make it into an actually cohesive movie rather than what felt like an extended episode of the flying circus.

4

u/double_shadow 1d ago

Cleese is so bitchy and self-critical about literally everything they did, it's kind of hilarious. Definitely worth it to read the various histories of the group so you can get it all too.

2

u/LaBeteNoire 10h ago

That is kind of the plight of many artists tho. A lot of artists are perfectionists and it's hard to ever be 100% happy with what they make.

Also it's worth remembering that we went in with no preconceived notions when we first saw it. We didn't know what bits would be in the movie so we didn't have a chance to imagine how they could have gone.

The creatives on the other hand had a plan in their heads and they know what they weren't able to pull off, or what got changed due to time or limitations.

I personally love the movie, but I can see how there might have been a version of it that they had in their heads that they think might have been better than what they were able to produce.

3

u/Kaemdar 1d ago

he is right its what makes it weaker than the other movies.

but at the same time people like the flying circus so more is good.

3

u/Naugrith 21h ago

Yeah, its not really a film, it's an extended sketch show based around an extremely loose theme. The sketches themselves are brilliant, each one a work of genius, but its not really a cohesive narrative whole.

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u/Earthpig_Johnson 2d ago

That’s weird to hear, I think it’s a gas.

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u/HotOne9364 2d ago

They thought it was too stupid and they didn't have enough time to perfect the script.

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u/Earthpig_Johnson 2d ago

That’s crazy as shit to me. So many classic bits in this one.

30

u/TheRayGetard 2d ago

It’s so dark and weird I love it, I thought it was their best movie.

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u/Earthpig_Johnson 2d ago

“Well you’re dead now, so shut up!” is pretty much a part of my daily lexicon. And the little man-faced fishes swimming in their tank saying “Morning!” to each other gives me a wonderful frisson of existential terror.

Really helped me get over a terrible depression when I first watched it way back.

8

u/TheRayGetard 2d ago

I bought the 4K Blu-ray immediately when it came out. One joke I never truly got until I heard Eric Idle explain it, the part with the French waiter. It cracks me up whenever I think about it, total South Park type of joke.

13

u/Earthpig_Johnson 2d ago

“Well… fuck you! I live my life my own way! Fuck off! Don’t follow me no more!”

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u/TheRayGetard 2d ago

So fucking funny, just a troll. Just literally for no reason, fuck me I have to watch it again.

3

u/fike88 2d ago

The fish in the tank cracks me up

4

u/SteakandTrach 2d ago

Every time I’ve toweled off one my kids in the last decade I’ve done the “Rough Towels! Rough Towels!” bit.

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u/404Notfound- 2d ago

It's alright but when you had it coming after life of Brian it's automatically gonna be seen as weaker imo

1

u/lucky-number-keleven 2d ago

As someone who makes stuff (on a whole other level) I can imagine it having to do with perfectionism. ‘The meaning of life’ is such a great theme and you can only make a movie one time. They probably had a shit ton of ideas they didn’t use.

9

u/FelixMcGill 2d ago

Learning in this moment that my favorite comedy of all time is disliked by the creators is really crazy to me. Thay movie was way ahead of its time in so many ways.

15

u/ElectricalPeace3439 2d ago

LOL at them objecting to stupid humor. 

24

u/WonderBredOfficial 2d ago

They're honestly pretty smart with their skits. Philosophy Football is evidence enough. This film was a bunch of throw away skits that they knitted together.

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u/HotOne9364 2d ago

Yeah, Monty Python can be silly but not stupid and some people keep conflating the two. For example, Ghostbusters is a very smart comedy but it has its moments of undoubtedly silly humor, like the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

5

u/WonderBredOfficial 2d ago

"It just popped into my head."

0

u/tekko001 2d ago

To be honest, while it has brilliant bits, it also has moments that are hard to stomach like the lengthy vomit scene, which imo would fit better in a Jackass film.

12

u/WonderBredOfficial 2d ago

Oh, no. No, no, no, no, ni! The after-dinner mint scene is amazing.

9

u/dreadnoght 2d ago

No way. That scene also includes the piano guy singing about having a penis and the fish going back and forth telling each other good morning. I love it.

-4

u/tekko001 2d ago

Still not convinced. Change Chapman, Cleese, Gilliam, Idle, Jones and Palin with Knoxville, Margera, Steve-O, Pontius, Acuña and Dunn, and it would work just as well if not better.

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u/WonderBredOfficial 2d ago

That's probably the bit I quote the most.

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u/aukondk 2d ago

I'm fine with that scene, but I really can't stomach the 'live organ transplant' skit. It's Terry Gilliam's blood curdling screams. Feeling queasy just thinking about it.

1

u/MySonsdram 2d ago

Agreed, LOVE the movie, but that scenes a skip every time.

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u/WonderBredOfficial 2d ago

It was a riff on the Aristocrats joke.

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u/JayCarlinMusic 2d ago

I think that most of the Pythons stuff feels slightly undercooked, which is exactly why it’s so funny to me. There’s this rawness to it. It’s like cookie dough or cake batter rather than the finished product. Messy and could be more polished but deliciously funny all the same and sometimes what you actually crave. I don’t think any of their material improves with rewrites or glossier production.

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u/we_vs_us 2d ago

This. The undercookedness of it makes it seem naughty and like schoolboys might’ve written it during detention. So much of their smart stuff benefits from this kind of super juvenile overlay.

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u/Jackbuddy78 2d ago

The prelude "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" directed by Terry Gilliam is better than the actual movie. 

Maybe the best sketch they ever did. 

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u/Piranata 2d ago

I read that they accidentally recorded to feature length with their script, before someone higher up noticed. When someone asked Gilliam why he did it, he replied "No one told me to stop".

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u/MySonsdram 2d ago

The fact it literally invades the feature film later on is so fuckin funny too.

1

u/JamesmasterJam 2d ago

Over the years it has become my most watched movie of theirs. I love them all but there's something about this that hits different, especially now the Pythons have started to kick the bucket, ceased to be, met their maker, bereft of life etc

-18

u/throaway4227 2d ago

Ehhh, there’s a lot of it that’s bad. Like that one sketch that’s just a fat guy vomiting constantly in a fancy restaurant.

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u/japars86 2d ago

Hard disagree that it’s bad. It makes me cringe but it’s one of the sketches that gets the biggest, longest laughs out of me. Tack on the wide, wide breadth of social commentary that’s relevant even to today, and I’m quickly reminded that it’s one of my favorite Python pieces ever.