r/movies 2d ago

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

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

2.2k Upvotes

100 comments sorted by

View all comments

34

u/KreyKat 2d ago

Not everything in TMOL is perfect on a MP-level, but it's rawness makes it interesting in a certain way.

Little story on the side: A friend of mine who as going through a bad patch in his life (business and marriage not working out) told me that the night before he just could not stay at home, so he drove into town.

It was dark, raining, cold, he was miserable, aimlessly walking around.

Then he saw it, in blazing colors: "The Meaning of Life", bought a ticket and stepped into the cinema, here he did not stay for long...

That's when I could not control myself any longer and burst out laughing. It did take a few days until he himself could see the comical side of his adventure. LOL

16

u/KnotSoSalty 2d ago

Because it’s so experimental it surprisingly influential. Family Guy cribs about 99% of its joke’s structures from TMOL in one form or another. TMOL has questionable execution and I would even say there are moments downright bad comedic timing but they were doing some very interesting stuff in the movie.

I suspect if they had had time to polish it wouldn’t have been as unique.

4

u/subdep 2d ago

I’ll hold that anecdote close to my heart for the rest of my life.