Dangerous Minds has the story about a moment in television history that I’d never heard of before:
In 1979, Michael Palin and John Cleese were invited onto a chat show, Friday Night, Saturday Morning, to discuss the controversy surrounding the latest Monty Python film, Life of Brian. [...]
I saw this show when it first went out, and I knew then it was a moment in TV history – a major cultural shift, when the accepted (and interfering) role of religion in public life was shown to be no longer relevant, or acceptable.
Apparently the story of this segment has been made into a new documentary, Holy Flying Circus. Here’s a moment from the documentary:
Probably the cleverest response to the whole fiasco is Rowan Atkinson is this sketch from “Not the Nine O’Clock News”:
Pythonism. Finally, a religion that I can take seriously.
And how thoughtful of the nice British folks in the third video to provide subtitles for the American audience.
Bring out the Holy Hand-grenade of Antioch!!!!
That parody is brilliant!
I love that most religious people somehow don’t seem to realize that the pythons are making fun of them directly for their blind faith in the absurd.
That third video makes me wish I could see the movie that they’re talking about–with some chap named Jesus Christ kicking around hundreds of Spanish waiters.
Vorjack, you should add a warning to viewers: “KEEP YOUR EYES OFF THE SUBTITLES: they spoil the funny lines by announcing them before they have been delivered.”
It might be just me, but I wouldn’t have understood half of the videos without them.
I hate English subtitles when someone is speaking English.
Technically they were speaking British, which isn’t quite the same thing.
Then it should translate into American English, and not just write down his Brit-speak for me to read. (does a Canadian audience get some eh’s thrown in there?) My ears are fine. I can hear what he’s saying. It’s a little condescending to assume I can’t make out words spoken in another accent.
Clearly, you have never been to Mississippi.
blessed are the cheesemakers.
Life of Brian just went on my Christmas list.
my hubby bought the Monty Python collection 2 Xmas’s ago………
I think I’ll dig out Life Of Brian again!
After watching this, I understand Dawkins’ feisty and condescending debate style better; He grew up around fusty old religious turds like this and learned how to do it from them.
The bishop in the first clip did actually remind me of him – even looks a little like him. Definitely different in terms of actually paying attention to the questions asked and evidence available, though. This bishop seems determined to ignore everything said or shown to him and just steamroll his own interpretation of everything over all reality. What nonsensical kind of argument is it that “people make fun of Jesus, therefore Jesus is obviously popular and exists!”?
I have a feeling that by the end the Python team probably thought they might as well have viciously lampooned Jesus directly rather than make a silly story about some poor schmuck being mistaken for a messiah at around the same time. No matter what they said and no matter what the film demonstrated, the Christians were just determined to be offended. Good grief, can you imagine if this bishop were to be shown an episode of Family Guy?
And I suppose that’s what is so positive about things like this TV appearance – it has taken quite some time, and the work isn’t finished yet, but piece by piece religion’s expected, inherent deserving of reverence is being dismantled by people brave enough to look it in the face and say “no, you do not get to control what other people say and do any more”.
Yeah, Dawkins totally pays more attention to the argument, but he’s every bit as condescending when he thinks the person he’s arguing against is a religious brainwash victim. Not that I care about that fact, but it does illustrate why he came off as such a misogynist dick with that whole elevator gate scandal kerfuffle thing.
Yeah, Dawkins totally pays more attention to the argument, but he’s every bit as condescending when he thinks the person he’s arguing against is a religious brainwash victim. Not that I care about that fact, but it does illustrate why he came off as such a misogynist dick with that whole elevator gate scandal kerfuffle thing.