
What did 'Life of Brian' ever do for us? - rglovejoy
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/6679546/What-did-Life-of-Brian-ever-do-for-us.html
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oikujhyghjm
The difference is in 1979 it wasn only illegal to blaspheme against the church
of England.

Today in more enlightened times it's illegal to make jokes about any religion,
[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rowan-
atkinso...](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/rowan-atkinson-
attacks-proposed-terrorism-law-631693.html)

~~~
hristov
Did that law get passed?

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drinian
_The script was then rejected by every major movie studio before Idle and
producer John Goldstone turned to former Beatle George Harrison, who quickly
secured the required $4 million._

Right, but besides _Sgt. Pepper_ , _Life of Brian_ , and the invention of the
CT scanner [1], what have the Beatles ever done for us?

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CT_scanner#History>

~~~
geedee77
I used to work for EMI and I'd never heard of that before. I think that just
goes to show part of the problem with the big record companies now, they don't
seem to like getting their name out there attached to good things anymore.

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ojbyrne
"However, current tastes and sensitivities make it highly unlikely that a
comedy group would even attempt making a film like Brian today"

It seems from the article that it was highly unlikely that a comedy group
would even attempt making a film like Brian in 1979.

I highly recommend Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut) - it's a
great documentary about Python. The author of the article appears several
times.

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RyanMcGreal
> However, current tastes and sensitivities make it highly unlikely that a
> comedy group would even attempt making a film like Brian today.

 _Dogma_?

~~~
mechanical_fish
_South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut_?

~~~
drinian
Actually, any of a long list of _South Park_ episodes. Although, for the most
part, _SP_ tends to be far more blunt and direct with its message.

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dhimes
"Vidi, vici, veni"

Classical brilliance.

~~~
trevelyan
My favorite is Reg's easily missed summary of the Sermon on the Mount:

"As far as I can tell, blessed is just about everyone with a vested interest
in the status quo"

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andrewcaito
Until pretty recently, the top google result on my name for years was this
1997 haiku contest: <http://orangecow.org/pythonet/haiku.html>

It's interesting to me that this showed up on HN, as I remember Monty Python
being a huge part of my first experiences with the internet. Before searching
was so easy, I would spend hours looking up quotes, scripts, clips, and so on.

I might be tempted to say something else that 'Life of Brian' did for us was
give people like me reasons to become more familiar with the internet, leading
to careers in programming, etc.

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brtzsnr
I saw the movie second time while smoking pot. Almost suicidal because I had
trouble breathing from so much laugh. I suggest you try it.

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DanielBMarkham
_However, 30 years on, that same film is regularly touted as the funniest
British comedy of all time_

I love everything that Monty Python ever did, but I would hardly call Life of
Brian the funniest British comedy of all time.

Respectfully, I disagree. I think the author overstates his case. LOB could
easily be made today.

~~~
redcap
If you don't mind, could you list some of the films that you regard as funnier
than the Life of Brian?

~~~
DanielBMarkham
Off the top of my head? The top two are definitely Python.

Holy Grail reached a cult status that LOB never reached, for instance.

Meaning of Life is an odd duck -- most people didn't like it as much overall
but love all the scenes in it. I'd still rank it (a bit) over LOB.

~~~
redcap
Well fwiw Grail is rated higher on IMDB than LoB. And I can agree that some (a
lot?) of the skits in Meaning of Life are pure gold, but overall it lacks the
narrative that ties both Brian and Grail together.

Life of Brian being rated as one of the best British comedies I can understand
if only because it had more of a broader appeal (at least more widespread
coverage thanks to the religious hullaballoo).

Grail on the other hand, may appeal to the cult market more and be more
popular on that front (being the type of people who might vote on IMDB).

I'm grasping at straws here, but at least in my books the religious aspect of
Brian (combined with the overall quality of the film) would lead me to say
that it's more important than the other two Python films.

It's also telling that the two films you regard as better than Life of Brian
are both by the Pythons :)

