What did 'Life of Brian' ever do for us? | Hacker News Reader

What did 'Life of Brian' ever do for us?

telegraph.co.uk

51 pointsrglovejoy32 comments

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...

Did that law get passed?

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

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.

"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.

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

Dogma?

South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut?

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.

They meant comedy.

Good call... but I don't know that the comparison is fair. Dogma basically ends with an obvious "god is good" message which LOB doesn't.

On the other hand, Dogma does suggest that none of the organized religions we have is correct...

Dogma was not done by a comedy group and was not funny. Or insightful. Or good in any way.

So no Dogma, should not be compared to Life of Brian.

I agree. Dogma was simply awful, unless your idea of wit is fart jokes.

While I respect your opinion, I think your missing the point.

The point is that in both cases, a movie was made about religion that was also (an attempt at) a comedy.

That aside, I agree that LOB was more insightful, but I think there is something interesting about what Dogma did. It was an attempt to look at the modern day implications of taking the bible literally. You can say they sucked at it if you want, but its a neat idea.

Dogma wasn't made by the British.

Dogma is good, but nothing as cutting as the stoning scene or the mass crucifixion

"Vidi, vici, veni"

Classical brilliance.

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"

"He's not the messiah, hes a very naughty boy"

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.

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.

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.

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

I'd like to know as well - seriously.

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.

I confess I also prefer Holy Grail to LOB (although I do like both).

It is probably the surprise effect; it was the first Monty Python I ever saw.

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 :)

Indeed, The Invention of Lying by Ricky Gervais makes the case that religion wouldn't exist at all in a world without liars and peddlers of false hope. That seems pretty damn blasphemous to me.

an interesting premise given one of the commandments is no false witness, not to mention some of the eastern religions.

LOB could easily be made today.

Maybe without the one scene... (where he wakes up to a crowd of his followers.).

In Britain? Nah. The UK has become less gymnophobic over time, not more.

Hmmm... depends if they wanted it released to other audiences are not.

Hmm.. I can't think of one, which ones are you referring to?

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