The month is nearly over so I will finally explain/blather on why the header art I went with Monty Python’s: The Meaning of Life. March is the 40th anniversary of its release in US theaters plus it’s the first full-length movie of theirs I saw. It’s definitely the closest to what their sketch comedy was like too. Don’t get me wrong, Life of Brian and The Holy Grail continue to hold up, make me laugh. It’s just those two have their humor driven by the larger narrative. Life can still get away with eight-plus skits strung together as their silly explanation on what’s it all about?
Of course when I saw it, I had to go about it surreptitiously. My good friend freshman year at Strake, Gene, hell, his parents took him to see it in a theater around 1983. Given my overbearing mother, I was lucky to see reruns of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. Anyway, two years later, Life was part of Showtime’s array of films in late 1985. So I programmed the family VCR to record it alongside Repo Man and I think Bachelor Party before we left North Dakota to celebrate Christmas at Grandma’s house in Central IL. Dad and I flew back before New Year’s, I remained on Winter Break so boom, Dad went to work and I spent a morning watching movies while eating cereal. I was 17 by then and old enough to view an R-rated movie anyway, I just wouldn’t be allowed to avoid my mother’s bitching about the nudity.
Most jokes continue to nail things on the head. Americans talk too much. Americans are rather ignorant about philosophy. The English keep forgetting they don’t have an empire and no one cares what they think. Given we remain within centimeters of self-destruction via nuclear war, AI or climate change 40 years later, we’re certainly not much smarter despite all the gadgets we’ve developed after the analog world the Pythons mocked.
I need to find out which streaming service it’s own to watch again. As I age, my favorite jokes change and my reasons hopefully have evolved.
Monty Python is just hilarious!!!