They told the actors playing the guards it was very important that they keep a straight face throughout, and then planned on cracking them up. Or so I've been told
I believe it is true. The extras were told they wouldn't get paid if they laughed. I love when he swings his toga around and gets in that guards face - "how 'bout you centurion? Do you find it risible to laugh when I say the naaaame..."
I think most of the scene was scripted apart from the part about his wife which was improvised, that's why you can hear the crew behind the camera laughing as well.
I'd like to think it was less a threat and more an appeal to professionalism.
"We've got to get this scene, and time is running out. You guys have to treat this like you're doing Shakespeare live. Whatever you do, don't fuck this up."
If one studies any foreign language, one of the first things one should learn is how to say "My Hovercraft is full of eels". And in fact I have done this. Why? Because when someone is studying an unusual choice of language (in my case it's Modern Greek) one is inevitably asked to "Say something in (Greek in my case)". So the sentence, which is objectively absurd, actually becomes useful. I'm considering Irish as my next language. Why Irish? Maybe speaking some Irish would help me get an Irish passport so I can escape from Fascist America.
Argument clinic is what I was going to choose haha
The entirety of Holy Grail, for starters. My high school history teacher said that it was one of the most realistic depictions of life in the Middle Ages ever put on film.
After that...
"What have the Romans ever done for us?"
"The roads!"
"Well, yeah. Obviously the roads. I mean, the roads go without saying, don't they? But apart from the sanitation, the aqueduct, and the roads--"
...and...
"Oh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor! Would ha' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woke up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House? Huh."
Earlier this morning, while reading the final Discworld novel, I came across this reference Terry Pratchett made to Monty Python. It’s not my favorite thing to come out of Monty Python, but it made me smile.
Television Announcer: And now, the penguin on top of your television set will explode.
{BOOOM!}
Watcher: How'd he know that?
Television Announcer: It was an inspired guess.
The multiple layers of cognitive dissonance are wonderful.
And weirdly the Ministry of Silly Walks actually could actually be important in real life with the advent of automated Gait Analysis used to identify people.
In my first year of high school I had Latin, which I hated with a passion. Before, I thought that it would boil down to learning some common words and sayings and proverbs, but no. It was learning latin as a foreign language. I don't think I was taught anything remotely as useless as that. And I really don't like the teacher and she didn't like me and it was truly awful and I hated every second of it. It was so awful that I had nightmares about it, even years after high school.
A couple (two I think) of years after that latin studies I saw the Life of Brian for the first time. I didn't know what I was going to see, so when the "romanus eunt domus" scene came. It wasn't just hilariously funny it was also cathartic.
So I'd say that. I remember that sketch almost by heart since the first time I saw it.
I came here to say this. And for people who didn't study Latin (which I did as an adult, having chosen German as my second foreign language at school), there is a video on YouTube which explains in detail exactly why that scene is so funny:
Quizmaster: Jolly good! Well now Madam your first question for the blow on the head this evening is: Which great opponent of Cartesian dualism resists the reduction of psychological phenomena to a physical state and insists there is no point of contact between the extended and the unextended?
Ratbag: I don’t know that.
Quizmaster: Well – have a guess!
Ratbag: Oh… Henri Bergson?
Quizmaster: …is the correct answer! (Piano chords)
Ratbag: Ooh, that was lucky. I never even heard of him.
The meaning of life
Try to be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.
A couple of lines from the The Man Who Says Words in the Wrong Order sketch.
"Sometimes at the end of a sentence I'll come out with the wrong fusebox. And the thing about saying the wrong word is a] I don't notice it, and b] sometimes orange water given bucket of plaster."
TheWrongFusebox was my reddit account for... well over a decade.
The scene in the life of brian where he is naked after having sex he swings wide the window shutters and all the worshippers are packed in tight to see him. Its the hardest I ever laugh and my friend had to pause the movie. I was on the ground and got a laugh cramp and it was like 5 or 10 minutes before we could progress again watching it.
Biggus Dickus, I remember my dad cracking up over it the first time I saw Life of Brian (not his first time, obviously). And now, more than 15 years later we're still in tears when just mentioning the name or watching the scene for the x'th time
edit: Life of Brian, not Holy Grail... sleep induced brain didn't work that well anymore
So many things.
Great memories with friends watching it just losing their shit laughing over the dead parrot sketch and the alien abduction scene from life of brian. Many great jokes.
Also I discovered Terry Gilliam movies over Monty I think, which are whole worlds of treasure for themselves.
The anarchist peasant from Holy Grail was a political awakening for me.
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate of the masses, not some farcical aquatic ceremony!
If I went around calling myself emperor because some moistened bint lobbed a scimitar at me they’d put me away!
(It’s amazing how much of this aligns with Graeber’s work)
I believe he was supposed to be a digger actually. But anarchist peasant is pretty close
The fact that their sketch use of "spam" made it into general usage.
And their name inspired the name of the third most used programming language
I'm torn between "every sperm is sacred" and the biggus dickus scene. Both make me laugh uncontrollably every time.
He has a wife, you know…
"You know what she's called? Incontinentia.... Incontinentia Buttocks WILL YOU STOP LAUGHING!?"
That scene is always able to make me laugh.
They told the actors playing the guards it was very important that they keep a straight face throughout, and then planned on cracking them up. Or so I've been told
I believe it is true. The extras were told they wouldn't get paid if they laughed. I love when he swings his toga around and gets in that guards face - "how 'bout you centurion? Do you find it risible to laugh when I say the naaaame..."
I think most of the scene was scripted apart from the part about his wife which was improvised, that's why you can hear the crew behind the camera laughing as well.
Here's the video I got that from: https://youtu.be/RmCWDZulUuQ
I'd like to think it was less a threat and more an appeal to professionalism.
"We've got to get this scene, and time is running out. You guys have to treat this like you're doing Shakespeare live. Whatever you do, don't fuck this up."
The Biggus Dickus sketch is brilliant.
Judean People Front vs People Front of Judea. So many issues of today can be boiled down to that discussion.
Also, I kind of agree that everyone has the pholosophical right to be pregnant, even if it's not a possibility.
SPLITTER!
The aqueduct?
Oof, too many to choose from. The first that came to my mind were the argument clinic and the cheese shop sketch.
My hovercraft is full of eels.
If one studies any foreign language, one of the first things one should learn is how to say "My Hovercraft is full of eels". And in fact I have done this. Why? Because when someone is studying an unusual choice of language (in my case it's Modern Greek) one is inevitably asked to "Say something in (Greek in my case)". So the sentence, which is objectively absurd, actually becomes useful. I'm considering Irish as my next language. Why Irish? Maybe speaking some Irish would help me get an Irish passport so I can escape from Fascist America.
my go-to phrase for this is always "lots of snow but no flashlight" due to a scene in an old Swedish movie
Argument clinic is what I was going to choose haha
This isn't argument! This is abuse!
You're just contradicting me
No I'm not
I can't believe no one has mentioned my favorite running Python gag:
That's because nobody expects them
The burn the witch sketch. I still show it to students to show how bad science and good science differ
I can't narrow it down to one gag, but Holy Grail as a whole.
The castle of aaaaaargh.
Perhaps he was dictating it.
It’s only a model
Shh!
The entirety of Holy Grail, for starters. My high school history teacher said that it was one of the most realistic depictions of life in the Middle Ages ever put on film.
After that...
...and...
Earlier this morning, while reading the final Discworld novel, I came across this reference Terry Pratchett made to Monty Python. It’s not my favorite thing to come out of Monty Python, but it made me smile.
He's a lumberjack & he's OK
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, song from Life of Brian
The Universe Song from Meaning of Life is also great
I forgot about this one! Brilliant
Such a jaunty representation of nihilism.
Four Yorkshiremen is an all-time classic sketch. Idk if it's my favorite but it's up there and nobody else mentioned it so 🤷♂️
"We would've DREAMED to have a hole in the ground!"
Television Announcer: And now, the penguin on top of your television set will explode. {BOOOM!} Watcher: How'd he know that? Television Announcer: It was an inspired guess.
The multiple layers of cognitive dissonance are wonderful.
nugde nudge wink wink knowaddamean knowaddamean
And weirdly the Ministry of Silly Walks actually could actually be important in real life with the advent of automated Gait Analysis used to identify people.
Say no more!
Pining for the fjords.
In my first year of high school I had Latin, which I hated with a passion. Before, I thought that it would boil down to learning some common words and sayings and proverbs, but no. It was learning latin as a foreign language. I don't think I was taught anything remotely as useless as that. And I really don't like the teacher and she didn't like me and it was truly awful and I hated every second of it. It was so awful that I had nightmares about it, even years after high school.
A couple (two I think) of years after that latin studies I saw the Life of Brian for the first time. I didn't know what I was going to see, so when the "romanus eunt domus" scene came. It wasn't just hilariously funny it was also cathartic.
So I'd say that. I remember that sketch almost by heart since the first time I saw it.
I came here to say this. And for people who didn't study Latin (which I did as an adult, having chosen German as my second foreign language at school), there is a video on YouTube which explains in detail exactly why that scene is so funny:
https://youtu.be/UfH6gjxTTgE?feature=shared
Quizmaster: Jolly good! Well now Madam your first question for the blow on the head this evening is: Which great opponent of Cartesian dualism resists the reduction of psychological phenomena to a physical state and insists there is no point of contact between the extended and the unextended?
Ratbag: I don’t know that.
Quizmaster: Well – have a guess!
Ratbag: Oh… Henri Bergson?
Quizmaster: …is the correct answer! (Piano chords)
Ratbag: Ooh, that was lucky. I never even heard of him.
Raised Catholic so “Every Sperm is Sacred” has a special meaning to me.
The witch trial which explains duck typing perfectly.
BRING OUT YER DEAD!
I’m not dead yet!
I can't take him.. ..e said e's not dead!
He'll be dead soon enough, lookatim!
I'm getting better!
A couple of lines from the The Man Who Says Words in the Wrong Order sketch.
"Sometimes at the end of a sentence I'll come out with the wrong fusebox. And the thing about saying the wrong word is a] I don't notice it, and b] sometimes orange water given bucket of plaster."
TheWrongFusebox was my reddit account for... well over a decade.
Immanuel Kant was a real pissant Who was very rarely stable
Heidegger, Heidegger was a boozy beggar Who could think you under the table
David Hume could out-consume Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel
And Wittgenstein was a beery swine Who was just as schloshed as Schlegel
There's nothing Nietzsche couldn't teach ya 'bout the raising of the wrist Socrates, himself, was permanently pissed
John Stuart Mill, of his own free will On half a pint of shandy was particularly ill
Plato, they say, could stick it away Half a crate of whiskey every day
Aristotle, Aristotle was a bugger for the bottle Hobbes was fond of his dram
And Rene Descartes was a drunken fart "I drink, therefore I am."
Yes, Socrates himself is particularly missed A lovely little thinker, but a bugger when he's pissed
"Tis' but a flesh wound"
I adore the bit where they're talking about woody and tinny words. I still describe words as such, it's perfect.
kiki / bouba effect
Oh and of course the dead parrot!
It's not dead.
‘es pining for the fjords
The programming language is pretty good
The funniest joke in the world
Edit: also, The Flasher
How do you make a nazi ceoss?
Tred on his corn!
The ministry of silly walks
Someone else said The Argument Clinic and that is definitely my favorite.
But my most referenced is "And now for something completely different."
I’ve told you once.
No you didn't!
I most certainly did.
Python, the programming language. At least the name
The scene in the life of brian where he is naked after having sex he swings wide the window shutters and all the worshippers are packed in tight to see him. Its the hardest I ever laugh and my friend had to pause the movie. I was on the ground and got a laugh cramp and it was like 5 or 10 minutes before we could progress again watching it.
My top favourite is already the top most voted so I’ll just mention a few that I think are classics that I didn’t see on the list:
Sir robin bravely ran away
Holy hand grenade
The animator having a heart attack
In a happier timeline, there's a Judge Dredd movie with John Cleese as Dredd. Directed by Terry Gilliam.
Also the Terry Gilliam directed Harry Potter movies.
That would be Time Bandits, imho.
Probably The Crimson Permanent Assurance or The Art of Not Being Seen
"Mr. Bradshaw, will you stand up please?"
Oh, or Tim.
Biggus Dickus, I remember my dad cracking up over it the first time I saw Life of Brian (not his first time, obviously). And now, more than 15 years later we're still in tears when just mentioning the name or watching the scene for the x'th time
edit: Life of Brian, not Holy Grail... sleep induced brain didn't work that well anymore
Biggus dickus sketch is from the life of Brian though.
He's a phony! A big, fat phony!
right! i was half asleep and not thinking that well anymore...
You know, he has a beautiful wife...
I like the defective Hungarian/English phrase book sketch a lot.
"My nipples explode with orgasmic delight".
it's a deep pull, but it has to go to Eric the Half a Bee. it's just permanently lodged in my mind.
Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition
The fish dance, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8XeDvKqI4E
Jokes, mostly.
Jokes and skits.
The machine that goes bing
Argument Clinic
No it isn't
A newt???
Philosopher's Football
Classic.
The Upperclass Twit of the Year.
"A balm? What are you giving him a balm for? It might bite him."
And now for something completely different...
No, no. None of that. It's silly now.
Mint?
Are you sure...? It's whaf-fah thin...
Sprints away
Oh oh oh, we want to learn how to defend ourselves against pointed sticks, do we.
So many things. Great memories with friends watching it just losing their shit laughing over the dead parrot sketch and the alien abduction scene from life of brian. Many great jokes. Also I discovered Terry Gilliam movies over Monty I think, which are whole worlds of treasure for themselves.
Just great.
I Bet You They Won't Play This Song on the Radio
That a guy in a purple dress got super agroed about a movie he thought was about his crush in the name of his version of decency.
people reciting lines in a circle forever at the office
Erik the Viking
Crunchy frogs?