Monty Python's Life of Brian/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Non Sequitur Scene: For a Monty Python film, Life of Brian is very reasonably paced and well-grounded—save for the scene where Brian falls off of a tower to be saved by a passing flying saucer, taken into space to pass through an intergalactic war, and then brought back to Earth in a crash of alien metal—right at the foot of the same tower. The scene was added merely to give Brian a way to escape the tower.
    • "...you lucky bastard!"
    • Soooo could it be called a Big Lipped Alien Moment?
    • Some have speculated that it may be a reference to the conspiracy theories regarding UFOs popping up in the backgrounds of paintings of Christ. Given the amazing amount of research done it's plausible, but doesn't seem to be the case.
    • I thought this was a reference to some of the weirder stuff the Mormons believe in.
    • Or it could be just to lampoon the then-burgeoning space opera genre popularised by the likes of Star Wars, which also happened to be shot in the same Middle Eastern/North African locales as it is with religious epics. As a matter of fact, George Lucas met Terry Gilliam in San Francisco and praised him for his work.
  • Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch: Anyone who protested the film over mocking Jesus.
    • A few ministers said that Brian was supposed to be Jesus. They had come into the theater late and missed the first fifteen minutes, which establish that Jesus exists in this universe as a separate person from Brian.
    • Even if Brian was Jesus, the charge that they were mocking him doesn't really stick—Brian is the Only Sane Man.
    • Well, presumably if they thought he was Jesus, bits such as when he appears nude after having sex with Judith don't go over that well.
  • What's so funny about "Biggus Dickus?" I have a vewy gweat fwiend in Wome called "Biggus Dickus."
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Let's face it, do you know anyone who doesn't know "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life"? Even the survivors of a British ship sunk during the Falklands War sang it while waiting for rescue.
  • Dude, Not Funny: Far too many examples to list, depending on the viewer's taste.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight
    • The scene were Stan/Loretta defends his right to have babies is even funnier with the advent of Mister Seahorse fan fiction.
    • "People called Romanes, they go the 'ouse?!"—to anyone who's ever read a computer-generated translation of anything.
  • Magnum Opus Dissonance: The Monty Python crew consider this to be their masterpiece, but most other people say that the less controversial Monty Python and the Holy Grail is the best thing they've made. John Cleese once stated that most people in Great Britain are a fan of Life of Brian, while Americans like Holy Grail better.
    • It's simple really -- Holy Grail is sillier, more random, more madcap and for want of a better word more "Pythonesque", which some people find simply funnier. Life of Brian is arguably the better film and its humour is much more incisively satirical than the outright looney Holy Grail.
  • Moral Guardians: The natural enemy of the Python.
  • Never Live It Down: Brian tries to chase off his followers. It doesn't work.
  • Shown Their Work: They managed to get a lot of historical details right in the film.
    • When it comes to the controversy about the film, it rapidly becomes clear that the Pythons know what they're talking about a lot more than the Moral Guardians do.
  • Tear Jerker: The bits between the botched (or successful, depending on your outlook) Suicide Squad raid and the finale. Brian is being crucified, and not even those he loves are going to help him. His lover takes his "martyrdom" with pride, and his mother berates him and leaves him for dead.
  • Unacceptable Targets: The main point of contention with the film, where critics accuse Brian of "taking the mick out of" Jesus and His teachings. Thing is, even if did appear on the surface to be an irreverent parody of biblical epics, the film actually treats the source material with a lot of respect, and both clergy and religious scholars alike praised it to be an Affectionate Parody, as well as a critique on how some Christians, particularly the conservative/fundamentalist types, claim to profess their faith yet do not sincerely live up to Christ's teachings.
  • The Woobie: Brian