Greatest Monty Python Film

Which one takes the crown?

 

Trick question. They are all inferior to the TV series.

Seriously. Just reading the scripts for some of the TV series sketches has me in hysterics. Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson being a memorable favourite.

(edit) You missed "And Now For Something Completely Different" off the list.

 

I missed it off the list as really it's not something completely different, it's just a compilation of sketches from the TV series....

 

But since it's a compilation of sketches from the TV series, and the TV series is funnier than the films, it would win by default. Therefore, I accuse you of RIGGING this vote!

 

Ok, I love Life of Brian; but the Holy Grail turned me on to Python. It used to air on Comedy Central every weekend practically when I was about 18-19 years old, and I would watch it nearly every week and got to a point where I could quote most of the lines. (Though now I've forgotten most of them).

Life of Brian would be my next choice, as it was just ace comedy and religious satire. It did very nearly get me in trouble though, as the first time I watched it was with my very pious mom and she didn't care for the humour and cared even less for the scenes with nudity.


Meaning of Life is only good for the few lines that people quote at random. "Would you like a mint, sir" and the "Every sperm is sacred" song. Other than that, it was quite a waste of time, in my opinion. I just didnae geddit.

 

You just reminded me of a webcomic, give me a minute.


Found it.
http://xkcd.com/16/
I love XKCD

 

I actually prefer the other movies by python guys, Baron Munchausen, Brazil, Fish Called Wanda, Yellowbeard - that kinda thing. Of the ones listed, Life Of Brian is probably my fave.

 

Potato, potarto. The question was about films not TV sketches :tongue:

 

But it's listed as a film, so it deserves inclusion on the list.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Now_for_Something_Completely_Different#Reaction

Just because it was a film version of various parts of the TV series doesn't make it any less of a film. I could say the Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy is just an audio-visual interpretation of the books, but that doesn't mean it's not a film.

Actually, I wouldn't say it's any kind of representation of the books, since it's utter bollocks. But my point stands. Now fucking add it to the list, or I shall attack you with this banana.

 

"And Now For Something Completely Different" should indeed count, as power_13 points out it wasn't a compilation of clips from the TV series but re-filmed versions of some of the sketches, shot on 35mm specifically for cinema exhibition. Shot with a single film camera, it has a very different look and feel to the TV series, which was mostly vision-mixed in a multi-camera studio direct to videotape, with 16mm location inserts.

 

Well, by popular demand I've added it. Not that either of you two are popular. In fact I declare you both film geeks for this and renounce all knowledge of your existence....

 

Is Monty Python still funny? When it first came out we all thought it was hilarious and genuinely ground-breaking, but watching it now they come across as a bunch of snotty Oxbridge types (some of my best friends are Oxbridge types BTW, in fact now I think of it I went to Cambridge myself).

 

What college did you go to old boy? I was at Jesus....

 

I was at Caius. One that most folks outside Cambridge have never heard of...

 

I'd have thought Caius would have been quite famous given it's Stephen Hawking's college. He came very close to running me over once....

 

It's a controversial choice, but I'm going for "The Meaning of Life". The others are probably laugh out loud funnier, and for straight religious satire Life of Brian would win hands down, but there's just something about The Meaning of Life that has always appealed. It was written when the team were falling apart and were barely on speaking terms, and it has an air of underlying menace and moments of genuinely unsettling surrealism and it does what comedy should do when it's at its best - and that is to approach philosophy. The school section, the war section, "live organ transplants", "every sperm is sacred", and the final section, "death", are not just slapstick funny or easy wackiness but are thoughtful satirical analyses of growing up in Britain. It dissects our institutions and our attitudes and tells us something new about ourselves in a fondly disdainful and a piercingly acute and angry way.

:leaving:

 

Hang on, you left out "Live at the Hollywood Bowl", that was a cinema film:tongue:

 

Well you didn't even vote for And Now For Something Completely Different - which was not a narrative - anyway, so bugger off film geek :tongue:

 

I'm boycotting the poll in a stand against climate change.

 

I was once at a formal dinner with Stephen Hawking. Along with about 300 other people I must admit.