Monty Python's The Meaning of Life
This page is about the Monty Python film; for the philosophical concept, see meaning of life.
The Meaning of Life was a Monty Python comedy film made in 1983.
This film was essentially a series of comedy skits about the various stages of life - in some ways a return to the sketch comedy format of the original television series.
Spoiler warning: Plot or ending details follow.
The resulting film is regarded as a little uneven, though which particular scenes are thought funny varies from person to person. Some more generally praised scenes include:
- The Crimson Permanent Assurance, originally conceived by Terry Gilliam as a 6-minute animated sequence, later expanded to a 16-minute live-action piece, to the point where it no longer fit into the framework of the film and became a pre-movie short film in its own right. A group of elderly office clerks rebel against their corporate masters at The Very Big Corporation of America, commandeer their building and turn it into a pirate ship, raiding business districts in numerous big cities before falling off the edge of the world.
- The Miracle of Birth, Part I, is the opening scene of the film proper, where a woman in labour is ignored by doctors, nurses, Japanese tourists, and eventually the hospital's administrator as they drag in more and more elaborate equipment, including "the machine that goes PING!".
- The Miracle of Birth part II, which shows a Catholic family in industrial England that has to sell their 63 children for medical experiments, because they don't believe in birth control. The skit culminates in the musical number "Every Sperm is Sacred", a parody of "Consider Yourself" from the musical Oliver!, which satirises the Catholic Church's attitudes to contraception and masturbation.
- Sex education, in which a group of schoolboys watch in boredom as their teacher (John Cleese) demonstrates sexual techniques with his wife.
- Fighting Each Other, in which soldiers preparing to charge to their deaths attempt to throw a party in appreciation of their commander.
- Galaxy Song, in which a man in a pink suit (Eric Idle) emerges from Mrs. Brown's refrigerator to sing her a song about the wonders of the universe, all in an attempt to convince her to make an immediate liver donation.
- Middle Age, in which a husband and wife make a valiant attempt to discuss the philosophy they have ordered from a menu of conversations.
- Mr. Creosote, in which the eponymous gourmand, an impossibly fat man played by Terry Jones, waddles into a restaurant, swears at the waiter (Cleese), vomits copiously, eats an enormous meal served in buckets, and finally — after being persuaded to eat one last "wafer-thin mint" by the waiter — explodes, showering the restaurant with offal. Quentin Tarantino has confessed to being nauseated by this scene, but critics with stronger stomachs have praised its dark humour.
- Social Death, in which a group of snobs at an isolated country house are visited by the Grim Reaper (Cleese), and spend a lot of time arguing with him before finally being persuaded to leave the mortal coil.
- Heaven as a lounge act
Because the film was not intended for television, some scenes shows a much more black humour than the Monty Python TV series (for example Mr Creosote or Human Organ Transplantation sketch).
In 2004 a "special edition" DVD was released with director's commentary, deleted scenes and behind-the-scenes documentaries, both real and spoof.
During the title sequence, the title of the movie is first written as "The Meaning of Liff", and is corrected in a second by a lightning strike. This appears to allude to the humorous dictionary Meaning of Liff (by Douglas Adams and John Lloyd), released on same year as the movie.
