A Geek History of Time - Episode 371 - Monty Python and the Life of Britons Part I

Episode Date: May 29, 2026

You know, the thing is you have reached farther for less good. To be blunt, the money in tabletop games isn't great. We have to wind up with the Church of England because obvi, I'll start. I mean, you're here to be the expert, but that doesn't stop bad. That one oddly doesn't make me angry. Because you know who's the boss? You know what? I'm going to keep my head down inoffensive as I can to everybody possible.

And that's it. You want to fight? I'm going to dry hump your leg until we're friends. Of course, reminded me of that one woman that I went on a single date with who said, you know, the downside about my job is that we don't show kids drowning anymore. This is a geek history of time. Where we connect a nerdery to the real world. My name is Ed Blaylock. I'm a world history teacher here in Northern California.

and just in the last two weeks, my son has started baseball. He is playing coach pitch, and they haven't had a game yet, but he's been to several practices. And it's kind of funny because my parents, my mother particularly, is very interested in what's going on with all of this. And she doesn't quite understand the level at which he's entering the sport. Because he's asking, so, you know, do you know what position you're playing right now?

And no, they don't have assigned positions yet. They're rotating everybody through every position. And, oh, well, you know, do you know what position you might like? He's only been to like three practices. He doesn't know yet. So, but yeah, he's, he's. having a lot of fun. He's really stoked about it. And so, yeah, that's what I have going on. How about you? I got to show my kids. Well, first of all, I'm Damian Harmony. I am a U.S.

history and government teacher here at the high school level in Northern California. And I got to show my kids one of my favorite episodes of Star Trek ever. Not my favorite favorite. This one was somewhat jovial, though there was a death in it. I showed them. Actually, guess which one I showed them. There's a death in it. It's one of your favorite episodes. Is this next generation? Yes, this is TNG.

At some point, I'm going to have to show them the triple episode so they'll understand when we get to Deep Space Nine. But I ain't there yet. Yeah. I don't know. I'm not sure. And Gilad. Oh, it's anagra. Yes.

Oh, yeah. So I showed them that and then talk to them both. I'm like, you do realize they're just talking in meme, right? And so then I just started using mundane things around the house to explain how I was feeling. So I was like, you know, Kipper when dad sneezes. You know, just. Oh, I love it. Oh, and then I went upstairs, came back down and I changed my shirt.

And I have a shirt that is like frog and towed riding on bicycle. Yeah. But it's Darmok. Angelad riding on the bicycle. Nice. So I come down and there's like, I'm like, now you get it. And now,

no, children, you understand. Yes. Yeah. Anyway, that's what I've got. Very cool. Yeah. So my turn tonight. Yeah.

And I did a whole lot of note taking, but I didn't think about how it was going to like introduce the topic on this one but um how how familiar are you uh with monte python uh let's see i have seen i think there's three movies correct yes yes i've seen all three movies uh i've enjoyed two of them quite a bit i've ranked them all of course and i've seen several uh iconic sketches Okay. So, and I've seen, I've actually probably seen more interviews with the, the Python crew, uh, than I've seen, uh, of, of their actual work. Of the actual show.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So. Now, yeah. Yeah. It occurs to me. Mm-hmm.

The question occurs to me because of that. Do you think that is just because of the nature of the media landscape or like, is it partly because as a comedian interviews with these guys are something that you're more it might not even be the comedian thing it might just be that's my personality is like I like to see interviews

with people who did cool shit that I liked okay um okay yeah so uh and and you know seeing their retrospective of it uh okay one of my favorite interviews is their Aspen interview It's just so good. Yeah, and I don't want to spoil it for anybody who hasn't seen the clip.

But yeah, it really, it really is. When you make an interviewer, flee the room. You've done good. And I don't mean you've done well. I mean, you've done a good. You've done a good thing. Yes. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. So I have seen some interviews with some of them. And one of the most interesting interviews to me is one that actually dates back to either 1979 or early 1980. Okay. And it's from a BBC chat show Saturday night, Sunday morning. Okay. And it's John Clefell.

lease. When did it air? I want to say it was 79 or 80. Right, but like what did we get there? Oh, late, late night, very late night, Saturday night. Oh, would have been so much cooler if it was a Wednesday afternoon. Yeah, I know. They've been right up their alley.

Right, completely, yeah, totally. Well, it's Wednesday at 3.30 p.m. It's clearly time for Saturday night. Sunday morning. Yeah. Yeah. That would have been, that would have been, kind of thing they did in the skit, yeah.

But they were interviewed along with, it was less that they were interviewed so much as they were, they were kind of sat down to face something of a firing squad. I think I know about this. Yeah, John Cleese and Michael Palin. And I'm trying to remember whether Graham Chapman was there, if it was just the two of them. But they were sat there and there was the chat show host.

And there was a representative of the Church of England and some other British religious conservative figure who lambasted the two of them. Now, real quick, are you going to name who that representative was? So I should see my power dry. I don't have it down here. Wasn't it the Archbishop of Canterbury? No. I thought so. I thought so the first couple of times that I saw the clip, but it was not actually, it wasn't anybody that important. Okay.

The Monseigneur of Canterbury. Yes, yeah. And so anyway, they faced this lambasting from these two guys. And they worked very hard. And I think very well, like, you know, this many years after the events that the whole thing was. about. It's really clear to see that they're being, that is to say, Palin and Cleese are being very reasonable and they get a little bit heated because they're being, you know, personally attacked, put on the spot. But they keep it together a lot better than I would have.

Well, they're British. Well, yeah, I mean, yeah, there's that. But I swear to God, the British are operating on pheromone levels or something like the amount of like stiff upper lip and just like needle sharp like they just drop the crystal needle into the arch and suddenly the whole thing lights up with just one fucking saying and it's like like I remember uh and and I've kind of come around on this guy a bit like kind of I don't admire him as much as I used to but um okay Christopher Hutchins um oh yeah and he's going on and he's he's just hitting with facts, right? And he's in my camp, right? You know, so I don't mind seeing him take apart religious people in a debate.

And I don't really mind him being that much of a dick. It's my problem with him is that he's a hawk and a misogynist. Yeah. But when it comes to religion, it's a fairly large overlap between me and him. But there's somebody he's talking to, I think, in New Jersey or New York. And he's been going for like two or three minutes, explain, laying out his case for, you perfectly fine to have whatever stupid religion you want, but you cannot do this and this.

And the guy says, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I just don't understand your word you're saying. And he just turns to him. He says, I'm not surprised in the least. And then keeps going. And I'm like, yeah, that's the most British shit. So like, yeah, I swear to God, they communicate by pheromones. Like, just like I still think to this day that the French communicate by telepathy, like, limited telepathy, because they don't

finish word. The British have got to be doing it by Feremont, which explains their hatred of spice. You know, like it would, it would fuck with their sensory understanding of each other. Oh my God, mind blow. Right? Because I'm always like, why are you going to take over

the world for spices and never use any? And they're not put them in your food. Right. Yeah. Now I know. That makes sense. It makes sense. Anyway, so I can imagine John Cleese and you said Michael Palin. And Michael Palin. Yeah. A great uncle of Sarah Palin.

I made that up. Yeah, I was going to say, she wishes she was related to anybody that cool. She wouldn't want to be related to a foreigner. That's a good point. So anyway, they defend themselves, I think very convincingly, against charges of blasphemy. Wow. And the reason they were being accused of blasphemy, the reason that the reason that the article of their work that was that was being denigrated.

One of these guys referred to as a 10th rate movie. Like conservative snowflake orama. Oh, that's great. Clearly so pissed off. Is their film Monty Python's Life of Brian? And this episode is going to be about the life of Brian. Nice. because I want to, I want to, I want to kind of take a look at it.

I want to, I want to do some analysis and kind of look at where it fits in, in the time when it was made, and kind of where it fits in where we are now. So are you looking at it from an American perspective? I mean, by necessity, we, we do. But, like, are you looking at where it fits in American culture or is this another takedown of Maggie Thatcher? I'm fine with you. There is a certain level of take down of Maggie Thatcher. So, yeah. Looking at it in the context of when it was made in the UK.

And so first, for maybe a couple of our listeners, I'm sure most anybody listening to our show is familiar with who Monty Python's Flying Circus were. Or the Python's for short. But just to, you know, set the ground rules, the folks we're talking about are Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idol, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. Yeah. And Jones tended to be the director, correct? That's Gilliam. Gilliam.

Gilliam. The other Terry. Okay. Gilliam did the animation and wound up becoming the one who is most famous since Python as a film director. Right. Notably Brazil being one of his best known and most critically acclaimed. Eric the Viking has a special place in my heart. You're right.

Critical acclaim. Mine too. Mine too. Not going to lie. Time bandits also. I'm sorry. This is going to be interrupting all the time. time with oh, God, this line.

In Eric the Viking, just the fact that the Christian is the one that they get to Valhalla and he can't see anything. And the berserker attacks him for having no faith is just so, I mean, such a long payoff. You know, he was a Buddhist. Same thing, isn't it? It is not. But then later on. And he's, you know, the monster.

And he's like, he's laughing his ass off. and oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah um and then he get to paul halla off the edge of the earth and and he's i don't what are we looking at what you don't have any faith in anything just yeah yeah um and time bandits of course for whatever reason the one line out of time man it's that most that most sticks with me yeah is uh horse flesh is dead oh that's a good one too My favorite is, and how long have you been a thief? Four foot one. Just, yeah.

This is going to be like an eight-episode thing. Oh, yeah, just because, yeah. Our kids are activated, you know. Yeah, you're going to do it and then I'm going to do it. Right. Yeah. So the members of the troop had all worked on the same show before. In 1966 and

In 1967 They were all on the staff of the show The Frost Report Okay But is that in Is that a send-up of Is his name David Frost The guy who interviewed Nixon?

Not a direct send-up of him But a send-up of the news Okay Basically Which makes sense he was a journalist Okay Yeah. And so they, they, several of them were writers and a couple of them were on the, on the, on the acting side of things. Gotcha.

So they, they, you know, a couple of them had had been working together, you know, one on one. A couple of them been working together one on one in the writers room. But they, they hadn't all been on the same side of things at the same time until in May of 1969. they all got together in a Kashmiri Tanduri restaurant in Hampstead. Okay. And they all met. Sure. And they had all separately built up resumes that put all of them on the verge of breaking through.

But they got together and it was and it was together after they established the flying circus. that they all broke through all at once. They gained, you know, recognition and, you know, joined the big leagues effectively with Monty Python's Flying Circus. And Monty Python's Flying Circus was immensely innovative. It was itself very heavily influenced by The Goon Show, which was Peter Sellers' work on the radio

and then later on television. Oh, sorry. Well, and also another thing by Peter Sellers was Q. Another early television comedy show in the UK. It's just a spinoff of James Bond? Yeah, no.

Hard to explain. Yeah. But... Just a show about people getting in line. Basically. Holden Polish. Yeah. Very British.

Yeah. My dad, when watching Monty Python, my dad compared it to Ernie Kovacs. Why do I know that name? Because he's an American who was immensely influential in television comedy. Okay. He did a skit show where he played around very heavily with the kinds of visual effects that were becoming possible with television. vision as a medium and he he really played with you know cuts between cameras doing kind of split-screen stuff and and and all that kind of thing and there was a

very strong absurdist kind of bent to a lot of what he did one of the one of the skits at his show that's that's famous is the Nairobi trio which is a trio of musicians on a blank stage. Okay. All three of them wearing guerrilla costumes. Okay. And they're playing and they're playing and they're playing and one of them makes a mistake. And with absolute flat affect, no, no kind of, you know, no hysterics, no nothing.

One of them just reaches over and smacks the one that made a mistake over the head with a drumstick or something. And then the music. the music stops cold and they look at each other and then they turn back to the camera and they start back up and there's an absurdity to that i like yeah yeah yeah it's it's it's it's very absurdist and so the the pythons wanted they they they really wanted to play with the television comedy format and one of the things that they they didn't like about the Goon Show in particular was that

all of the ending they felt like the endings of skits all felt very rushed and like didn't they a lot of them didn't pay off because you know it was like well the writers just ran out of steam and they

couldn't figure out how to how to end it in comedy we call this having a good premise yeah but not having a good punchline yeah I think it's funny that they all get together in 1969 and decide that that's a big problem. Considering how, like, good that they named it, I guess. Yeah, yeah. Because it was ubiquitous in a lot of what I've seen of theirs.

Well, so what they did to avoid that was they adopted a stream of consciousness style. Ah. Where it was. Oh, so they adapted to the problem. They didn't fix the problem. Yeah. No. No.

They didn't fix the problem. They adapted to it by, you know, well, it just got silly. Right. This is too silly. You know. And now for something, and now for something completely different. Right. And so, Gileum as the animator, the animated bits in the flying circus in the television show and in the movies.

When you watch the films, you see this too. Yes. those interstitial animation bits work in a stream of consciousness way to take you from story A into story B. Right. Without, you know. Not too different from, I mean, obviously this was inspired by, but you can't do that on television, had a similar thing.

Yes. Similar style, too. And all of that style goes all the way back. If we go, if we go back to our discussion of. comic books and what have you, we get to the psychedelia of that time, remember? Yeah. Oh, yeah. That same kind of style, which also, by the way, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.

Yes. That same style. Yes, very much. And the thing is, I think what all of those creators, what everybody kind of figured out or discovered. I guess, was that in the format of television with the way that cuts could be made with the way that editing could be done,

that that was a feature, they treated it like a feature rather than a bug, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That, you know, the audience, the audience is sitting there, you're in their home. Mm-hmm.

And so, you know, in a in a movie theater or in a strictly audio kind of kind of medium like radio, that would be harder to sell, right? It would be it could be more difficult to make work. But with television specifically, you can get away with, you know, cutting between things. things and and you know the the necessity of continuity is not as powerful right if that makes sense it does it does again making it a bug not a feature it becomes you know it it it it becomes a gimmick that the audience can count on yeah yeah yeah um and so uh you know they And they would, they would, you know, really, really kind of push on the, how long can we, can we keep a particular joke going and keep the audience's attention? Right.

Like one of my favorite bits that they did, and I don't remember which episode of the show it was. but you kept clipping in between skits they would show Michael Palin in a in a fright wig in a long wispy fake beard and and tattered clothing

trudging onto a beach and and he'd get a little bit farther or a little bit closer to you every time and then they'd cut away to something else. And they'd have a skittin and come back to him and he was still trudging up the beach.

And he's got this look at his face like, wait, wait, no, hold on. I've got to tell you something. And then at the very end of the show, he makes it to, you know, medium shot range of the camera and says, it's. And then they cut to the Monty Python's Flying Circus And that's when they do the show titles at the end of the end of this. After you've been watching this the whole time.

It's like, you know, my back when I was in high school in, I don't know, 95 or no, sorry, I graduated high school before that. Sorry. When I was in high school in like 92, sorry. I'm trying to remember whether it was MTV or VH1. somebody had Monty Python on in the afternoon. That had to be MTV. I'm pretty sure. Was way too much.

VH1 was, here's something for the older people who like music. Yeah. Here's less threatening stuff. Yes, very much. Here's for the lunch crowd at Togo's in Walnut Creek. That was VH1. That's oddly specific there, Damien.

I've lived experience. I still specifically that it needed to stay on VH1 I was like okay all right I love that that was store policy that's funny so but MTV was showing Monty Python

in the afternoon and you know at that point my dad was working as an airline pilot so like either he was gone or he was not you know or he wasn't working yeah yeah And so on days that he was home, he'd watch it with me in the afternoon.

And what he would always ask is, what were they on? You know, and what I found out was none of them were actually on anything. There was an awful lot of beer being drunk, apparently. But remarkably enough. But all by Graham. Yeah. A lot of it, yes. And so, like, there's that one.

And then there's one skit that, that again, a favorite is the cat confusers. Just by the name. Which is an advert, it's essentially an extended advertisement for a company that if your cat, essentially if your cat has blue screened and is just sitting there staring, you know what's wrong. The cat confusers will show up and they will, they will get your cat. fixed. Back on track. Yeah. Yeah.

And they do all kinds of stuff where, you know, they use, you know, camera tricks and stuff to have, you know, members of the group, you know, pop from one side of the screen to do the side of the screen and, you know, move and do all kinds of stuff. And they keep cutting back to this cat who's just sitting on a lawn. Nice. Just staring. Right. And like one ear twitches backward. It sounds like a more refined version of what SNL was. Like the same chaos, but oddly more clever.

Yeah. Well, like you said, British. So like operating on pheromone level. Yes. And then my probably my favorite skit out of the show, just to give an idea of kind of the tone, was in stentorian, you know, style, John Cleese comes on.

And there's just a just a landscape shot in front of the camera. He says, and lettering comes up and says, you know, how not to be seen. Lesson one. He says. And so we will now begin our lessons in how not to be seen. Mr. and he gives this detailed name of somebody from this town on this street is showing us how not to be seen. Mr. Smith,

whatever the guy's name is, can you please show us where you are? And from behind a bush, one of the guys stands up, stands up and goes, hello, boom. Right. There's an explosion.

You see tattered clothing fly up and air and come back down. I remember that. Unfortunately, Mr. Smith forgot the first lesson of not being seen. And it goes through, iteration after iteration of, you know,

uh, there's, there's one where it's, there's three bushes in the foreground. He says, you know, and, uh,

Mrs. Mrs. Plimpton of wherever, wherever has given us quite the puzzler. But through a simple process of elimination, the first, the two bushes on the outside edges both blow up. We can find out where she is.

Boom. Yeah. And it's just, it's, it's, it's, yeah, it's, yeah, it's, ridiculous. It's so absurd, but that's...

It's, again, sophisticated bassomatic. Yeah. Mm, great bass. Right. Yes. Yes. Very. Yeah. And so their work in the show, they were consistently satirical and consistently subversive. Like, there was an awful lot of fun being poked at the class system.

Right. I've referenced upper class twit of the year. I don't know how many times. Oh, sure. In just in our show. Yeah. And the Ministry of Silly Walks. Of course.

There's the cheese shop. There's, you know. So in order of the stick, you know, one of the characters goes to order a pole arm. And they do the cheese shop. Yeah. And then the two radioactive cockroaches come in at the bottom of the like, Hey, look, a dead parrot. Like, they add to it.

I love it. And so my daughter, she loves order of the stick. She read it all and all that. And she had no idea as to this. So I had to show it to her. And she's like, oh, my God. I thought it was just. And I was like, no, no, no.

This is homage. This is a reference. Yeah. It was beautiful. Pining for the fjords. So, and so there's, there's, you know, the British class system. They mock the very stiff upper lip kind of convention of British society that you're talking about as it's like, you know, communicating in pheromones.

Right. And it's like I said, it's subversive and it's satirical. But they never go after specific politicians. Like SNL. No, immediately went after Gerald Ford. Yeah. Immediately. Instantly.

Yeah. And they never brought up specific issues or political parties or anything like that. It was it was genuinely subversive. Right. In that it wasn't it wasn't just like, oh, hey, you know, look at, you know, jackass politician here. It was no, no, look at the entire system. Right. Look.

Look at, look at how, how archaic. and Byzantine our government bureaucracy is. Right. You know, uh, uh, this makes no damn sense. Yeah.

And, and, and if there's a question being begged, they were going to point to it and go, no, no, we're going to give you an answer. It's going to be a thoroughly ridiculous,

like how dumb is this? Right. Answer. But we're going to fucking answer the question. Right. Right. And so, um,

the troop, the pythons individually and collectively and the show, Monty Python's Flying Circus, have had an immense influence on modern comedy. Oh, yeah. It would be very, very hard to describe any kind of sketch comedy show that hasn't somehow been responding to. Trace its lineage back to. Yeah. Yeah. What they did.

And like at some point, an episode, a whole episode just on the show itself is deserved. But that's not why we're here. What I'm here to talk about is Monty Python's Life of Brian. And so we're going to look on the bright side of life here. Always. Always. And so it's released in 1979. And the film almost didn't get made because the pythons had a production deal with EMI.

And EMI took a look at the script and what they were planning on doing and went, I don't think we want to touch this. We're going to, we'll be over here, way, way over here. and I'm trying to remember which of the pythons it was who was a friend of Harrison from the Beatles. Wasn't that Eric Idol? I believe so, yeah. Yeah. And so...

Did Python, were they the ones that did the ruddles? No, Python didn't do the ruddles. But Eric Idol was there. Idle did the ruttles on his own. Yeah, and he worked with Lauren Michaels on that. He might have. Yeah. I don't know.

Just do you drink tea? Oh, I drink tea. And so George Harrison put up $4 million of his own money to get the movie made because he read the script and he was like, oh, no, you got to. Wow. I can't, I can't let this, I can't let this not happen. That's wonderful. And so I want to analyze the film thematically. Because I think that helps kind of create context for looking at the response the film received and why it was that.

That much of a lightning rod. Yeah. Why Cleese and Palin wound up, you know, having to verbally duke it out on British television over it. So the film follows Brian of the title, played by Graham Chapman, in my opinion, at the height of his powers. I, I, like his, the way he manages to be. He just seems so harried the whole time. Like the anxiety that he occupies is so good. It's so perfect.

He's just bewildered. And he wants to believe. in something. Like there's so many layers to his performance. Oh, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. And he delivers it so, so brilliantly. He really is the, as much as there is an emotional heart

to any Monty Python movie, he really is the emotional heart of it. Well, it's because, like, I remember there was a discussion that they had and it wasn't John Cleese who was part of the discussion. I think it was Palin. And they said, well, okay, we got Terry to direct. And,

we know that Eric will do some music. And we know that the main character is going to be played by Graham. And all the funny parts go to John. And then I get whatever's left. But like the recognition that like Graham is somehow the Zepo of the squad. He is he is the every man that we will follow. He's just he's going to be hilarious too. Yeah.

Well, if you look at the way they structured things, Chapman always wound up in the parts that were the conventionally attractive guy. Yeah, he would have the romance. He would have all the plot things happen to and from him because he was believable. Everyone else played ridiculous things. Yeah. I love how he said all the funny stuff. would go to John like, wow, okay. Yeah, it just, I mean, yeah.

Everybody else had to be more. So this is not a dig on John Cleese, but like everyone else had to be more creative with their funny because John was the most straight down the barrel with his funny. Like, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So as I said. John Cleese was like the Will Ferrell of the group. okay you know yeah yeah i think i can see that yeah i get what you're saying Eric idle was like the the the the Phil Hartman and i know i'm mixing eras but well yeah yeah yeah and i would i would argue that michael palin is the dan ackroyd yeah i could see that yeah uh palan palin was the utility guy like what do you need him to do he's there he'll be there for that yeah he'll be there for it and often he's the straight man right he's pining for the fjords

Right. Like right there. The next parent. But after life he ceased to be. The spark in his life is covered in shite. No, wait. I just mixed two things. You did, you did, but it works.

They were calling back to that. Yeah. In a knight's tale. His spark of life is covered in shite. They were calling back to that. They were. Yeah. So, so Brian, at the time,

of the film is a 33-year-old Jewish man living in Judea in the year 33 AD funny that he finds out he's half Roman which is a shock to him because he hates the Romans he falls in with the people I hate the Romans I do I do yeah a lot

he winds yeah he falls in with the people's front of Judea Yep. Not the Judean people's front. Not that. I'm going to get to that. Hold on. Okay. An unspecificly leftist group of revolutionaries. And then winds up getting taken for a messianic figure.

He gets arrested and eventually crucified, all whilst Jesus of Nazareth is going through the events of his passion in the background. Now, just real quick, are you going to talk about how he becomes the Messiah? Oh, yeah. Okay. Oh, yeah. I won't spoil it. I mean, I'm not spoiling, but I won't steal your thunder. Yeah. The film ends with a rousing musical number as Brian meets his end on the cross. The only time Monty Python ever ended something appropriately and cohesively.

Yes. Yeah. Yes. This is a massive simplification. But in true Monty Python style, the narrative is less important than the skits that happen along the way. Well, this was, I still maintain, this was the first movie worthy of the name for Monty Python. The rest were feature-length excuses to string together really good skits. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. Certainly, meaning of life fits that description. Yeah. I mean, there was a thread carrying us through Holy Grail. Yeah. But also, let's be real. I have such a soft spot for Holy Grail, though.

Oh, sure. Like, oh, my God. I love that movie so much. It's the first one all of us ever see. That's true. That is kind of the interesting. level Monty Python movie. Yeah.

So now I want to look at the various characters or factions in the film. Okay. To get an idea of the tone and mindset that the pythons were following and coming from. Okay. Now, the filming of this happened, or the writing and the filming of this and the production of it happened in 77? 77 into 78. Okay.

So obviously, since this is taking place, in Judea in 33 AD we have the Romans. Right. And the Romans are ubiquitous. Like they're everywhere. Yeah. In the background. They're always there.

And they're and they're threatening. Yeah. But not in a in a scary like. It's not existential threat. Yeah, it's not existential for it. How violent they are. Yeah, and their violence is in such a casual offhand way. Literally sometimes.

Yeah, so. So. So. To the floor. Yeah. So like very, very early on in the film, that's like the second or third scene in the movie, Brian and his mother get home from having been out. And I'm going to talk about what they were doing in a minute.

Okay. But they get home from being out. And there's a Roman centurion just sitting there in their living room. Right. And Brian, you know, starts to kind of have a fitness mother's like, no, no, no, don't. By the way, his mother played by Terry Jones. Right. In wonderful Terry Jones in drag style, which is to say some of the worst drag you can possibly

imagine. Well, and that's, I mean, again, you know, Cleese gets all to this. Terry Jones tends to get the drag. Dens, yes, yes. And, and he, he sells it. Well, no, Brian, hold on, you know. Right. That's, that's, you know, something I need to tell you about your father.

You're half Roman. What? Yeah. And then Graham Chapman has. solidly 15 seconds of just massive ranting of massive ranting using using words for Jewish people that that you would not be able to put in a movie today right and but the conceit is that because he is a Jewish person he is able to use all of the slurs that the Romans use yes about him that are actually contemporary British slurs about Jewish people.

Yeah. Yeah. And he's and he's claiming them. It's it's not just that he's that he's using them. It's that he's no, I am this thing. Right. Which. A Red Sea pedestrian.

Yeah. And again, Graham Chapman just knocks it out of the park with his delivery. Oh, absolutely. It's brilliant. And so then, you know, he storms off now that he's, you know, furious finding out that he's half Roman. And then Terry Jones turns around, the Centurion stands up and starts undoing the belt on his turugis. Right. And Terry Jones immediately kneels in front of him.

And then we cut to a new scene. Well, not just immediately kneels in front of him. Yeah. But acts like he's brought his laundry. Oh yeah Absolutely a thousand percent matter of fact Yeah just as matter of fact I'm providing a service

You know I take in the laundry In this case I take in the fallacio Yeah And I think it's just like All right Centurian here we go You know something like that And it's there's a drudgery to

To the character Yeah right right okay Like you could you could feel their knees aching a little Yeah You know But yeah And so that's that's kind of our introduction to the Romans in the movie. Mm-hmm.

And him getting told by John Cleese, you know, all right, have it on the wall 100 times before dawn or he'll cut your balls off. Right. Just 100% matter of fact, 100% total straight, straight delivery. And he really means it. Yeah. And it's funny. Yeah. We're laughing at that.

And so Roman authority is... Well, we're laughing at it because he's correcting his grammar and making him do graffiti more. Well, I'm going to get... Okay. Thematically, the thing is what we... And that's kind of my point, is the way the Romans get treated by the pythons is Roman authority is a Yeah. And yes, they're over the top violent.

And yes, they're they're imperialists. And yes, they are comedically, literally, comedically oppressive. Right. But like, what are you going to do? Yeah. This is just, this is what it's like. The part that's funny is, oh, look at how weird the Romans were. Mm-hmm.

And how casually brutal they were. Yeah. So, and give me a second here. Okay. Because in the chat, we're going to pause things for a moment here. Okay. So in the scene that we just watched. Yes. How about you describe?

Sure. It's, okay, shortest version. It's the biggest dickest scene. Yeah. So I have shown. Monty Python and the Life of Brian to my Latin students back in the day when I had Latin students as, you know,

reward for the end, or I think it was during Caesar Week or something. And they always laughed at the very casual and persistent violence throughout that scene. So throw him to the floor, slap him very wuffly, and then throw him to the floors there, oh, yes, yes.

And just like, you know, again, like, would you like tapioca? Like it's that mundane. And then there are multiple times where they're just slapping the shit out of him. And he just takes it. And he's like, you know, and he cries out a few times. But then he's like, you know, also I'm a Roman. So can I go?

And they're like, what? Like it's just, it's the casualness always got my students laughing. Yeah. Because it's mildly uncomfortable. but also it's pretty funny. And yes, the content of what they're saying is also hilarious, you know, because Dickus and, you know, incontinence. I actually, I never really...

He has a wife, you know. Yeah, he has a wife, you know. If he just stayed with incontinentiia, I think it would have been funnier, but it might be something that doesn't translate from English to American. So I never found the incontinentiia buttox joke to be all that funny.

Yeah. But incontinentio was. Yeah. You know, but anyway, so that's basically what happens. They're there to ask him questions and then take him away. And pretty much every soldier is laughing at the magistrate whose name I forget right now. Yeah. But, yeah.

And, you know, and they pay that off even more later on, too. Yeah. So, you know. No, sir. Brian. Strike him again, Centuion. A such endowing due. Oh, right. About half past 11. I told you that when my little brother was little, he had a, when my younger brother was little, he was, you know, we lived in Florida. He had a speech impediment. Like, it was hard

to understand him. They had to teach him like with peanut butter and marshmallows and stuff like that to use his tongue properly to talk. Oh, wow. I know. Incredibly well-spoken man that he is. Like he, the word for girl was dodo. The word for donut was done, done. And I was Dean until I realized he could say Damien.

But like, there were all kinds of like, he had a pigeon, basically. He wasn't speaking English. And most of the family could get it. My dad was the least capable of understanding it. You know, because stereotypes. But so my brother was in the back of the car. He was, you know, it was like the late 80s, early 90s. He was in daycare.

And, of course, they had the dare officer come talk to preschool kids. And so in the background or in the back of the car, my brother is saying, Daddy. That was Daddy. Yeah, what is it? What is it? Rad did you, daddy. What?

Rod did you, daddy? Slow it down. Rod did you, daddy? We'll do it tomorrow. So we come home and, you know, hey, how was it? Da-da-da, cool. You know, Bowie said something. I didn't quite understand.

Can you try to suss it out? And so, yeah, sure. So my mom sits with him and she understood him better than most. he was saying drugs can kill you so we'll do it tomorrow kiddo very confusing to like a four-year-old or a three-year-old so about half past 11 like always

always recalls that for me that's that's that's yeah that's fitting that makes sense right um and and so kind of the the thing that struck me on on rewatching the movie

the Roman about about that particular scene. Yeah. Is that, yeah, the, the slabstick of, we're just casually beating the shit out of the main character is, is funny. Yeah. But the, there's a ha ha, Romans, Romans had funny names. Yes.

And there's no interrogation of the power dynamic. Right. Nobody, the moment Brian says, well, actually, I'm a Roman, can I go? Mm-hmm. There's no interrogation of, oh, wait, hold on, you're a Roman, you say? Right. Right. There's no, there's nothing, nothing gets played with about Roman-ness, nothing gets played with about, you know, imperialism or, you know, any of that.

It's Romans had funny names. Yes. And there's, so now, the, the, the, the, the, other major scene that points up the theme I'm getting at here. I'm going to put in the chat. We're going to watch this one. Okay. Okay.

I used to teach Latin. This is the scene that I would show them after they learned all about the date of case. Okay. Because when you teach Latin, there's different ways to do it. But I would teach the nominative and the accusative, because that way you could have direct objects. and then I would teach the ablative

because that thing fucking shows up everywhere and then we go to the genitive and that gets them to the stem and then once I had them understanding the stem I could give them the synopsis of the I'm sorry synopsies are for verbs the paradigm for the noun and then I would teach them the dative by

two two British rappers talking about giving a gift to your horse or cleaning the dishes for your mum and that would explain the dative. Now in so doing, I also would have given them the entire present tense,

so synopsis there for the verb, plus they would have learned the imperative mood, so the command form. Okay. And I would have also shown them the vocative case, which doesn't show up everywhere, but it's when you're talking to somebody. It's why we call you Ed instead of Edward, right?

or it's why people would call me dame, but, or sometimes there's some names you just don't shorten, right? Right. So, like, you know, Brett is Brett no matter what. So I would show them all that. So this scene is every lesson that they've learned and it's paying off everything.

And the part that always tickled me the most, there are two parts that tickled me the most. The one where he guesses dative because he's not thinking. And the guy draws his sword. I love it. dare you use the dative when you know that this is motion toward oh my god and then uh you know the other parts you know you know this goes like anus which uh you know it means year okay and da da da you know so that that was like working your way into it uh anybody who'd been to boarding school

probably understood that in england and then he's like domum or domus nominative you know but this is motion toward. He's like, right, right. And David, no. And then he's like, the accusative. He's like, but, because you can use the accusative if you have a preposition in front of it. And then it would be odd domum, and that would work. But I love that he corrects him. He's like, no, this is the lock, the locktive, right. And there for it goes to. And here's the funny thing. It's a, it's a distinction without a spelling difference. Domum is accusative. Domum is also a lock, lock. for motion toward. And so he corrected him from the proper spelling,

but because it was for the wrong reason. And I have told kids that plenty of times. I'm like, you're getting it right for the wrong reason. I need to help you understand why it's right for the right reason. Oh, God, it was so good. Did you ever wish that you had a gladius when you were trying to teach him? Yeah, you know, I used to tell a joke on stage shortly after my divorce about how like, now that I'm a divorced dad, I'm thinking about getting like,

a tattoo and it was going to be and it was like all the tropey shit that like divorced women get tattoos of it was going to be like three dolphins coming up out of the water and it's like on my hip and going toward my belly so they're probably more like orcas but and then in their eyes going to be like a yin yang symbol and and it's going to be this you know really and and i mean it's just i was getting as trophy as possible i said or i was going to get a gladius i don't know i still have two days to decide on my group on Nice. Nice. So I still want a Gladius. I really do. It's like the only sword I would actually in, in, I think find appealing. Okay. Well, yeah, because you're a table leg guy. Yeah.

You know. I'm a bludgeoner. Yeah. Producer George has a katana. Yeah. You have a sword rack as friend of the show, Tessa has said. Yes. Yes. So, yeah.

So the thing in this in this scene that all that has always jumped out at me. Uh-huh. Is number one, like you said, the level of, again, ridiculously heightened brutal violence in such an offhand way. Yes. So casually given out. Yeah. Um, but at the same time, um, when I was, when I was a teenager watching this movie for the first time, I could tell that, okay, there's, there's, there's, you know, teacher, student stuff going on here. Yeah.

You know, this is, this is, this has something to do with the way this stuff got taught, you know, in, in Britain. As a teacher now watching this scene, it's even fucking funnier. Oh, yeah. Because like... God damn it. Stop guessing. Start thinking. Yeah.

Jesus. And then it ends with, all right, a hundred times. Have it done by sunrise or I'll cut your balls off. Right. And then... I'm sorry, but there's an even more fun payoff after that is like, now don't do it again. It's just so absurd. Yeah.

Yeah. And so the thing is, is looking at the way all of that is portrayed, looking at the way the Romans are portrayed, we see, ha ha, the Romans had funny names. There's another clip that we're not going to watch, but I'm going to mention, you know, when Brian first encounters the people's front of Judea, it's at the arena, and he's working a job as a stadium vendor selling large. tongues and otter's noses and

ren spleens and whatever and ha ha the Romans had had funny food right I've got a cookbook I still have not made braised shredded flamingo shoulder the fact that I don't question that

being real right because there are other like satirical menus that like the Tramalkio a famous upper class twit was bragging about well this is a lamprey eel but it was caught in the moonlight of a full moon and it's just given birth so the the meat is especially soft and tender like that's satire that's making fun of it but flamingo shoulder shredded is a thing evidently like there's a recipe for

it it ain't making fun yeah yeah so but what we don't see like I mentioned when we talked about the first scene, what we don't see satirized, what we don't see interrogated is the system of empire, the Roman position at the top of the heap. And by this time, Britain's own empire

was almost entirely dissolved. India. Yeah. India, Palestine, Malaysia, Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago, Fiji, Sudan, Eritrea, Kenya, Nigeria. By the time of the film,

Only Hong Kong, Vanuatu, and a few territories in the Caribbean were still territories of the British Empire. And they were about to go to war to try to grab one back. In another couple of years, yeah. And the pythons had all been born either during or very shortly before World War II. And as they started their writing and performing careers is when the, the, disintegration of the British Empire really accelerated. And it was seen as a good thing for Britain. Like it was,

it was sold as such in a lot of ways. It was, yeah. Yeah. It was, and the thing is, here's, here's,

here's what I find interesting. So in, in the contemporary press, it was sold as a good thing. It was, you know, we can't, we can't pay the money to,

you know, administer this stuff anymore. We just don't have the resources, whatever. But these guys, remember, had gone to school and learned from textbooks that had glorified the empire. Oh, absolutely. That had characterized the empire as having a civilizing mission. They had all grown up reading Kipling.

Right. Right. Right. And so that outlook undoubtedly affected their own paradigm. And so the Romans are the British Empire in this, in, in, in Monty Python and the life of Brian. The Romans are the British Empire. That's, wow. Yeah.

And so they're in many ways mocking the contemporary values of their, their parents' generation. Yes. Yes, very much. And so I think on that note, I think this is. this is a good place for us to pause. Right, when you got to the, the, yeah, no, it's a great cliffhanger. I love it. You know, before we get to the next major faction that I really want to spend time looking at.

And so at this point, what are you thinking? What have you gleaned? What's your takeaway right now? I'm a pattern on the wallpaper moment. never even thought of Monty Python in the specter of the crumbling shadow of empire, even though I knew that they were all born, like you said, in or around World War II. And I knew that that necessarily means that they're growing up as the Mao Mao are actually defeating the British, as partition has happened. Like they would have been grade school barely when partition happened.

They would have, like, there's so many things that like that, like you said, that the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the, the, the, the, the, that's been, that would have been. And I'm, I'm, I'm just stunned yet again that I'm like, oh, well, of course. But, you know, it took us pointing it out. So yeah, that's that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's, that's where I am. I'm like, oh, yeah, of course, you know, it's kind of like, um, knowing that Gary Gygax grew up in Ohio. Yeah. You know, or in the Midwest. Wisconsin. Yeah. Wisconsin. Yeah, Wisconsin. But like, knowing that like what the frontier culture was in that region and how it did it pass down, how that informed, you know, ninth level fighters. Right. Um, you know, it's the same

kind of vibe. So, yeah. All right. Cool. Good stuff. Uh, cool. Uh, cool. Well, uh, What do you want people to read? Well, it's not going to be reading this time in a major departure in tone from what we're talking about in this episode. I'm going to very, very strongly recommend that everybody find a way to watch The Pit. Oh, yeah. My wife and I got a hold of a passcode for HBO. No, no, no. You have a passcode for HBO for a...

Yeah, we have a passcode for HBO. ER. And it is some of the most amazing television writing that I have seen in a very long time. I just wish that medicine wasn't. so, you know, politicized in TV. I mean, can't we just, can't we just go back to MASH where there were no politics in that show? Yeah. So about that, we're going to, we're going to comment on the Vietnam War by talking about the Korean War.

Yeah. No politics in that at all. Have you heard the recent thing about the pit? It's, um, it's, uh, it's, uh, What is it? We're in a never-ending war in the Middle East. Noah Wiley is in a really good procedural medical drama on TV, and kids are wearing really baggy jeans.

Yeah. It's 2004. It's 2006. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I loved. I've loved it.

You know, I hate watching things and waiting. Right. This one I've been like watching and waiting. I've been keeping up with. It's really fucking good. Yeah, the character development is amazing. The pacing is everything about it. It's just awesome.

So go, go watch it. I do feel like the character development for second season has been, I do feel like the character development for second season has kind of been put on hold for some plot points. But also, you know, we're like two or three episodes away from finishing. bet you there's going to be a lot of development so okay cool cool yeah how about you what do you recommend oh goodness uh go watch eric the viking um it's it's python adjacent it has john cleese michael palin yeah yeah i think palin's in that right yeah yeah is he does he play loki

loki i don't remember little um yeah it's one of the pythons um i um i feel feel like there's another couple of pythons in there. I don't remember, but it's directed by Gilliam. Yeah, Gilliam. Yeah. But yeah, it's just so fucking good. So, they're just, oh,

now you got all the ones with the beards on one side and all the moustaches on the other. That doesn't matter. It's just so good. Oh, God. You know, and just, like, the long burn of like, also, by the way,

Eartha Kit is in it. So fucking go watch it. But what do you call it? The long burn of the dad being the berserk and being disappointed in his son the whole time and going off about how his son is doing it wrong. And like in the middle of a battle, you know. And it's like, oh, give it a chance, dad. And then they find the grandfather's ghost, which is the father's father.

And he just goes off on how he was never good enough. his father and just so mad at him. It's so just, oh, God, there's so many good things. And then, of course, High Brazil, I don't know, that struck me during COVID. Yeah. So, yes, go watch that. Eric the Viking. It's a really good Tim Robbins movie.

So, cool. Where can they find us? We, collectively, can be found on our website at Wobo, Wobo. blah, geekhistorytime.com. We can also be found on the Apple Podcast app on the Amazon podcast app and on Spotify. And wherever you have found us,

please take the time to subscribe and give us the five-star review that you know we deserve. Also, because I neglected to mention this one, our ever-expanding archive can be found on YouTube. Yes. So how about you, sir?

Where can you be found? You know, that YouTube channel, go give that one some love, please subscribe, and then just play that shit in the background. Like, you keep it on mute if you need to, but you really, there are some really good stuff in those early episodes. But you could find me and the Capitol Punishment crew down at the Comedy Spot in Sacramento at 9 p.m. on the first Friday of every month. I'm going to go out on a limb and say you've missed the May show, the one on May.

first, but you're probably in time for the June 5th show. And actually, yeah, you should be in time for the June 5th show. And if you're not, then it's July 3rd. Okay. Look, before you go to blow off your hands at some other place the next day, have one last good laugh with us, one where you can like feel all your digits. Laugh with all 10 fingers. Yeah. But yeah, June 5th and July 3rd, go to those shows.

of Capital Punishment. If you want to see me and Justine from the Capital Punishment crew doing work as being a Focent, go to the Crocker Art Museum, I believe on July 9th. Very cool. Yeah, but I don't know if that's a public event.

So anyway, see if you can get in. But yeah, there you go. Oh, and also if you're in Scotland at the end of June. Find me and my son. We're going to be looking at trains. Very cool. Yeah.

But anyway, well, that's that. For a geek history of time, I'm Damien Harmony. And I'm Ed Blaylock. And until next time, keep rolling 20s.