By Amanda DeJong
In an age of growing religious conflict and social sensitivities, DeJong looks back on Life of Brian, Monty Python’s controversial satire that challenged both organized religion and political correctness with a dose of humor.
During an interview shortly after the release of Monty Python’s first major production, The Quest for the Holy Grail, Eric Idle was asked, “What’s next?” He casually replied, “Jesus Christ: Lust for Glory.” Audiences throughout the English-speaking world were shocked by the statement, and considered it vulgar and tasteless, yet the resulting clamor scarcely anticipated what was ultimately to come. At the time, as Idle would later confess in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, he was only joking. However, the Monty Python crew subsequently took the idea into consideration, and it became the brainchild for a project that took three years to complete. Life of Brian, Monty Python’s most controversial (and most financially successful) film elicited the wrath of Christian groups throughout the world in its depiction of Brian Cohen, an average man living at the same time as Christ, who is mistaken for the Messiah. Thousands picketed in the United States with signs claiming it to be an attack by Warner Brothers on Christianity. Despite the fact that explicit ties to Christianity exist throughout Life of Brian, the satire is actually directed at the inherent faults of all forms of organized religion, with particular emphasis upon the tendency of misguided followers to misplace priorities.
While some viewers may attempt to classify the purpose of Life of Brian as merely a comedic one in which the humor is based on shock-value, such an assumption ignores the true nature of comedy, especially when considering the pervasive use of satire throughout the film. Comedy has always been a foil for exposing life’s existing injustices, particularly within society, be it the early Chaplin slapstick which mocked middle class values or the more recent Kill Bill films made by Quentin Tarantino which highlight the absurdity of violence within the film industry. Even Shakespearean comedy subtly critiqued the standards of Elizabethan society. Thus, jokes often undermine a specific institution of humanity, generally one that is perceived as flawed or unjust, sometimes with the purpose of correction, at other instances only for injury. Satire, in particular, has the hidden intention to correct, or at the very least, to raise awareness.
