BTW, in my opinion the absolute funniest sequence in either movie is the scene where Pontious Pilate is asking which of the “pwisoners to wewease!”
Let’s keep it moving please. Line on the left, one post each…
As an aside, I find that I simply cannot watch The Meaning of Life without falling asleep halfway through. It’s very strange. I love the movie, but it just sends me right off.
I’m in the “Life of Brian” camp as well.
There’s nothing that can make me laugh harder than a bunch of crucified people singing “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.”
I own Life of Brian on DVD.
I own Holy Grail on VHS.
Draw your own conclusions. 
Gee… I don’t kno—AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH…
Brian is a superior movie – as well it should be. But Grail makes me laugh more on a gut level, even though I was exposed to it later. So happens Brian was the first I ever saw of the Pythons – PR in the 70s did not get these kinds of cable feeds, so it was only as a freshman in a US college in 1979 that I got to see this. Hooked on my first hit, man…
Don’t go and call me a biggus dickus, but I enjoy HG more.
I think you mean castle “Aaaaaaauuuuuuurrrrrrgggggghhhhh.”
For me, Life of Brian is WAY better. I don’t even bother watching The Holy Grail any more, and I don’t even find a lot of the humor that funny. Sure, there are funny bits in it, but over all, it’s very hit and miss.
Life of Brian, on the other hand, is sheer genius. I can recite the entire movie, word for word, from memory (at least while I’m watching it), and I still laugh myself silly every time. It works as satire, the plot works, the characters are hysterical, and it’s immensely quotable. Here, let me quote some:
“Why are you always on about being Loretta, Stan?”
“I want to have babies.”
“What?”
“I want to have babies. It’s every man’s right to have babies if he wants them.”
“But… You can’t have babies!”
“Don’t you oppress me!”
“I’m not oppressing you, Stan. Where’s the fetus going to gestate? You going to keep it in a box?”
<Stan/Loretta hangs head>
<Reg rolls his eyes and looks away>
Judith: “See here. We all agree that you can’t have babies, not having a womb… which is no one’s fault, not even the Romans. But you can have the right to have babies!”
Reg: “WHAT??”
“Good idea, Judith! We shall fight the oppressors for your right to have babies, brother! Sorry…Sister.”
Reg: “What’s the point???”
“What?”
“What’s the point of fighting for his right to have babies, when he can’t HAVE babies?”
“It is symbolic of our struggle against oppression!”
<Reg, under his breath> “It’s symbolic of his struggle against reality…”
Probably not word for word, but that’s from memory and I haven’t seen it for a couple of years. And that’s not even the funniest scene. Not even close. And it’s still hysterical.
Count me in the Holy Grail camp. I would agree that Life of Brian is technically the more well-made film, but Holy Grail is just plain funnier and more Python-esque. Holy Grail was my first exposure to Monty Python; perhaps that explains my fondness for it above the other Python films.
I know you mentioned you didn’t care about the UK/US dichotomy, but I still think it has colored my opinion. As I grew up, The Life of Brian was always seen as the essential Monty Python movie. That was the one we got to see in school, the one they would show on television and the one that everybody had seen. Monty Python and the Grail was sort of “that other Monty Python movie” that didn’t get as much exposure.
I don’t think my personal opinions differ a lot from that, though I think that the Monty Python and the Holy Grail has the higher peaks, that is, the most gut-busting scenes, but the Life of Brian is the more intelligent of the one and more memorable in the long run.
Holy Grail is better. It dont see where LOB has a better plot. HG is more memorable and more quotable. Even my kids immediately liked it.
I’ve seen HG it about 30 times and can still watch it. LOB I’ve seen probably 8 times. Seen it enough already. The Biggus Dickus scene was never funny to me.
Monthy Python and the Holy Grail is pretty dire,while Life of Brian is actually quite good, so if Americans (not your hyper-intelligent doping American, but your average Anglophile Python-watching American) thinks the earlier film is better then that says quite a bit about your average American, and his (usually his, occasionally her) love of quoting. Quoting anything really, but especially things that are meant to be somehow “brilliant” because a tall bloke from Cambridge, or a couple of shorter blokes from Cambridge, said them.
Anyone who really appreciates comedy will favour Fawlty Towers above all three Monty Python films.
Want an argument?
I like them both, but the more I’ve read about the Arthurian cycle, the more I’ve come to appreciate Holy Grail. There’s a real intellectualism buried under all those quotes - just watch the Black Knight sequence after reading “Gawain and the Green Knight”, for example.
Although “Fuck off, I’m not your fucking Messiah” remains my favourite Python quote ever.
I agree that Holy Grail is not just a dumb comedy, but Brian would be a pretty good film without the jokes. There’s real wisdom and sadness there.
Anyone else have the soundtrack LP? The “during the meanwhilst” links are great.
“Lord, there is no food in this high mountain!”
“What about those Juniper bushes over there?”
“A miracle!”
“They’ve brought forth Juniper berries!”
“OF COURSE they have! They’re Juniper bushes!”
“Lord, I am affected by a bald patch!”
“I was blind, but now I can see! Ahhh…” <thud>
“Follow the gourd! The holy gourd of Jerusalem!”
Not from me. I agree.
“Oh, spiffing!”
I’d say HG edges out LoB in my book due to its sheer hilarity But I’d say that the funniest moment in all cinema (with the possible exception of the miror scene from Duck Soup) is the reaction to “…even if they do say Jehovah”.
¿Qué?
You’re all under arrest! Alright, you – shut down this thread now.