I read both of Sam Stone’s posts above and thought I could have written them both.
The Gourd!! Follow the Gourd!!!
Life of Brian.
If it’s prepared.
Well, what would be the cost?
I’ll take one. Fawlty Towers ain’t all that hot. Except for the Germans. Other than that, it was a pretty pedestrian sit-com.
“You’ll have to forgive him. He’s from Barcelona.” 
For those who are lost:
[a guest has died and Polly has just knocked out Miss Tibbs]
Basil Fawlty: Oh spiffing. Absolutely spiffing. Well done. Two dead, Twenty-five to go.
“Crucifixion?”
“Ah, no. Freedom.”
“What?”
“They said I hadn’t done anything, so I could go free and go live on an island somewhere.”
“Oh! Jolly good! Right, off you go then!”
“No, I’m only pulling your leg. It’s crucifixion really.”
“Oh, good one! Well then…”
“I know, out the door, line on the left, one cross each.”
And who can forget:
Centurion: What’s this, then? “ROMANES EUNT DOMUS”? “People called Romanes they go the house”?
Brian: It, it says “Romans go home”.
Centurion: No it doesn’t. What’s Latin for “Roman”?
Brian: (hesitates)
Centurion: Come on, come on!
Brian: (uncertain) “ROMANUS”.
Centurion: Goes like?
Brian: “-ANNUS”?
Centurion: Vocative plural of “-ANNUS” is?
Brian: “-ANI”.
Centurion: (takes paintbrush from Brian and paints over) “RO-MA-NI”.
“EUNT”? What is “EUNT”?
Brian: “Go”.
Centurion: Conjugate the verb “to go”!
Brian: “IRE”. “EO”, “IS”, “IT”, “IMUS”, “ITIS”, “EUNT”.
Centurion: So “EUNT” is …?
Brian: Third person plural present indicative, “they go”.
Centurion: But “Romans, go home!” is an order, so you must use the …?
(lifts Brian by his hairs)
Brian: The … imperative.
Centurion: Which is?
Brian: Ahm, oh, oh, “I”, “I”!
Centurion: How many romans? (pulls harder)
Brian: Plural, plural! “ITE”.
Centurion: (strikes over “EUNT” and paints “ITE” to the wall)
(satisfied) “I-TE”.
“DOMUS”? Nominative? “Go home”, this is motion towards, isn’t it, boy?
Brian: (very anxious) Dative?
Centurion: (draws his sword and holds it to Brian’s throat)
Brian: Ahh! No, ablative, ablative, sir. No, the, accusative, accusative,
ah, DOMUM, sir.
Centurion: Except that “DOMUS” takes the …?
Brian: … the locative, sir!
Centurion: Which is?
Brian: “DOMUM”.
Centurion: (satisfied) “DOMUM” (strikes out “DOMUS” and writes “DOMUM”) “-MUM”.
Understand?
Brian: Yes sir.
Centurion: Now write it down a hundred times.
Brian: Yes sir, thank you sir, hail Caesar, sir.
Centurion: (salutes) Hail Caesar.
If it’s not done by sunrise, I’ll cut your balls off.
Brian: (very relieved) Oh thank you sir, thank you sir, hail Caesar and everything, sir!
I watched Life of Brian as a college student, a sophmore, I believe. At that time, I had only seen snippets of The Holy Grail (my parents weren’t big on British low comedy yet). I thought then, and think now, that LoB is the better AND funnier movie, though I tend to quote THG more. I’d put that down to the simple fact you have more exposure here in the States to the Grail than to Brian. And I put THAT down to the simple fact that Life of Brian was VERY controversial among various parts of the country at the time, and still to this day would be “banned” from many parts of the country, some of them right around where I live in Ohio.
Personally, other than while watching Bugs Bunny shorts as lead-ins to movies, I have never laughed as hard in a movie theater as I did during the Romans Go Home scene. Of course, four years of High School Latin might have had something to do with that…
Typical reaction. Absolutely bleeding typical. The Germans is over-rated (Monty Python fans are briefly in paradise because John Cleese does his silly walk again). The stuff in the hospital is good, though, esp. “Wish it was an ingrowing tongue!”, better than “Perhaps she’ll have it mounted”, re Sybil’s toenail, and the whole “You talking to me” thing with the nurse is excellent. But, like most of the shows from the first series, it’s not as good as what was to come in 1979. (The opening episode with the upper-class conman is top notch, though.)
Three episodes from the second series are so good, in my opinion, that they pass that most severe of tests - they can be watched again and again. They are “Communication Problems”, featuring the batttleaxe with the selective deafness, “The Psychiatrist” and “Basil the Rat”, which has grown on me over the years. “Waldorf Salad” is perhaps the most unitary of all episodes, with just one theme, the cultural differences between Americans and Brits. The verbal variations on “kick ass” that Fawlty tries in an effort to be more assertive and “American” make for good comedy.
The Builders, The Anniversary and the Wedding Party are all pretty week. But eigt or nine out of 12 is a good return.
And there’s nowt wrong with sitcoms. If only we had more MASH and Cheers these days.
It wasn’t until I got the DVD set that I realized that the line “He’s from Barcelona” appears in every single episode.
The walk is bonus, sure, but the bit that does me in from that episode is, “I bloody well did not! You invaded Poland!”
Sure, sitcoms are okay, and Fawlty Towers was pretty good in that regard. I just don’t regard it with the awe that most people seem to. It’s mostly people being creatively nasty to each other. Which is all well and good, it just doesn’t strike me as being particularly difficult to execute.
If it makes you feel any better, it took me three or four episodes before I figured out why an English hotel was employing a “Mexican” busboy. :smack:
I just think that Life of Brian is much funnier.
Can you compare two masterpieces? Which Da Vinci work was better? The Mona Lisa or the Last Supper? Which Theory of Einstein’s was better? General or Special Relativity? How high is up? What is the sound of one hand clapping? Does an ursine evacuate his bowels in an arboreal setting?
We just can’t answer these things in a meaningful way.
What?
BTW: I like the Mona Lisa better than the Last Supper. The Last Supper is somewhat contrived, I mean why are they all on the same side of the Frickin table? Huh, Huh, answer me that. 
Jim
But Jim, the Mona Lisa has that freaking smile! What’s with that? Toothache? The Last Supper at least has breadth. And bread. And they are all on one side of the table because a party of Samaritans nicked the chairs from the other side when a few extra of their mates showed up for dinner.
Oh, those are the other Samaritans that no one like to talk about. You know the “Bad Samaritans”. Well now that you exPalined it, I withdraw my complaint.
I know why she is smiling by the way, but we who know don’t talk about it in mixed company.
Jim
Mona Lisa, General, high enough, cl-, not if they’re polar bears.
Purely a renaisssance thing. In those days it was considered impolite to sit with one’s back to the artist doing one’s portrait.
Gangster Octopus writes:
> LOB is much more a properly structured story, it actually is a commentary on
> something important - organized religon, and it is very funny.
I don’t think of The Life of Brian as being mostly about religion at all. I think of it as being about any kind of fanatical group and really more about political groups than religious ones. The most sharply satirical parts of the movie are about how hopelessly ineffectual the anti-Roman underground movements are. They’ve split up into a dozen tiny feuding groups.
DSYoungEsq writes:
> And I put THAT down to the simple fact that Life of Brian was VERY controversial
> among various parts of the country at the time, and still to this day would
> be “banned” from many parts of the country, some of them right around where
> I live in Ohio.
Really? Where? I grew up in rural northwest Ohio and that strikes me as unlikely.
I think WW is right, and thinking back to Meaning of Life and the best bit (the sex lesson), isn’t the point the team are trying to make similarly not how naughty sex is but how difficult it is to “teach” it, without either being so cutey and indirect that it’s useless, or so up front that it belittles it, takes away the mystery that is proper to it?
Brilliant, anyway, whatever they might have been driving at.