I think this is exactly right, and it’s a nuance all those knee-jerking religious groups who protested the movie missed. In fact, the movie is quite clear that there is a real Jesus. The first scene in which we see the adult Brian is in front of the Sermon on the mount, and Jesus is actually portrayed biblically and respectfully.
“The Greek? Blessed are the Greek?”
“Oh, it’s the meek! Blessed are the meek! Oh, that’s nice. Because they’ve had a hell of a time.”
“Blessed are the cheesemakers?”
“It’s not meant to be taken literally. It refers to any manufacturer of dairy products.”
The Holy Hand Grenade
Tim
God
The Old Man from Scene 24
The Witch trial
Ubiquitous Cat Flogging
The Autonomous Collective
The Taunting Frenchmen
Sir Belvedere’s Ingeneous Rabbit Plan
The Swamp Castle Father and Son Duo
The Black Knight
I could go on and on. I didn’t even mention the Killer Rabbit…exept for just there
I always thought that the bit really didn’t have anything to do with sex ed specifically, but rather was riffing on the idea that absolutely anything presented in a classroom enviroment is going to be perceived as dull and boring by the students.
>Which Theory of Einstein’s was better? General or Special Relativity?
This one is pretty easy, which is, I suppose, why nobody bothered responding. General relativity is far more important than special, since it’s…well…general. Covers far more cases, including what special relativity covers.
And I’ve only seen Holy Grail, but now I shall search around for Life of Brian. Just one question - does Lob have any songs of the same caliber of “Knights of the Round Table” and “Brave Sir Robin”?
I thought it was more of a general reversal of expectations of a classroom scene. Remember how the kids are dutifully studying before the teacher arrives, and there’s a lookout at the door? When the lookout spots Professor Cleese coming, they all get up and start acting rowdy?
Same with the sex scene. One might expect a classroom of horny teens to be just a tad bid interested in the possibility of seeing some real life titty. Instead, the opposite.
Re the sex ed scene, which I’ve only seen once, but found uproariously funny (perhaps with the added piquancy of having attended such British schools), and taking on board puly’s reminder of the reversed expectation aspect of the earlier rowdiness scene, perhaps one point MP were trying to make was that so-called “liberal” schoolteachers can be (or become) both very boring and very predictable to their young charges.
On a personal note, my daughter (9) is never less impressed with me than when I “try” (“try” in her eyes - I would swear blind I was being “myself”) to be a bit radical.
And I don’t think it’s necessarily embarrassment, which is how such feelings are often classified. I think Natalie has hit on that time-honoured saw that when the performer (be it comedian, actror, musician etc.) is really enjoying himself, then the audience most probably are not. Self-indulgence is the bane of all performing arts.
I’m calling a draw. Yanno, Rocky Horror Picture Show fizzles at the end too, which is one of the reasons I think it’s become the pluperfect Midnight show. Because we allllll fizzle around 1:51am. ( snerk )
HG is a loosely assembled melange of brilliant bits, that loses what passes for a cohesive tale at the end. LOB well…uh… we all kind of know that the end of that story is a bit cohesive. And lighthearted and gay too !
Now, now, boys… fortunately for all of us, the minds at work knew a good thing when they heard it and so put “Knights of the Round Table”, “Brave Sir Robin” AND “The Bright Side of Life” all in the Spamalot score.
“Bright Side” gets extra points for being the tune with which the troupe sent off Graham Chapman at his memorial.
Now, they may say that Brian is about religious factions, but the piece itself comes across as being about factionalism, eagerness-to-follow, fanatism, etc. in ALL venues, with a special attention to religion.
Still, sometimes you want to laugh at something silly. Grail delivers the goods on this count.
