Sorry, that was overly peevish about me. When someone says “you don’t like it because you don’t get it” (which you did not, I realize), it always gets under my skin to an irrational level. The “you’re missing the point” comment pushed the same button – my problem, not yours. My apologies.
Gah! Overly peevish of me. Need more coffee…
I still don’t understand what you mean when you say the short makes the rest of the movie less coherent, although generally speaking, “coherent” is not a word I would apply to that movie in the first place. And I don’t mean that as criticism: it’s the standard Python comic anarchy, an episode from the TV series with a big budget. But blaming that on the short makes as much sense to me as blaming the quality of a movie on the Bugs Bunny short that preceded it.
It’s an impossible choice. I used to pick Life of Brian because it made fun of religious fanatics without being mean spirited.
I loved Holy Grail since all the midnight movies in high school so it has the fun memories, and the making-fun-of-medieval-England part is funnier the more I know about medieval England. Those guys were just so smart!
Holy Grail has the better extras on the DVD (funnier commentary and the cool documentary where Palin and Jones revisit the sites).
(My favorite Python SCENE is “every sperm is sacred” from The Meaning of Life–if that isn’t an absolutely perfect comic bit, I don’t know what is.)
FWIW, I understand that Life of Brian has a serious message in the humor. I just don’t care. I laughed harder (and still do) for Holy Grail, which, if you want to impart a theme, points to the utter silliness of Arthurian & Mideval world and beliefs. But I watch it for the comedy.