4) Defending the Life of Brian
Blasphemy charges are rarely brought about, with Jerry Springer: The Opera being a recent incendiary example. In this recent case judges ruled that the stage show parodied chat-shows and not religion and the same basic argument is true for the Python’s film.
Life of Brian goes out of its way to avoid ridiculing religion and it does so for the purest of reasons – not because they are afraid to, or fear reprisals or a toxic box-office – they didn’t do it because there’s nothing funny about it. What was held up for ridicule, and with pin point precision, was the man-made distortion of religious feeling, how the nonsensical divisions and bureaucracy which organised religion enforces the unwary to comply to some very irreligious deeds and so on.
It was a case the Pythons made often and passionately. None more fervent than the infamous televised debate on the BBC’s Friday Night, Saturday Morning show which had Cleese and Palin batting away the prejudices of Malcolm Muggeridge and the Bishop of Southwark.
It remains a fascinating exploration of the power of comedy, and of the serious intent of those who wield it. Two years ago the BBC made a fine docudrama of the incident under the name of Holy Flying Circus, however the entire debate is available below, and though time may have dulled the social context of this, the debate gets to the heart of why comedy is an important, necessary part of how we understand the world.
