least funny python to make shit documentary not worth watching

[Old Nehamkin]

I must say though, it's great that legendary unsurpassed geniuses like Cleese and Gilliam are still successfully needling self-absorbed sanctimonious zealots after all these years.

I think I'd prefer for either of them to still be making funny comedy or good films.

[Jumblegraws]

Amusing cognitive dissonance to use the term "grievance-hungry" to describe folk who disagree that people should be banned forever from speaking at multiple venues because a few arrogant grievance-hungry students responded with Pavlovian outrage to a quote from a historical figure.

It would only be cognitive dissonance if Ferris subscribed to your fatuous Popperian dilemma wherein flippantly invoking Hitler and censure for flippantly invoking Hitler are somehow equally bad. Your rambling posts are predicated on these sorts of (at best) unproven assumptions, it's big part of why they're such a tedious waste of forum space.

[g0m]

[g0m]

The wokes, they don't let you say anything these days? They don't even let you black up any more?

[The Guppy]

There's two nuns cycling down a cobbled street. One says "ooh, I've never come this way before" and the other one says "I'm not surprised, there's roadworks and a diversion".

[Fr.Bigley]

Two nuns sitting in the bath, one says to the other "Where's the soap"

The other replies "yes it does doesn't it".

[Dr Rock]

Isn't Cleese's 'joke' problematic if it needs a proviso that it's not intended to be pro-racist?

[Jumblegraws]

Giving that "joke" far more thought than it deserves here (i.e. any), boastfully declaring yourself ddvoid of any racial biases seems pretty unwoke to me. You're more likely to hear that sort of thing from "anti-woke" types like Piers "I don't have a racist bone in my body" Morgan.

Also, John Thomson already did this bit yonks ago to much better effect.

[dozybugcarrot]

lol "his labour".

What's the difference between labour and grift?

[Kankurette]

But that's not even a joke.

I will be so glad when the likes of Cleese stop using a black American word for 'socially conscious' as an insult. I'm not angry. Just sad. I seem to remember Gilliam said shitty stuff about #MeToo but I'm sure AT thinks all those women were a bunch of stupid sluts who asked for it.

[Twonty Gostelow]

Definitely least funny : https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x85cnc0

Blimey. Clicked on it at random (21:50) and the first thing I got was Connie Booth doing a Mammy stereotype and Arthur Lowe responding with a racist epithet.
I'll have to watch the whole thing later to see how Cleese's script justifies it.

[bgmnts]

But that's not even a joke.

I will be so glad when the likes of Cleese stop using a black American word for 'socially conscious' as an insult. I'm not angry. Just sad. I seem to remember Gilliam said shitty stuff about #MeToo but I'm sure AT thinks all those women were a bunch of stupid sluts who asked for it.

I still use it as the past tense of wake to be honest. Not having anyone take that away from me either.

[neveragain]

Blimey. Clicked on it at random (21:50) and the first thing I got was Connie Booth doing a Mammy stereotype and Arthur Lowe responding with a racist epithet.
I'll have to watch the whole thing later to see how Cleese's script justifies it.

The dodgy stuff aside, I still find that script very amusing. Arthur Lowe has a bionic hand for goodness' sake! There's lots of funny gags and dialogue, an anarchic plot... and then some stuff that's best left in the past.

[David Pielingtonburygrot]

What did Andrew Graham-Dixon say or do that was offensive? He was hardly arguing in favour of Nazism.

[Pranet]

The transcription in the Telegraph mentioned above:

https://archive.md/kuFcW

[Thursday]

Imagine if John Cleese and the Queen both died today.

[idunnosomename]

Wouldnt be allowed to tell a joke about it. Not in this day and age

[neveragain]

I've seen lots of discussion about the Loretta sketch from Life of Brian lately, some Twitterers asking how the writer of this sketch (not sure if he actually wrote it, might have been Idle) could have fallen so far. These folks seem to see the Loretta dialogue as pro-trans or at the very least sympathetic... but is/was this the case? I don't think there's any understanding of trans issues there - and historically, surely it would be unlikely in the mid-1970's - and the joke of the sketch is based on Idle's character's supposed absurdity. Or is there a glimmer of sympathy there in Idle's performance or the fact the People's Front of Judea do use the name later on? I'm still not sure.
But anyway, if people do take something positive from it that's probably no bad thing, eh?

Thoughts please, on all that.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

I've seen lots of discussion about the Loretta sketch from Life of Brian lately, some Twitterers asking how the writer of this sketch (not sure if he actually wrote it, might have been Idle) could have fallen so far. These folks seem to see the Loretta dialogue as pro-trans or at the very least sympathetic... but is/was this the case? I don't think there's any understanding of trans issues there - and historically, surely it would be unlikely in the mid-1970's - and the joke of the sketch is based on Idle's character's supposed absurdity. Or is there a glimmer of sympathy there in Idle's performance or the fact the People's Front of Judea do use the name later on? I'm still not sure.
But anyway, if people do take something positive from it that's probably no bad thing, eh?

Thoughts please, on all that.

Without going and checking what the Pythons have said about it since, I'm inclined to think it's being played for absurdity. Mostly because it's the 1970s, but also because the People's Front of Judea is a satire of left-wing political groups who can't stop squabbling among themselves and maybe don't have it so bad considering all the stuff the Romans have done for them. Now, you can take the fact that the other members of the group do acknowledge and respect Loretta's new identity as a positive thing in and of itself, but I don't think you can say that it was the authors' intent to show a group of people accepting a trans person for who they are.

[Petey Pate]

I'm surprised that people would interpret it as pro-trans, and also that's been highlighted as a notable Python sketch dealing with gender identity rather than the lumberjack song (which I think Eric Idle also wrote).

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

I'm surprised that people would interpret it as pro-trans, and also that's been highlighted as a notable Python sketch dealing with gender identity rather than the lumberjack song (which I think Eric Idle also wrote).

If you're trans (or, you know, just a decent person) and you like Life of Brian overall, choosing to focus on the fact that Loretta's fellow freedom fighters accept her new identity can take the curse off that mean-spirited joke a bit. Life of Brian is still a terrific satire of organised religion in general with incredibly funny set-pieces and I can see why fans would try to make the problematic stuff less so rather than just bin the whole thing.

[FredNurke]

I'm surprised that people would interpret it as pro-trans, and also that's been highlighted as a notable Python sketch dealing with gender identity rather than the lumberjack song (which I think Eric Idle also wrote).

Lumberjack Song is Jones / Palin, I think.

[Gurke and Hare]

Well, this is unsurprisingly cunty

https://twitter.com/JohnCleese/status/1459405353435779073

[neveragain]

Good thoughts on the Loretta situ.

Well, this is unsurprisingly cunty
https://twitter.com/JohnCleese/status/1459405353435779073

Thing is I can see the similarities between Cleese and Margolyes; separated by politics and experience but ultimately both stubborn and outspoken, and funnily enough those type of people never get on.

[Gurke and Hare]

Thing is I can see the similarities between Cleese and Margolyes; separated by politics and experience but ultimately both stubborn and outspoken, and funnily enough those type of people never get on.

I guess, but his calling her Gargoyles is absolutely typical abuser speak. "Ugh, she's ugly, why would I rape her?"

[neveragain]

Name-calling is just childish and I immediately thought of the repulsive Mr Equator from the Visitors sketch, brainlessly sniggering "It was rather witty, wasn't it?" (after calling Terry Jones a whore).

Edit: Although Cleese has not been accused of rape, I think that's an important distinction.

[Autopsy Turvey]

It would only be cognitive dissonance if Ferris subscribed to your fatuous Popperian dilemma wherein flippantly invoking Hitler and censure for flippantly invoking Hitler are somehow equally bad.

Censure would be releasing a statement saying "Some of those present didn't like the way you flippantly invoked Hitler, please try not to do that again in a Cambridge Union address", not "because you flippantly invoked Hitler, your name is going on a list that we will circulate to other unions to make sure you can never address students in public ever again".

Apart from anything else, how is flippantly invoking Hitler more 'problematic' to young people in the 2020s than it was in the decades when every family in this country was directly, mortally affected by the consequences of Hitler's evil?

Your rambling posts are predicated on these sorts of (at best) unproven assumptions, it's big part of why they're such a tedious waste of forum space.

Obviously none of your brilliant opinions have ever been 'predicated on unproven assumptions'. So what's your excuse?

I guess, but his calling her Gargoyles is absolutely typical abuser speak. "Ugh, she's ugly, why would I rape her?"

Thank God that Mad Magazine stopped when it did, before making unflattering puns on a celebrity's name became a hate crime.

[ProvanFan]

Bring back the funny John Cleese from the adverts

[gilbertharding]

Can we just agree that the president of the Cambridge Union *and* John Cleese are fucking idiots?

On the other hand, the president of the Cambridge Union doesn't seem to have started shaving yet. What's Cleese's excuse?

[Mister Six]

Just had a nightmare vision of Cleese going on Buckles' pod, and Adam being too polite/overawed to push him on his shit like he ought to.