5 ms·

Nice one, centurion! That film has so many absolutely classic scenes with the Romans. My personal favourite is the "romanes eunt domus" scene!

dugmartin 5y ago
I recently watched a great "explainer" video on why that scene was even funnier at a deeper level if you had been classically educated in Latin (as John Cleese was): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfH6gjxTTgE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfH6gjxTTgE
switch007 5y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_ite_domum https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_ite_domum “People called Romanes they go the house?!”
Radim 5y ago
All of Life of Brian aged well. I rewatched the film last year – still thoroughly enjoyable. What I completely forgot were the scenes with Stan transitioning into Loretta. What seemed like an eccentric joke at the time (more than 40 years ago!) proved fairly prescient. Funny yet handled with kindness.
- mbg721 5y ago
  Is it really that kind, or is the movie just too beloved to try to cancel?
  - OJFord 5y ago
    Well, it does portray a very PC acceptance (fighting for Stan/Loretta's right to have babies even if he/she can't actually have them) even if it is a joke. So I think it's at least difficult to object to? Yes that behaviour is correct but it's not allowed in a comedy? Stop laughing (so it can still be in the script, it's just not a joke?)? I think the whole film is far more thoughtful than it is unkind, to any group. The main contemporary objection was from religious groups of course, but just watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeKWVuye1YE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeKWVuye1YE.
    - mbg721 5y ago
      It portrays a serious extremist group being derailed by the demands of the furthest, most boundary-obliterating, most ludicrous social extremists imaginable at the time. The fact that that group was later considered centrist doesn't make the joke PC, it just means people don't get the joke anymore.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
  - stronglikedan 5y ago
    Nothing about Monty Python was unkind. They made no comedy with ill intent.
    - emacsen 5y ago
      > Nothing about Monty Python was unkind "Never Be Rude to an Arab" is Islamaphobic on its face, as well as normalizing other racial slurs. "I like Chinese" is full of pretty gross stereotypes as well. The troop claims they harbor no ill intent, and that may be true, but it's easy to say "We're not here to offend" about someone else but not acknowledging the power differences here and why someone might be offended.
    - BoxOfRain 5y ago
      We can only behave according to what is acceptable in the present moment we happen to exist in, it would be unreasonable to ask people to attempt to predict future morality when making ethical choices. We can try to make a good guess about it and act accordingly but it'll never be perfect, nobody can make a ruler with units that don't exist yet let alone try to measure something with it. I think intent counts in these situations too, like you say Monty Python never set out to be unkind or bigoted to anyone. Would it be an acceptable sketch today? Probably not, and that's not really a bad thing given that improvements to the rights and recognition of transgender people is one of the more positive things to come out of the last couple of decades in my opinion. Should Monty Python be cancelled over this sketch though? Not in a million years.
mro_name 5y ago
with the "Decline!" double meaning (refuse! vs. list the grammatical cases of the noun!)
mbg721 5y ago
But apart from all that, what have the Romans ever done for us?? There's definitely a lens of "the history of the world as it's presented in high-school" that makes the Life of Brian so funny.
- marcosdumay 5y ago
  That joke is very complex. Let's not forget that it's about people that lost a war not long before it, that had plenty of them killed by the Romans, and are forced to support the empire with taxes (that go mostly to Rome, not to local improvements). The way people represent the joke, as if they had no reason to oppose the Romans is a joke by itself.
  - mbg721 5y ago
    Nah, the joke is more self-centered than that--it's the answer to a British adolescent's exam question "Name x benefits of Roman rule." No actual Romans would sit around saying "Wait...this is the same word either way, but is it dative or ablative??" either.
  - kuraudo 5y ago
    High school historian perspective: I don't know; compare their conquest to the greek's. Greek civilians thought of Rome as "the light of the world," even though their wealth was used in much the same way.
    - marcosdumay 5y ago
      That's the complexity. The Roman invasion did enrich their society (as did the Greek before), yet all none of the dead people got any of it and many individual lives were completely destroyed even if not literally terminated.
  - erehweb 5y ago
    It is a joke the filmmakers may not be fully in on - the Romans in Python are analogues for the British, managing an empire and bringing the "benefits of civilization" to "quarrelsome and backwards natives".
ako 5y ago
"You are all individuals!"

dugmartin 5y ago

I recently watched a great "explainer" video on why that scene was even funnier at a deeper level if you had been classically educated in Latin (as John Cleese was): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfH6gjxTTgE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfH6gjxTTgE

switch007 5y ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_ite_domum https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romani_ite_domum “People called Romanes they go the house?!”

Radim 5y ago

All of Life of Brian aged well. I rewatched the film last year – still thoroughly enjoyable. What I completely forgot were the scenes with Stan transitioning into Loretta. What seemed like an eccentric joke at the time (more than 40 years ago!) proved fairly prescient. Funny yet handled with kindness.

mbg721 5y ago
Is it really that kind, or is the movie just too beloved to try to cancel?
- OJFord 5y ago
  Well, it does portray a very PC acceptance (fighting for Stan/Loretta's right to have babies even if he/she can't actually have them) even if it is a joke. So I think it's at least difficult to object to? Yes that behaviour is correct but it's not allowed in a comedy? Stop laughing (so it can still be in the script, it's just not a joke?)? I think the whole film is far more thoughtful than it is unkind, to any group. The main contemporary objection was from religious groups of course, but just watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeKWVuye1YE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CeKWVuye1YE.
  - mbg721 5y ago
    It portrays a serious extremist group being derailed by the demands of the furthest, most boundary-obliterating, most ludicrous social extremists imaginable at the time. The fact that that group was later considered centrist doesn't make the joke PC, it just means people don't get the joke anymore.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
- stronglikedan 5y ago
  Nothing about Monty Python was unkind. They made no comedy with ill intent.
  - emacsen 5y ago
    > Nothing about Monty Python was unkind "Never Be Rude to an Arab" is Islamaphobic on its face, as well as normalizing other racial slurs. "I like Chinese" is full of pretty gross stereotypes as well. The troop claims they harbor no ill intent, and that may be true, but it's easy to say "We're not here to offend" about someone else but not acknowledging the power differences here and why someone might be offended.
  - BoxOfRain 5y ago
    We can only behave according to what is acceptable in the present moment we happen to exist in, it would be unreasonable to ask people to attempt to predict future morality when making ethical choices. We can try to make a good guess about it and act accordingly but it'll never be perfect, nobody can make a ruler with units that don't exist yet let alone try to measure something with it. I think intent counts in these situations too, like you say Monty Python never set out to be unkind or bigoted to anyone. Would it be an acceptable sketch today? Probably not, and that's not really a bad thing given that improvements to the rights and recognition of transgender people is one of the more positive things to come out of the last couple of decades in my opinion. Should Monty Python be cancelled over this sketch though? Not in a million years.

mro_name 5y ago

with the "Decline!" double meaning (refuse! vs. list the grammatical cases of the noun!)

mbg721 5y ago

But apart from all that, what have the Romans ever done for us?? There's definitely a lens of "the history of the world as it's presented in high-school" that makes the Life of Brian so funny.

marcosdumay 5y ago
That joke is very complex. Let's not forget that it's about people that lost a war not long before it, that had plenty of them killed by the Romans, and are forced to support the empire with taxes (that go mostly to Rome, not to local improvements). The way people represent the joke, as if they had no reason to oppose the Romans is a joke by itself.
- mbg721 5y ago
  Nah, the joke is more self-centered than that--it's the answer to a British adolescent's exam question "Name x benefits of Roman rule." No actual Romans would sit around saying "Wait...this is the same word either way, but is it dative or ablative??" either.
- kuraudo 5y ago
  High school historian perspective: I don't know; compare their conquest to the greek's. Greek civilians thought of Rome as "the light of the world," even though their wealth was used in much the same way.
  - marcosdumay 5y ago
    That's the complexity. The Roman invasion did enrich their society (as did the Greek before), yet all none of the dead people got any of it and many individual lives were completely destroyed even if not literally terminated.
- erehweb 5y ago
  It is a joke the filmmakers may not be fully in on - the Romans in Python are analogues for the British, managing an empire and bringing the "benefits of civilization" to "quarrelsome and backwards natives".

ako 5y ago

"You are all individuals!"