Brian Christ, this is your life
A few days ago, I saw a documentary about Monty Python's Life of Brian and the struggles the Python team faced in getting the film funded and shown due to it being a send-up of religious beliefs.
At the time nothing like it had ever been done. There was a bit of comedy about God (“'Course it's a good idea!”) in Holy Grail and other places but a mockery of the life of Jesus (as it was thought of by many) and organised religion in general (as was the Pythons greater intention) had never been done before, surprising as it may be in today's world where you'd be hard pressed to find a major religious figure who isn't a supporting character in The Simpsons, Family Guy or half a dozen webcomics.
The number of people who stood against it was incredible. Mary Whitehouse (who stood against anything which was aired on television between midnight and 23:59) criticised it and her campaign managed to get town councils to ban it, even though they openly admitted to never having seen it. The stupidity spread quickly to America, where huge crowds gathered to protest against a film that they knew nothing about, before it had even premiered.
John Cleese and Michael Palin had a discussion with the Bishop of Southwark and Malcolm Muggeridge about it on some television discussion show, where the whole crux of their argument relied on their having missed the first 15 minutes of the film. It was such a ridiculous thing to watch, as I did on the documentary I mentioned, that it's often even funnier than the Not the Nine O'Clock News' spoof of the entire thing that aired mere days later.
I guess it was this that got me thinking about religion and much of the hypocrisy that surrounds it. I've never been a particularly religious person. In fact, the only time I've ever been to any kind of religious service it's been a social thing (and even then, not without much moaning), the school Christmas service or a little cousin's Christening, that sort of thing. Really, I am best described as an atheist. But I digress.
The whole Python thing made me wonder, what if there was an accurate account of the Bible made and shown to people on television and cinemas?
Jesus' mother gets pregnant without any involvement from her husband. Jesus, who's technically a bastard, is born and many babies are killed because of it. Jesus grows up. Once he's older Jesus is sentenced to death, nailed to a couple of wooden planks and left to die while people gamble for his clothes. Some other people die because of this, I think. Or maybe some criminals die. I can't really remember. Anyway, Jesus, because of his powerful and influential dad, comes back to life as a zombie and scares the crap his friends. The apocalypse happens. The End.
Can you see that being made into a film which Christians would like? No, they'd hate it. In fact, from what I know of that Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, they did. Even if they didn't do their best to stop it completely, it wouldn't be shown until long after the watershed and it would have an 18 certificate quite rightly slapped on it before it reached your local Odeon.
The same can be said of any religion when someone makes a point about them. Indeed, that was the point of Life of Brian, to mock organised religion more than anything else. I'm picking on Christianity here because they're used to it, Python and everybody else has softened them up, to a degree.
Basically, my point is this. Look at that brief summary of the the story of Christ. Now compare it to the plot of Life of Brian. Which would you rather let children see? And yet, one was banned in countries around the world, given a 15 rating where it was released and the other is presented to little children as inspirational.
This situation is unlikely to change any time soon but somehow, I can see it happening. If you've read any literature from the Victorian era and before, perhaps even into the mid-twentieth century, you'll probably have come across various biblical references that everyone would have understood at the time but which are lost on most people today. Perhaps in another few hundred years no one will see why Life of Brian was so funny or be able to figure out who that big bearded guy talking to Homer Simpson in those museum displays is.
I can't really think of a way to round this off neatly as I have a lot to say on the subject but, as this is probably my longest post yet, I'll finish with this. Read the words of Jack Thompson. This man is a prime example of stupidity in the name of religion.
At the time nothing like it had ever been done. There was a bit of comedy about God (“'Course it's a good idea!”) in Holy Grail and other places but a mockery of the life of Jesus (as it was thought of by many) and organised religion in general (as was the Pythons greater intention) had never been done before, surprising as it may be in today's world where you'd be hard pressed to find a major religious figure who isn't a supporting character in The Simpsons, Family Guy or half a dozen webcomics.
The number of people who stood against it was incredible. Mary Whitehouse (who stood against anything which was aired on television between midnight and 23:59) criticised it and her campaign managed to get town councils to ban it, even though they openly admitted to never having seen it. The stupidity spread quickly to America, where huge crowds gathered to protest against a film that they knew nothing about, before it had even premiered.
John Cleese and Michael Palin had a discussion with the Bishop of Southwark and Malcolm Muggeridge about it on some television discussion show, where the whole crux of their argument relied on their having missed the first 15 minutes of the film. It was such a ridiculous thing to watch, as I did on the documentary I mentioned, that it's often even funnier than the Not the Nine O'Clock News' spoof of the entire thing that aired mere days later.
I guess it was this that got me thinking about religion and much of the hypocrisy that surrounds it. I've never been a particularly religious person. In fact, the only time I've ever been to any kind of religious service it's been a social thing (and even then, not without much moaning), the school Christmas service or a little cousin's Christening, that sort of thing. Really, I am best described as an atheist. But I digress.
The whole Python thing made me wonder, what if there was an accurate account of the Bible made and shown to people on television and cinemas?
Jesus' mother gets pregnant without any involvement from her husband. Jesus, who's technically a bastard, is born and many babies are killed because of it. Jesus grows up. Once he's older Jesus is sentenced to death, nailed to a couple of wooden planks and left to die while people gamble for his clothes. Some other people die because of this, I think. Or maybe some criminals die. I can't really remember. Anyway, Jesus, because of his powerful and influential dad, comes back to life as a zombie and scares the crap his friends. The apocalypse happens. The End.
Can you see that being made into a film which Christians would like? No, they'd hate it. In fact, from what I know of that Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, they did. Even if they didn't do their best to stop it completely, it wouldn't be shown until long after the watershed and it would have an 18 certificate quite rightly slapped on it before it reached your local Odeon.
The same can be said of any religion when someone makes a point about them. Indeed, that was the point of Life of Brian, to mock organised religion more than anything else. I'm picking on Christianity here because they're used to it, Python and everybody else has softened them up, to a degree.
Basically, my point is this. Look at that brief summary of the the story of Christ. Now compare it to the plot of Life of Brian. Which would you rather let children see? And yet, one was banned in countries around the world, given a 15 rating where it was released and the other is presented to little children as inspirational.
This situation is unlikely to change any time soon but somehow, I can see it happening. If you've read any literature from the Victorian era and before, perhaps even into the mid-twentieth century, you'll probably have come across various biblical references that everyone would have understood at the time but which are lost on most people today. Perhaps in another few hundred years no one will see why Life of Brian was so funny or be able to figure out who that big bearded guy talking to Homer Simpson in those museum displays is.
I can't really think of a way to round this off neatly as I have a lot to say on the subject but, as this is probably my longest post yet, I'll finish with this. Read the words of Jack Thompson. This man is a prime example of stupidity in the name of religion.
posted by Alasdair Corbett at
11:12 PM
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home