Monday, November 14, 2011

Monty Python's Life of Brian: Funny, Clever, and Banned in Theaters?

Monty Python is one of the most well known names in comedy, with one of its most famous works being Monty Python and the Holy Grail. They are a well known group of guys who are innovators and legends when it comes to comedy. One of their lesser known works however is very funny, and very controversial as well. Monty Python's Life of Brian was produced in 1979 and is a film about a Jewish man born on the same day and right next door to Jesus and is then mistaken for the messiah. While this seems as if it would be a funny idea and would  make a very comical movie, in reality it outraged many religious people and drew bans in different states and countries.

The film contained certain themes of religious satire which caused much controversy when it was released and drew accusations of blasphemy. It was the first Monty Python movie to be rated R in the United States, and was even rated X in some countries. This film was however a huge success at the box office and was reviewed as very funny. It is almost sad how large of an overreaction there was when this film was originally released, seeing as how the "blasphemy" was very mild. This film was intended to be lighthearted and was only a joke and was instead turned into a very controversial, blasphemous movie. Certain tv channels wouldn't even broadcast it in fear of offending Christians. In my opinion this censorship goes way too far. If you censor a comedy like this and attempt to keep it from being played just for fear that some Christians will be offended by some lighthearted jokes then that opens the door for any film that has any religious theme or jokes at all to be censored. This could almost give religious groups and religions immunity from any negativity or jokes from any source of media which is very dangerous as well as very ridiculous.

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