I was recently re-watching some Monty Python sketches, specifically, “Cheese Shop” and “Dead Parrot” plus the film, “Life of Brian”. I was struck by how much philosophy is in Python humor.
Socrates believed in examining your life by constant question and answer sessions. He did a lot of “thinking about thinking”, which is sort of a definition of philosophy. Thinking about thinking is what happens in the Python sketches, in which ordinary people try to overcome barriers by using common sense and reason.
In the “Dead Parrot”, a customer is trying to convince the pet shop owner that the parrot he purchased is dead. The shopkeeper wouldn’t agree.
In the “Cheese Shop” sketch a customer is trying to buy some cheese in a cheeseless cheese shop! It’s the “theatre of the absurd’, where these confrontations between a rational person and an indifferent world, happen.
In the “Life of Brian”, Brian says, to his disciples:
“Look, you’ve got it all wrong. You don’t need to follow me. You don’t need to follow anybody. You’ve got to think for yourselves. You’re all individuals.”
This is what Sartre was talking about when he declared that our “existence precedes our essence”. We have to think for ourselves and provide our own meaning and purpose in life. We are NOT born with essence (meaning, purpose and goals). We exist first and then we determine our own essence.
Monty Python’s humor makes us re-think our lives by satirizing and parodying the way people fail to get independence of thought and thus don’t use their freedom to choose. Sartre called this “bad faith”, the denial of personal freedom to choose, so these people feel they are not free to change their actions.
We haven’t said anything about Nietzsche, which “Life of Brian” also brought to mind. He declared “God is Dead”, which meant that the scientific world made belief in God no longer acceptable to modern man, and so our meaning and purpose would have to come from us alone, the new “ubermensch” (the superior man, who determines his own meaning and values). Python comedy brought out to us the illogic and stupidity that sometimes underlies our social institutions.
So, there is plenty of philosophy in Python, in fact some sketches and films are understood better by philosophical analysis.
To end, I leave you with a comic line:
PHILOSOPHY IS A STUDY WHICH ENABLES MEN TO BE UNHAPPY MORE INTELLIGENTLY!
Also published on Medium.
MONTY PYTHON WAS ALWAYS A FAVORITE OF MINE. BUT THE MOST INPORTANT THING HAPPENING RIGHT NOW IS THE CHICAGO CUBS. DAVE, WE’RE 78. IT HAS TO BE NOW.
GOOD JOB WRITING. I ALWAYS ENJOY YOUR THINKING.
I like the way you think. Great blog.
Your right on with Monty Python.
Like the punch line ,Dave ! ….{^_^}
I grew up watching the Python’s. Thy cut through the political correctness and got to the truth through humour. There was one chat Terry Jones gave about when they visited Germany in the 70’s, they were taken on a tour of (I think)Dachau camp which was open to tourists. However they got there as they were closing to the public and were not allowed to enter. Graham Chapman shouted at the guide : ‘Tell them were Jewish, and they’ll let us in then!’
And they did get their tour after all!
Maddi, it’s great to have you back, reading and commenting on my posts.