Life of Python Page #6

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So, uh, we had to write

endings to our pieces.

And, uh...

They just went from one

concept to the next.

And for main course, sir?

Uh, I'll have a whiskey

for main course,

and I'll follow that

with a whiskey for pudding.

Yes, sir.

And what would you like

with it, whiskey?

No. A bottle of wine.

This is the silliest sketch

I've ever been in.

Shall we stop it?

Yeah. All right.

I got fairly bored with television

somewhere around about

the middle of Python,

partly because I'd done

an enormous number of shows

in that short period of time.

You know, I'd done, uh...

40 that were either Frost Reports

or 1948 Shows,

before I'd ever got to Python.

And after we'd done

about 20 of Pythons,

I, and I alone,

felt that we were beginning

to repeat ourselves

and sort of being

derivative of ourselves,

and I never enjoyed that,

so I remember getting a bit bored,

even by about '71.

By then, there was a

lot more fights going on.

I don't know why, really,

but it just...

It's like a marriage.

John's not very good

at marriages, either.

And, uh...

If you actually probably

looked at his timetables,

they'd probably

worked out the same.

He was married to Python

as long as he was

to however many wives he's had.

Morning.

Are you the registrar?

I have that function.

I was here on Saturday

getting married to a blonde,

and I'd like to have

this one instead, please.

The other one wasn't any good,

so I'd like to swap.

I have paid. I paid on Saturday.

Here's the ticket.

Ah. No. That was when

you were married.

Yes, to the wrong one.

I didn't like the colour.

This is the one I want,

so just change the forms.

I think that there was a

certain amount of antagonism

in the third series,

About 1973.

Um, and I know that I was unpopular,

although they were nice

to me, basically,

uh, face to face,

and then they'd

sort of go off pissed off

and say rude things

about me behind my back

when I said I wanted

to drop out of the group

for television purposes.

Uh, but I think that

most of that rancor

was really isolated.

Um, it was late '73, really,

which is a pretty short period.

We didn't feel angry with John.

We'd known for years

that he didn't want to do it,

so you couldn't suddenly feel...

feel anger at it.

Um...

I think the decision of the five of us

to go on and do the fourth series

without John, um...

was kind of interesting...

Um...

Ah...

And surprising in a way

because we always said

Python was the six of us.

Take away anyone,

it wouldn't be the same.

We did six, and BBC

wanted another seven,

and at that stage I said no,

and Michael tried

to talk me into it,

and I said,

"It's not working,"

Because there was

this lovely tension

between John and Terry.

There was a series

of tensions and balances

that allowed it to work.

And without the full group,

it never works-- it never

worked quite as well.

Apart from the sheer performing,

the writing didn't

work quite as well.

Naturally, British journalists,

being the rather unhappy

creatures that they are--

And I'm being quite serious--

Are fascinated by negative emotion

and not interested in much else.

So those few months,

sort of 6 months in

a period of 20 years,

tend to feature quite strongly

in all the things that

they write about us.

But other than that, um...

I think we got on

astonishingly well.

My recollection of The Holy Grail

was that even a few

months after that--

Holy Grail was '74--

We were getting on well.

And the sketch Terry

and I had written

about people going along with, uh...

They're knights, not

being on horseback,

but holding, uh, coconuts,

which they banged

together as horses,

became the beginning of, uh...

uh, of The Holy Grail.

Suddenly the idea of The

Holy Grail seemed terrific.

You've got these six

main characters,

six main knights going along.

Nobody really knows the stories.

No one's going to say,

"They went wrong there."

They're looking for the grail.

On the way, there's

all sorts of jokes,

and it's an area where you can make

sort of modern references

in a historical period,

which is a nice area for comedy.

How did you become king, then?

The Lady of the Lake,

her arm clad is the purest

shimmering samite,

held aloft Excalibur

from the bosom of the water,

signifying by divine providence

that I, Arthur,

was to carry Excalibur.

That is why I'm your king.

Listen, strange women lying

in ponds distributing swords

is no basis for a

system of government.

Supreme executive power derives

from a mandate from the masses,

not from some farcical

aquatic ceremony.

Be quiet!

You can't expect to wield

supreme executive power

because some watery tart

threw a sword at you.

Shut up!

And somebody said "What's

going to be your next film?",

and I said, "Oh, Jesus

Christ, Lust For Glory."

And uh... I liked to get

into trouble in those days.

And then after that,

this became a joke we

were going to do this,

and then we thought,

this is an interesting area.

Nobody's ever done comedy

about this entire area

and what-- and then what's

funny about this area?

And so we researched it first.

We all read-- we

read all the bible,

And we read the

histories of the area

and the dead sea scrolls.

We spent some serious time

seriously researching it,

and then got together

and discussed things

for quite a long time

and realized that in fact--

You can't really make fun of J.C.

Because he's actually saying

quite good things.

Although it wasn't meant to be

a parody of Christ's life,

it was a story,

but it could take its shape

from that, I suppose.

There wasn't a story in that.

The story actually

emerged from the writing.

We still did it as sketches really,

and magically, a story emerged.

A miracle! A miracle!

He hath made the bush

fruitful by his words.

They brought forth juniper berries.

Of course they brought

forth juniper berries.

They're juniper bushes!

What do you expect?

Show us another miracle.

Do not tempt him, shallow ones.

Is not the miracle of the

juniper bushes enough?

I say, those are my juniper bushes.

They're a gift from god!

They're all I've bloody got to eat.

Clear off those bushes, go on!

Clear off, the lot of you!

Lord, I am affected

by a bald patch.

I am healed! The master healed me!

I didn't touch him.

I was blind, and now I can see.

A miracle! A miracle!

A miracle!

What we wanted to attack

was the sort of people who

listen to church leaders

and have to be told what to do.

If you look at Brian,

it's actually the most

moralistic film.

It actually suggests

positive behavior--

"I must be an individual."

It embraces a philosophy

which is actually

not present in the other films.

I remember Life Of Brian as being

an enormously happy experience

because, by coincidence, we all had

the same kind of views and

feelings about the subject,

and I think that's our

masterpiece, you know.

That's what I would

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