Author Topic: John Cleese urged to scrap Life of Brian joke about man having a baby  (Read 1104 times)

Nearly Sane

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jeremyp

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I'm amazed that the scene in the film hasn't come under scrutiny. Or the opening scene with the three wise men and Cleese in black face.

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Steve H

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Ooh, pass the smelling salts! Heaven forbid that anyone should be offended!  :o
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Nearly Sane

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Ooh, pass the smelling salts! Heaven forbid that anyone should be offended!  :o
I suspect though that there are certain things that you might regard as offensive that you wouldn't want said. You might well argue that that's because they amount to an 'incitement to violence' or some similar phrasing but some people would argue, wrongly I think, that the part of the Life of Brian amounts to such.

Free speech absolutists are very rare, and certainly not in line with the law.

Aruntraveller

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I remember, in my youth, how dissapointed I waas generally with the Python film ouvre. They seemed to me to miss the mark too often to be truly entertaining.

That said, I think the scene referred to is one of the funnier ones in the film.

This just seems akin to all the bollocks about rewriting parts of books. It's all nonsense. Let it stand, in another 10 years people may possibly see it as visionary. It cerrtainly hits a few nails on the head AFAIC.
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Nearly Sane

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I remember, in my youth, how dissapointed I waas generally with the Python film ouvre. They seemed to me to miss the mark too often to be truly entertaining.

That said, I think the scene referred to is one of the funnier ones in the film.

This just seems akin to all the bollocks about rewriting parts of books. It's all nonsense. Let it stand, in another 10 years people may possibly see it as visionary. It cerrtainly hits a few nails on the head AFAIC.
To be fair, Life of Brian has been offending the religious fundies since it was released.

jeremyp

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I remember, in my youth, how dissapointed I waas generally with the Python film ouvre. They seemed to me to miss the mark too often to be truly entertaining.

That said, I think the scene referred to is one of the funnier ones in the film.

This just seems akin to all the bollocks about rewriting parts of books. It's all nonsense. Let it stand, in another 10 years people may possibly see it as visionary. It cerrtainly hits a few nails on the head AFAIC.

There's no accounting for taste. Life of Brian is the funniest film ever made.
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jeremyp

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To be fair, Life of Brian has been offending the religious fundies since it was released.

Not just fundies.
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Nearly Sane

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There's no accounting for taste. Life of Brian is the funniest film ever made.
It has my favourite line in all cinema 'But how shall we fuck off?'

Steve H

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I suspect though that there are certain things that you might regard as offensive that you wouldn't want said. You might well argue that that's because they amount to an 'incitement to violence' or some similar phrasing but some people would argue, wrongly I think, that the part of the Life of Brian amounts to such.

Free speech absolutists are very rare, and certainly not in line with the law.
I'm certainly not a fee speech absolutist, but I think there should be a presumption of freedom, and I don't expect books, films etc. to be banned because I find them offensive.
"That bloke over there, out of Ultravox, is really childish."
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"Yes, very."

Nearly Sane

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I'm certainly not a fee speech absolutist, but I think there should be a presumption of freedom, and I don't expect books, films etc. to be banned because I find them offensive.

But one way of describing the things you do want banned might be 'offensive'. Language is slippery. If someone were to describe the scene in the Life of Brian as dangerous, as I have seen it described, then people are not simply saying it should be banned because it is offensive to them.

SqueakyVoice

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Re: John Cleese urged to scrap Life of Brian joke about man having a baby
« Reply #11 on: June 08, 2023, 05:57:14 PM »
To be fair, Life of Brian has been offending the religious fundies since it was released.
There was a very brief moment on Today this morning when they said LoBrian was being banned by the BBC, because of the scene about Michael  Palin kept saying "Biggus...(they kept missing the surname)" was "too silly."

Now they're going to re-dub it as 'Giganticus Anus'.  (Probably.)

ekim

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Re: John Cleese urged to scrap Life of Brian joke about man having a baby
« Reply #12 on: June 09, 2023, 09:24:16 AM »
Never mind.  Always look on the bright side of life.

jeremyp

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Re: John Cleese urged to scrap Life of Brian joke about man having a baby
« Reply #13 on: June 09, 2023, 01:41:01 PM »
There was a very brief moment on Today this morning when they said LoBrian was being banned by the BBC, because of the scene about Michael  Palin kept saying "Biggus...(they kept missing the surname)" was "too silly."

Now they're going to re-dub it as 'Giganticus Anus'.  (Probably.)

My problem with that scene is that I nearly wet myself laughing the first time I saw it.
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