Besimet

The burning question "What is life all about?" has echoed through the ages. In the 1970s, the world embarked upon a new age in which it was more acceptable than it had ever been before to question authority and the standards of society. The English comedy group Monty Python's Flying Circus made movies throughout this period, taking advantage of this new attitude. In 1983, in one of their final full-length features, the Monty Python group attacked that burning question, "What is life all about," in the film, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. Through poking fun at society's most sacred topics, such as sex, religion, and war, Monty Python's The Meaning of Life coveys the message that people take life far too seriously and make it too complicated.

At the end of the film, the presenter is handed an envelope that reveals "the meaning of life." She opens the envelope and says, "Well, it's nothing special. Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations." The various sketches performed in this movie make fun of what the general public seems to show the meaning of life is. They mock the institutions of marriage, religion, education, and health care, as ridicule the corporate realm, the military, and sex. They touch on all these topics in comedy to show that life is really not as complicated as people make it seem. The Monty Python message is really well stated in the final scene, "Try and be nice to people... and try and live together in peace and harmony." The message is that society makes this more difficult than is necessary by clouding life with conflicts over such things as religion, education, and war.

The scene at the beginning of Part II: Growth and Learning, which takes place in the chapel of a religious school, exemplifies the theme that life is taken too seriously. It depicts the overall message of the film as it...