From Humble Beginnings…

In 1979 Monty Python made a movie called Life of Brian, which was kinda good. Then a bunch of religious zealots went bananas, and decided they wanted the movie banned. (’Cause we can’t have people freely going about speaking their mind, now can we?) Banning was achieved in parts of the UK (and several other European countries) and the whole thing blew up in the media at the time.

Norway (often considered the funniest country1 in Scandinavia) banned the film.2 This prompted the cinemas here (in the neighbouring Sweden) to advertise the movie with the slogan “So funny it was banned in Norway.”3

The controversies also affected the film content. Originally there was a recurring character, called Otto, the Nazirene, who, with his squad of professional suicide warriors, was seeking his prophesied leader, and striving to keep the Jewish race pure. But, alas, he and his brave troupe was left on the cutting room floor, and the iconic Swastika of David that adorned his helmet, was never to be seen on the big screen. – All we see of them in the final movie is the suicide squad that promptly kills itself in its attempt to rescue Brian from the cross.

Blasphemous Rumours

Then, in November the same year, a BBC TV show called Friday Night, Saturday Morning hosted a “debate” between the bishop of Southwark, some semi-famous born again Christian dude, and John Cleese and Michael Palin from the Python gang. The Christians managed to dominate the show, behaving like uneducated cretins, while both the Pythons – when they managed to get a word in edgewise – wound up sounding like wise old men. (A role reversal that seem to have been equally unexpected to both parties.)

Not the Nine O’Clock News

Soon after (presumably late 1979 or early 1980) the Friday Night, Saturday Morning debate, the British humour show Not the Nine O’Clock News celebrated the debate in a sketch where everything is turned on its head, and the revered Monty Python gang have been blasphemed against in a new controversial movie called Life of Christ (in which this Christ figure is just an “accidental” rip-off of John Cleese – They even share the same initials for Python’s sake!).

The Secret Life of Brian

In 2007 UK’s Channel 4 broadcast The Secret Life of Brian, a documentary about the Python film, featuring new interviews with the Pythons themselves and reflections on the movie and events surrounding it.

Holy Flying Circus

In 2011 another BBC film was produced, detailing the events around the famous debate. This time in the form of a dramatised documentary in sketch form.

Some Final Musings

It’s also interesting to note that, as late as July 2008, at least some of these UK bans of Life of Brian are still in effect. Have a look at this article, for example: “New Role for Python Star: Lifting Ban on Life of Brian”. There’s also the following piece, where some of the Pythons comment on their experiences with the debate.

I can’t help thinking that this whole debate debacle helped rather than hindered the movie, bringing attention to it, and spreading the gospel of Monty Python farther and wider than it might otherwise have gone.

References

• Wikipedia on the Friday Night, Saturday Morning episode featuring the Pythons.
• It’s Classic Clip Friday: Not The Nine O’Clock News – General Synod’s Life Of Christ

Footnotes

• 1. It’s probably partly just that the Norwegian language just sounds funny to a Swede, and partly because of a certain kind of pithy joke (called a “Norwegian story”) which are oft repeated in the school yards, where the punch line involves a Norwegian making a fool out of himself in some way.
• 2. Briefly. The movie was banned in January 14, 1980 by the Norwegian movie censorship agency (“Statens Filmkontroll”) on the grounds that it broke Norwegian law (namely “straffeloven §142”, a blasphemy clause that, at the time, had not been invoked in almost 50 years). A few months later, in October, the ban was lifted, though you still had to be 18 years of age to watch it, and a text was inserted at the beginning of the movie explaining that Brian isn’t Jesus, and that a few mentions the words “Messiah” and “Jesus” (where they could seem offensive) were dropped from the Norwegian subtitles. (Halden Arbeiderblad: “Filmen som var så morsom at den ble forbudt i Halden”, 2015; Nasjonalbiblioteket: “Den sensurerte profeten Brian”, 2020)

  The Norwegian blasphemy law was later voted down by the government in 2009, but still remained in legal effect until it was repealed on May 29, 2015 in response to the Charlie Hebdo attack in Paris (End Blasphemy Laws: “Norway ‘Blasphemy’ Law Ended: 2015!”, 2016)

• 3. That the “so funny it’s banned in Norway” line was used to promote the movie in Sweden is an oft repeated anecdote for which there is some, but not a lot, of evidence. The only corroboration I could find is the a scan of a Swedish VHS cover of the movie from 1982 (see image to the right) on which can be found the phrase “Filmen som är så rolig att den totalförbjudits i Norge!” (“The movie that is so funny that it has been completely banned in Norway!”) It seems likely that the phrase might’ve been used more widely than that, but it is hard to say with any degree of certainty. (Boa video: “Ett herrans liv (VHS-omslag)”)