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and religious rules
on religious smugness
research for
Simon the Hermit in
Monty Python’s Spamalot (musical)
Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life (movie)
“The Autumn Years,”
“Birth,”
Catholicism in
on Christianity
on church prayer
critique of transcendentalism
“Death,”
on dehumanization
fish in
flaw of
“The Galaxy Song,”
God in
the grotesque in
“Growth and Learning,”
Heaven in
Hell in
“Live Organ Transplant” sketch
on meaning of life
“Middle Age,”
Mr. Creosote in
nihilism in
philosophy menu sketch in
prayer in
reductio ad absurdum arguments in
religion in, insensitivity of
on science and values
sperm song
on trivial diversions
Moore, George Edward
moral philosophy
Mormons (Latter-Day Saints)
Morris, Corbyn
Mousebender, Mr. (Monty Python character)
Mozart, Amadeus Wolfgang
Myers, Mike
Neurath, Otto
New Bruce (Monty Python character)
Newton, Sir Isaac
Nichols, Mike
Nietzsche, Friedrich
on Christianity
on God
on Jesus
madman of
on meaningful life
on morality
Will to Power
nihilism
nonsense
in comedy
philosophy on
O’Nassis, Kevin (Monty Python character)
Ontological Argument
ordinary language philosophy
drawback of
Orford, Earl of, Robert
Palin, Michael
as a Bruce
in Monty Python and The Holy Grail
in Monty Python’s Flying Circus
in Monty Python’s Life of Brian
in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life
and ordinary language philosophy
Parmenides
Parzival
Pascal, Blaise
Pascal’s Wager
paticca samuppada
Paul (Biblical)
philosophical argument, method of
philosophical examples, value of
philosophical sentences
philosophy
analytic
as bad comedy
continental
and God
history of
on nonsense
and political circumstances
and popular culture
of religion
and social forces
in twentieth-century Britain analysis of language in
Plato
Apology
Euthyphro
Phaedo
Republic
Popper, Karl Raimund
Porter, Roy
Postmodernism Generator
post-positivists
Potthapada sutta
Protestant Reformation, and contraception
Pryor, Richard
Putnam, Hilary
The Pythons: Autobiography by the Pythons (book)
Quine, W.V.
From a Logical Point of View
Rambo (movie)
Rawls, John
reflective equilibrium
religion, and rules
religious belief and superstition
ressentiment
Rhees, Rush
Rieux, Dr. (Camus character)
Rimbaud, Arthur
Robin, Sir (in Monty Python and The Holy Grail)
rule utilitarianism
Russell, Bertrand
Our Knowledge of the External World
Ryle, Gilbert
Samsa, Gregor
Sartre, Jean-Paul
Monty Python references to
No Exit
on past choices
sati
Saturday Night Live (TV show)
Schlick, Moritz
science, and nihilism
The Sedition Act
semantic holism
semantic reductionism
sense data
sentences, meaning in usage
Sermon on the Plain
Schlegel, Friedrich von
Schopenhauer, Arthur
Shakespeare, William
Hamlet
King Lear
Simpson, Homer
The Simpsons (TV show)
Singer, Peter
Sisyphus
Smith, Adam
The Wealth of Nations
Socrates
on blasphemy
on death
on God
Solomon, Robert C.
Stallone, Sylvester
Stand By Me (movie)
Strawson, Sir Peter F.
Thales
theology
Theravada Buddhism
Thomson, Judith Jarvis
thought experiments
limitations of
Tipitika scriptures
transcendentalism
Troyes, Chretien de
Upanishads
use-mention distinction
utilitairianism
verifiability criterion
verificationism
Verification Principle
Very Big Corporation of America (in Monty Python sketch)
Vienna Circle
“village idiot,” as label
virtue theory
The Vision of the Golden Rump
Walpole, Sir Robert
Washington, George
Whitehead, Alfred North
William of Baskerville
Wittgenstein, Ludwig
on animals and language
cult of
early
on jokes
on language
on language games
later
on nonsense
On Certainty
Philosophical Investigations
on philosophical sentences
on philosophy
Remarks on Colour
on sentence meaning
on sentences
Tractatus
Wood, S.H.
Young, Jimmy
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (book)
1
According, at least, to David Edmonds and John Eidinow, Wittgenstein’s Poker: the Story of a Ten-Minute Argument between Two Great Philosophers (New York: Harper Collins, 2001).
2
Though one gets the impression Cleese might well study philosophy if he had it all to do over again, given that philosophy has become one of his main post-Python interests. Concerned about the meager attention accorded philosophical questions in contemporary life, for example, in 2002 Cleese recorded a well-received set of radio “blurbs” on philosophical topics for the American Philosophical Association (see www.udel.apa.edu). He’s also shared the stage repeatedly with Pomona University’s E. Wilson Lyon Professor of Humanities Stephen Erickson in public discussions of the meaning of life (the topic, not the film) and, from 1999 to 2005, was A.D. White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University where he lectured on, among other things, philosophy and religion.
3
David Hume, “Of Miracles,” in his Writings on Religion, edited by Antony Flew (Chicago: Open Court, 1992), p. 73.
4
Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, with Bob McCabe, The Pythons’ Autobiography (New York: St Martin’s Press, 2003), p. 281.
5
Immanuel Kant, “What Is Enlightenment?” in Kant, On History, edited by Lewis White Beck (New York: Macmillan, 1963), p. 3.
6
Similarly, if Brian is an existentialist, he might be either a religious or theistic existentialist (like Kierkegaard, Martin Buber (1878-1965), or Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973)) or an atheistic existentialist (like Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, or Albert Camus (1913-1960)).
7
Theistic humanism rather than secular humanism is a common theme in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Here God is portrayed as criticizing religious believers who devalue their humanity, as in this dialogue:
GOD: What are you doing now?
KING ARTHUR: Averting our eyes, oh Lord.
GOD: Well, don’t. It’s just like those miserable psalms, always so depressing. . . . Every time I try to talk to someone it’s “sorry this” and “forgive me that” and “I’m not worthy”. . . .
8
Bob Lane, “The Absurd Hero,” Humanist in Canada 17:4 (Winter, 1984-85).
9
Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays (New York: Vintage, 1955), p. 90.
10
Albert Camus, Preface to L’Étranger, edited by Germaine Brée (New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1955).
11
Robert C. Solomon, “Camus’ L’Étranger, and the Truth,” in his From Hegel to Existentialism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 246-260.
12
The Pythons with Bob McCabe, The Pythons: Autobiography by the Pythons (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2003), p. 326.
13
The ensuing account of horror derives from Noël Carroll, The Philosophy of Horror (New York: Routledge, 1990), especially the first chapter. For further background on comic amusement, see my article, “Humour,” in The Oxford Handbook of Aesthetics, edited by Jerrold Levinson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), pp. 344-365.
14
It may seem that this does not apply to a great deal of black comedy. In many instances the cruelties dealt in black humor do not appear to be directed at objects that morally deserve such punishment. Think of such genres of dark humor as dead baby jokes. However, in cases like this, the cruel humorist is encouraging us to direct our moral rancor not at the babies in the jokes, but at sentimental attitudes that usually accompany discourse about infants. It is that complacent sentimentality that the dark humorist thinks deserves a moral whack.
Similarly, the recurring mentally-challenged “Gumby” characters in Monty Python’s Flying Circus (see, for example, “Gumby Crooner” in Episode 9, “The Ant: An Introduction”) seem to be basically an assault , by his own hand, on excessive sentimentality. It is not that Gumby deserves to be hit on the head with a brick, as he is; rather, the ethical energy underwriting the harsh laughter here is aimed at the sentimentalization of the mentally ill. The butt of the laughter lives off-screen, in a manner of speaking. It resides wherever pompous types congratulate themselves for caring for their “inferiors.”
15
Corbyn Morris, An Essay towards Fixing the True Standards of Wit, Humour, Raillery, Satire, and Ridicule (1744) (New York: Garland, 1970).
16
S.H. Wood, Walpole
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