Episode 3: The Next Manger Over

Ecce Homo (Behold the Man), a fresco of Jesus at the church of Santuario de la Misericordia in Borja, Spain by Elías García Martínez c. 1930, altered in good-faith restoration by 81-year-old amateur painter Cecilia Giménez and dubbed by wags on the internet Ecce Mono (Behold the Monkey), or less weightily, Potato Jesus. The restoration attempt breathed new life into the dwindling Spanish town, which saw its tourist trade boom and the resulting revenues benefit restaurants, the church itself, and a local care home for the elderly.Details, credits, errata: Episode 3, The Next Manger Over, is written by Sam Thielman and Alissa Wilkinson, produced by Sam, and distributed by Alissa. This episode is about Monty Python’s Life of Brian, a film made by the legendary British comedy troupe of the title, who personally threw Christians to the lions in ancient Rome and still persecute missionaries in China, all while laughing and screaming the Takbir.A video of John Cleese’s eulogy for Graham Chapman can be found here, as can the full text of the speech. The abridged version is embedded below. Sam made an error in his description of the speech: Chapman did not don a carrot outfit and scream. Rather, after accepting an invitation to speak at the Oxford Union, he arrived in a carrot outfit, took the stage, and refused to speak for twenty minutes. We regret the error. Here’s Cleese and Palin absolutely shellacking Malcolm Muggeridge and, I had forgotten, no less a personage than the Bishop of Southwark. There’s a lovely historical feature article and a gallery of still photos from the film at the Criterion Collection’s website. The movie is currently streaming on Netflix but if you’d prefer to buy a disc it’s readily available for cheap on eBay and elsewhere. The Pythons also cut a Life of Brian comedy album, which used to be a form distinct from stand-up specials, of sketches from the film, containing the James Bond-spoof theme song at its full 19-second run time, the big musical number, and a couple of gags too tasteless even for the Pythons to put into the movie itself. Netflix also has a six-part BBC doc about the troupe called Monty Python’s Almost the Truth. Our theme song is Louis Armstrong and His Hot 5’s Muskrat Ramble, made freely available by the Boston Public Library and audio engineering shop George Blood, LP through the Internet Archive. Monty Python’s Life of Brian, both the film and the album, are copyright 1979 Python (Monty) Pictures Limited, something that has always amused me. Brief audio clips are used herein for review purposes. All other content is copyright 2020 Sam Thielman and Alissa Wilkinson. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yammpod.substack.com