Editing Monty Python's Life of Brian (section)

==Legacy==
===Literature===
Spin-offs include a script-book ''[[Monty Python's The Life of Brian / Monty Python Scrapbook|The Life of Brian of Nazareth]]'', which was printed back-to-back with ''[[Monty Python's The Life of Brian / Monty Python Scrapbook|MONTYPYTHONSCRAPBOOK]]'' as a single book. The printing of this book also caused problems, due to rarely used laws in the United Kingdom against blasphemy, dictating what can and cannot be written about religion. The publisher refused to print both halves of the book, and original prints were by two companies.<ref>See Hewison.</ref>

Julian Doyle, the film's editor, wrote ''The Life of Brian/Jesus'', a book which not only describes the filmmaking and editing process but argues that it is the most accurate Biblical film ever made. In October 2008, a memoir by [[Kim "Howard" Johnson]] titled ''Monty Python's Tunisian Holiday: My Life with Brian'' was released. Johnson became friendly with the Pythons during the filming of ''Life of Brian'' and the book is based on his notes and memories of the behind-the-scenes filming and make-up.<ref>[https://archive.today/20120914084850/http://www.thomasdunnebooks.com/TD_TitleDetail.aspx?ISBN=0312533799 ''Monty Python's Tunisian Holiday'' by Kim "Howard" Johnson at ThomasDunneBooks.com]. Retrieved 31 August 2008</ref>

===Music===
With the success of Eric Idle's musical retelling of ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail'', called ''[[Spamalot]]'', Idle announced that he would be giving ''Life of Brian'' a similar treatment. The [[oratorio]], called ''[[Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy)]]'', was commissioned to be part of the festival called [[Luminato]] in Toronto in June 2007, and was written/scored by Idle and [[John Du Prez]], who also worked with Idle on ''Spamalot''. ''Not the Messiah'' is a spoof of [[Handel]]'s ''[[Messiah (Handel)|Messiah]]''. It runs approximately 50 minutes, and was conducted at its world premiere by [[Toronto Symphony Orchestra]] music director [[Peter Oundjian]], who is Idle's cousin.<ref name="Brian gets Musical">{{cite news|author=CBC Arts |date=18 October 2006 |title=Python gang reunited as Spamalot opens in London |publisher=CBC |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/python-gang-reunited-as-spamalot-opens-in-london-1.597258 |access-date=18 October 2006 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061030024206/http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2006/10/18/python-gang.html |archive-date=30 October 2006 }}</ref> ''Not the Messiah'' received its US premiere at the [[Caramoor International Music Festival]] in [[Katonah, New York|Katonah]], New York. Oundjian and Idle joined forces once again for a double performance of the oratorio in July 2007.<ref name="Messiah US Premiere">{{cite web |first=Vivien |last=Schweitzer|date=10 April 2007 |title=''Not the Messiah'', Eric Idle's Comic Oratorio, to have U.S. Premiere at Caramoor Festival|publisher=[[PlaybillArts]]|url=http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/6298.html|access-date=8 May 2007}}</ref>

===Other media===
In October 2011, [[BBC Four]] premiered the [[Television film|made-for-television]] comedy film ''[[Holy Flying Circus]]'', written by Tony Roche and directed by Owen Harris. The "Pythonesque" film explores the events surrounding the 1979 [[Friday Night, Saturday Morning#Monty Python's Life of Brian|television debate]] on talk show ''[[Friday Night, Saturday Morning]]'' between John Cleese and Michael Palin and [[Malcolm Muggeridge]] and [[Mervyn Stockwood]], then [[Anglican Bishop of Southwark|Bishop of Southwark]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1981637/|title=Holy Flying Circus|date=19 October 2011|via=IMDb}}</ref>

[[File:RowanAtkinsonMar07.jpg|right|thumb|upright|[[Rowan Atkinson]] lampooned the pompous behaviour from the bishop Mervyn Stockwood in the [[Friday Night, Saturday Morning#Monty Python's Life of Brian|TV debate]] a week later in a sketch on ''[[Not the Nine O'Clock News]]'']]
In a ''[[Not the Nine O'Clock News]]'' sketch, a bishop who has directed a scandalous film called ''The Life of Christ'' is hauled over the coals by a representative of the "Church of Python", claiming that the film is an attack on "Our Lord, John Cleese" and on the members of Python, who, in the sketch, are the objects of Britain's true religious faith. This was a parody of the infamous ''Friday Night, Saturday Morning'' programme, broadcast a week previously. The bishop (played by [[Rowan Atkinson]]) claims that the reaction to the film has surprised him, as he "didn't expect the [[The Spanish Inquisition (Monty Python)|Spanish Inquisition]]."<ref name="Welease">{{cite news |title=Welease Bwian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2003/mar/28/artsfeatures1 |access-date=5 September 2019 |work=The Guardian}}</ref>

Radio host John Williams of Chicago's [[WGN (AM)|WGN 720 AM]] has used "[[Always Look on the Bright Side of Life]]" in a segment of his Friday shows. The segment is used to highlight good events from the past week in listeners' lives and what has made them smile.<ref>{{cite news |title=Always look on the Bright Side of Life! |url=https://wgnradio.com/2017/05/19/always-look-on-the-bright-side-of-life-05-18-17/ |access-date=5 September 2019 |work=WGN Radio |archive-date=5 September 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190905125620/https://wgnradio.com/2017/05/19/always-look-on-the-bright-side-of-life-05-18-17/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> In the 1997 film ''[[As Good as It Gets]]'', the misanthropic character played by [[Jack Nicholson]] sings "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" as evidence of the character's change in attitude.<ref>{{cite book |first=Monica Silveira |last=Cyrino |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=32gPTvDhLAMC&pg=PA187 |title=Big Screen Rome |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |date=2 December 2005|isbn=9781405116848 }}</ref>

A BBC history series ''[[What the Romans Did for Us]]'', written and presented by [[Adam Hart-Davis]] and broadcast in 2000, takes its title from Cleese's rhetorical question "What have the Romans ever done for us?" in one of the film's scenes. (Cleese himself parodied this line in a 1986 BBC advert defending the [[Television licensing in the United Kingdom|Television Licence Fee]]: "What has the BBC ever given us?").<ref>{{YouTube|fEJGRNrbmNc}}</ref>

[[Prime Minister of the United Kingdom|Former British Prime Minister]] [[Tony Blair]] in his [[Prime Minister's Questions]] of 3 May 2006 made a shorthand reference to the types of political groups, "Judean People's Front" or "People's Front of Judea", lampooned in ''Life of Brian''.<ref>{{cite web |author=TheyWorkForYou|date=3 May 2006 |title=House of Commons Debates|publisher=[[mySociety]]|url=https://www.theyworkforyou.com/debates/?id=2006-05-03a.958.5#g963.2 |access-date=30 March 2007}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmhansrd/vo060503/debtext/60503-03.htm#60503-03_spmin17 |title=House of Commons Hansard Debates for 3 May 2006 (pt 3) |author=House of Commons |date=3 May 2006 |at=column 963}}</ref> This was in response to a question from the Labour MP [[David Clelland]], asking "What has the Labour government ever done for us?" – itself a parody of John Cleese's "What have the Romans ever done for us?"

On New Year's Day 2007, and again on New Year's Eve, UK television station [[Channel 4]] dedicated an entire evening to the Monty Python phenomenon, during which an hour-long documentary was broadcast called ''The Secret Life of Brian'' about the making of ''The Life of Brian'' and the controversy that was caused by its release. The Pythons featured in the documentary and reflected upon the events that surrounded the film. This was followed by a screening of the film itself.<ref name="Channel 4" /> The documentary (in a slightly extended form) was one of the special features on the 2007 DVD re-release – the "Immaculate Edition", also the first Python release on [[Blu-ray Disc|Blu-ray]].

In June 2014, [[King's College London]] hosted an academic conference on the film, in which internationally renowned Biblical scholars and historians discussed the film and its reception, looking both at how the Pythons had made use of scholarship and texts, and how the film can be used creatively within modern scholarship on the [[Historical Jesus]].<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/trs/events/jandb/index.aspx |title= King's College London – Jesus and Brian: A Conference on the Historical Jesus and his Times |access-date= 30 July 2015 |archive-date= 1 November 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20181101233647/https://www.kcl.ac.uk/artshums/depts/trs/events/jandb/index.aspx |url-status= dead }}</ref> In a panel discussion, including Terry Jones and theologian [[Richard Burridge (priest)|Richard Burridge]], John Cleese described the event as "the most interesting thing to come out of Monty Python".<ref>{{cite web |url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CspatcnNWSg | archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211103/CspatcnNWSg| archive-date=2021-11-03 | url-status=live|title= Interview with John Cleese and Terry Jones |publisher= King's College London |date= 28 August 2014 |via= YouTube}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The papers from the conference have gone on to prompt the publication of a book, edited by [[Joan E. Taylor]], the conference organiser, ''Jesus and Brian: Exploring the Historical Jesus and His Times via Monty Python's Life of Brian'', published by Bloomsbury in 2015.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/jesus-and-brian-9780567658319 |title= Jesus and Brian |publisher= Bloomsbury.com }}</ref> Theological Studies Professor Matthew Robert Anderson has drawn on that research to outline the ways that the film is a "historically accurate" depiction of the time period and the historical Jesus.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Anderson |first=Matthew Robert |date=2020-01-28 |title=‘Life of Brian,’ Terry Jones’s legacy of a surprisingly historical Jesus |url=https://theconversation.com/life-of-brian-terry-joness-legacy-of-a-surprisingly-historical-jesus-130582 |access-date=2025-03-23 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US}}</ref>

In 2023, John Cleese said he was working on a stage version of the film.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Haring |first=Bruce |date=28 May 2023 |title=‘Monty Python’ Star John Cleese Says ‘Life Of Brian’ Scene Won’t Be Cut Despite Modern Sensitivities |url=https://deadline.com/2023/05/monty-python-star-john-cleese-says-life-of-brian-scene-wont-be-cut-despite-modern-sensitivites-1235382058/ |access-date=24 February 2025 |website=Deadline |language=en-US}}</ref> In 2024, he said he expected it to play in London's [[West End theatre|West End]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Maxwell |first=Dominic |date=3 May 2024 |title=John Cleese: ‘I’ve never really been a very confident person’ |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/arts/article/john-cleese-interview-fawlty-towers-stage-woke-p8m6g2xgf |access-date=24 February 2025|work=The Times |language=en}}</ref>