“Oh for God’s sake, have a laugh!” – Margaret Wilson (1922-2014)
This was the type of psychological advice that our Mum would give us in the 60’s and 70s! When you’ve looked after 9 kids and fostered a couple more, time was of the essence so sitting down and workshopping our woes wasn’t much of a priority! Instead, it was “be grateful for what you’ve got and have a laugh!” I saw what Friday night comedies like Dave Allen and The Two Ronnies did for my Dad, a tortured WW2 veteran and that cemented my love for comedy and how profound an effect it can have. In the darkest of times it has always been those words (which are on our Mum’s gravestone) that have dragged me into the light.
To come up with only 27 comic influences on my life is tough, much like trying to pick a top 50 albums so I decided to go with those movies/TV shows/Artists that I’ve watched and listened to the most over the past 57 years. I understand there are a plethora I haven’t seen that have huge raps, such as Veep and The Larry Sanders Show, but one only has so much time on their hands. I hope there is something here that might spark some interest if you haven’t connected with it in the past.
Sincere apologies to: The 3 Stooges, Billy Connolly, Fleabag, Extras, The Late Show, Woody Allen, F Troop, George Carlin, Aussie movies The Club, Malcolm and Death in Brunswick, The Two Ronnies, Gavin & Stacey, Hard Quiz, What we do in the Shadows, The Thick of It, Yes Prime Minister, The Four Lions, Stewart Lee, Lead Balloon, The Mighty Boosh, The Simpsons, Blackadder, Miranda, Portlandia, Broad City, Absolutely Fabulous, Cheech and Chong’s Up in Smoke, The IT Crowd, Slapshot, Father Ted, Would I Lie to You?, Spaced, Galaxy Quest, Flight of the Concords, Frontline, People Like Us, Man Down, Caddyshack, and Richard Pryor Live.
#5 – Life of Brian (1979)
Brian: “Look, you’ve got it all wrong. You don’t need to follow me. You don’t need to follow anybody. You’ve got to think for yourselves. You’re all individuals.”
Crowd in unison: “YES. WE’RE ALL INDIVIDUALS.”
This is about as philosophical as The Life of Brian gets in regards to religion, and it still rings true today. This film has topped many lists as the funniest movie of all time and rightly so. Monty Python (John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam) made 3 x feature films in the 70’s and 80’s, The Holy Grail, Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life. Holy Grail and Meaning of Life were very successful but nothing to the scale and notoriety that The Life of Brian attained.
The group came together in the late 60’s from rival Universities, Oxford and Cambridge where they each had performed reviews and had become writers for BBC comedy programs. The only exception was Terry Gilliam, and American artist and cartoonist who added his enormous visual talents to the team.
Holy Grail gave the Pythons confidence to take on their next venture but a couple of days prior to leaving England for Tunisia to film, the investors pulled out citing pressure from the religious aspects of the film. Up stepped former Beatle George Harrison and under the guise of his film company Handmade Films, pulled 3 million pounds from his car ashtray and saved the day!
The Life of Brian is simply the story of Brian Cohen who is mistaken for Jesus Christ by the three wise men on the night JC is born. The wise men quickly dump Brian when they discover the Holy One in the stable next door, and Brian becomes an idealistic young man who falls in love with Judith, a young rebel from the Peoples Front of Judea (PFJ), who hates the Romans.
In between the uproariously funny journey Brian takes in the next 90 minutes, there are subtle examinations of subjects such as guerrilla organisations, unions, gender transitions and the hypocrisy and stupidity that can affect religion. It was never intended to hurt Jesus or people of religion, in fact it’s just a wonderful satire on the way Jesus’ own teaching has been used to persecute others.
Anyway here are some clips if you’re not familiar with Monty Python and the Life Of Brian. Firstly it’s been well documented that John Cleese and Michael Palin clashed a fair bit over their time together, but the chemistry when they worked together produced some of the finest comic moments in history. When Sir Michael came to Melbourne 2 years ago and performed at The Athenaeum promoting his latest book, Lynda and I jumped at it. Towards the end of the show he was telling some stories from the Python days when suddenly to his and the audience’s surprise, John Cleese appeared! He was dressed casually and sounded like he had had a few drinks. He told a funny anecdote about Michael for the next 10 mins then disappeared stage right! It was as much a shock as it was a thrill to everyone present to have these 2 x giants of comedy together on stage.
Another favourite skit of mine featuring Michael Palin is the “Constitutional Peasant” from Holy Grail, this time sparring with Graham Chapman.
The opening to Life of Brian is the sermon on the mount scene and sets the tone for what’s to come. This bit featuring Michael Palin and Eric Idle.
Michael Palin managed to find himself in so many memorable character roles in Life of Brian. These are just a few.
Life of Brian stands the test of time and Lynda and I usually watch it on Xmas Day after witnessing the 2 x months prior of mass consumerism and commercialisation of Xmas in the media. One of the best films ever made.
#4 – This is Spinal Tap (1984)
This cult film is the first and still the best “mockumentary” ever made. It spawned a genre effectively, and despite there being some quality versions like The Office, nothing beats the original. This film takes every cliché from 60’s and 70’s rock ‘n roll and regurgitates it in the most hilarious of ways.
It’s directed by Rob Reiner, the son of comic legend Carl Reiner and an actor in his own right in the 70’s sitcom All in the Family, in which he played “Meathead” the long suffering son-in-law of bigot Archie Bunker. This was his first film and has led to a brilliant career making movies the calibre of Princess Bride, Stand By Me, When Harry Met Sally and A Few Good Men.
Reiner plays Marty Di Bergi, a documentary filmmaker who follows Spinal Tap, a heavy metal band from England, on their 1982 tour of America. You can tell something is up in the first scene when Di Bergi is introducing the doco, and he crosses his arms only to have them drop uncomfortably and slowly down by his side.
The tour is a disaster and goes from bad to worse when the 2 x main men, David St Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel break up after the arrival of St Hubbin’s girlfriend Jeanine who assumes the role of manager. Very much a John/Paul/Yoko scenario. The band’s real manager, cricket bat wielding Ian Faith (Led Zeppelin’s manager Peter Grant often carried a bat) also left when Jeanine arrived. The band find themselves playing second fiddle to a puppet show and even allow their bass player Derek Smalls to reprise his experimental jazz fusion which is appalling.
Every scene is a gem but one of my favourites is when Jeanine disastrously books them into an Air Force Officers dance night. They are greeted by an Air Force Officer played by the wonderfully deadpan Fred Willard and when they get up and play, well its downhill from there.
If you haven’t seen Spinal Tap before, the only way to describe it is through some clips, so here goes. Here Nigel explains how he gets that extra “oomph” from his amplifier.
Early days of the tour and Nigel has issues with the band’s rider in the dressing room.
Nigel’s tender musical trilogy
The boys give sculptor Polly played by Angelica Huston, a napkin with a design for Stonehenge which will become a giant backdrop for their new song to be played for the first time live. Problem being the boys use inches, not feet on the diagram. “There was a Stonehenge monument that was in danger of being crushed by a dwarf”
This is Spinal Tap launched the careers of Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer. Guest and McKean went on the make other mockumentaries such as Best in Show and Waiting for Guffman and Harry Shearer has spent the last 30 years doing various voices for the Simpsons. The movie has plenty of fantastic cameos from Fran Drescher, Patrick Macnee, Billy Crystal and Paul Shaffer to name a few.
Everyone does their bit to convincingly make this look like a real doco, but if you want to see the complete reverse of Spinal Tap I can recommend 2 x films. The first is “Anvil, the Story of Anvil”, the real life story of 2 x Canadian best friends who had a very good metal band in the 80’s called Anvil and they try and get the band back together. It’s actually a beautiful story of two “Nigel and David’s” and you won’t believe it’s real! The other one is “Some Kind of Monster” featuring Metallica. I hate Metallica, especially the pretentious drummer Lars, but I must have watched this 3 x times because of its “Spinal Tapness”! The band have got their heads so far up their behinds they’ve failed to see the irony. It’s great. Here’s the trailers.
