You can’t parody Islam, says Palin: Monty Python star believes religious sensitivities have increased so much it would be impossible to make Life of Brian today

Daily Mail:

Michael Palin said there is one comedy taboo he is too scared to break- Islam

Now be impossible to make 1979 film Life of Brian – which satirised the life of Jesus – let alone laugh at Muslims.

During his Monty Python days he poked fun at everyone from the Establishment to Christianity. But thanks to the threat of 'heavily armed' fanatics, Michael Palin has admitted there is one comedy taboo he is too scared to break-IslamDuring his Monty Python days he poked fun at everyone from the Establishment to Christianity. But thanks to the threat of ‘heavily armed’ fanatics, Michael Palin has admitted there is one comedy taboo he is too scared to break-Islam

He said: ‘Religion is more difficult to talk about. I don’t think we could do Life of Brian any more. A parody of Islam would be even harder.

‘We all saw what happened to Salman Rushdie and none of us want to get into all that. It’s a pity but that’s the way it is. There are people out there without a sense of humour and they’re heavily armed.’

Click to continue:

Mr. Palin’s observations are far far short of the mark. The problem is infinity larger than mocking religion. It means the end of the enlightenment itself. It means you cannot tell the truth or debate the merits or costs of a religious belief. Many who have been killed by muslims were just peripherally involved with people who made valid points about Islam like the Japanese translator for Salman Rushdie’s book, The Satanic Verses. His point in the book was also a valid one by the way.

We must not let the freedom to discuss and even mock irrational authority, religious or political, be dissipated as it is for Islam or leftist leaders like Obama or communists and murderers like Mandela or we lose everything of value in civilization and eventually civilization itself. For once the enemy sees that you are willing to submit and give up a central freedom out of fear, its the first step to losing them all.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

39 Replies to “You can’t parody Islam, says Palin: Monty Python star believes religious sensitivities have increased so much it would be impossible to make Life of Brian today”

  1. he’s just being a pc moron, Christianity is mocked and derided every day, it’s even incentivated, while talking about islam is a hate crime.

  2. ‘We all saw what happened to Salman Rushdie and none of us want to get into all that. It’s a pity but that’s the way it is.’

    The pity is that the English don’t seem willing or able to turn it around, to get free speech back on the road to being other than where it presently is. It’s sad hearing this from a man of Palin’s privilege, ability and vast experience of the world. What he has learned from his travels is that it is wisdom to live in fear.

  3. Palin’s wrong. It would be easier than ever today to make ‘Life of Brian’. Producers would be falling over themselves to finance it. The problem is I don’t think it would be as successful for the very same reason. Deriding Christianity is so commonplace, it would be just another mocking exercise. No big deal like it was in ’79.

  4. – Joed

    Very astute. I think Palin was just covering his behind with a little of the old moral relativism – making it about ‘religion’, rather than about Islam, so as to deflect the focus of blame away from it’s rightful subject. He knows that if he makes light of Islam, he could face the rest of his life wondering which Muslim will suddenly slip out of the crowd and murder him.

    Did you know that Japan is very quietly and, oh so discretely, almost totally Muslim free? Most Japanese consider Islam to be very bad. Ah, so…:)

  5. Chris Jones – I’ve met Michael Palin a couple of times in the last 15 years. He’s a neighbour of a friend of mine in London. Very nice chap. Interestingly, it’s one of those little Georgian villages that was swallowed up as London expanded, and now sits immediately adjacent to a sizeable council estate, chock full of, yes, you’ve guessed it.

    He probably doesn’t want his neighbours to get all 7th century on him. Yes, you’re right, he’s saying ‘religion’ when he really wants to say ‘Islam’. A bit like Nigel Farage saying he thinks we should take ‘some’ refugees from Syria. He’s talking about the Christian ones, but can’t bring himself to say it.

  6. The penny never quite drops does it ? The country that I grew up in was a VERY Christian one, and has been for over a thousand years. The ‘enlightenment ‘ did not happen despite Christianity, but BECAUSE of it – it didn’t happen anywhere else in the world apart from what used to be called Christendom. In the country I grew up in I was free to hold any opinion I wanted – on any subject – THAT’S HOW IT WAS – TRULY. People wouldn’t be sacked, ostracised, ruined, jailed even for holding the wrong opinion, uttering an incautious word, even if it was against the prevailing culture – as films like the life of Brian so aptly illustrates. There were little things that don’t matter today like truth – a simple word, but a very important one. Does anyone tell the truth about anything today? Immigration, crime, global warming, weapons of mass destruction. In the country I grew up in a cabinet minister caught lying would be sacked in disgrace, and never be heard of again, NOW they can go to jail and still carry on. They can be caught having perverted sex with underage boys, and not only will they carry on as an MP, they will be given TV shows.(as happened not so long ago with a prominent MP). Our language used to be littered with phrases like ‘An Englishman’s word is his bond’ AND IT WAS. NOW we expect to be lied to and go along with the ones we prefer.So what’s so great about this self declared ‘secular democracy’ that we are being shoehorned into ? As it tightens its grip we are losing all the freedoms that we once enjoyed. TRUE, Christianity can be very oppressive – If you want to have perverted sex, cheat on your wife without feeling guilty, If you want to murder unborn children, If you want to lie through your teeth, cheat and dissemble whenever its to your advantage, then yes, Christianity can be very restricting. BUT IT MAKES FOR A WHOLE LOT BETTER SOCIETY TO LIVE IN.

  7. Christianity is under attack because it places God about the government, the left can’t have that so they have to destroy Christianity.

  8. – Richard

    Can you believe the egos on these guys? There’s Vladimir Lenin busily outlawing Christianity because he doesn’t want to have to compete with Jesus, or Hitler, terrifying the clergy to the point that they say whatever he wants them to say while still “supporting” him. What give guys like that the idea that they have the right to behave that way? It gives real teeth to the word, “narcissistic”.

  9. It goes back to the God King of the Romans and others in the ancient world, the modern leftist want to be God Kings and know that the truly religious won’t worship them.

  10. It’s so common to deride Christianity today that there would literally be no need for ANOTHER movie mocking it, so they couldn’t make “Life of Brian” today. The reaction would be “so what?” as opposed to the scandalous publicity they got back in the day.

    The Monty Python stars would get much less NOTORIETY out of the film today, but it would actually be easier to make. At least, in its RETOUCHED RELEASED TO VIDEO VERSION.

    The interesting thing about Life of Brian, theater version, is that it poked quite a bit of humor at the Jews. Almost all of which was removed when the video was released to consumers.

    So the actual fact is, while it’s easier to lampoon Christians today than 30 years ago, it’s actually much HARDER to lampoon the Jews.

    And of course they couldn’t do one where Islam was parodied. But they couldn’t do that back in the 1970s, either. Just take a look at movies about Islam that were POSITIVE, like The Message, and their reaction, despite a positive whitewash and a refusal to depict Mohammad (Pork be upon him) directly. If they couldn’t depict Moham-MAD directly in a pro-Islam film made decades ago, you can bet your hamhocks that Python couldn’t lampoon the subject TODAY.

    tl;dr

    Films mocking Christians are a dime a dozen nowadays. Jews are now above being mocked. Moose-slims have ALWAYS been too violent to mock.

  11. Exactally “Some Guy”, back in the day both Catlicks and angelcans were pissed off about the life of Brian. I remember hearing the radio two broadcasts as they went out. The film still makes me chuckle. As for your Islam 101ers, they should wish it was only the salmon mouse.

  12. EXACTLY Richard . With no higher authority than themselves, no higher moral imperative they are free to act, behave, do unto others as they see fit; and over the course of human history the rich, the powerful can do some pretty ugly things.
    Without a spiritual dimension YOU HAVE NO INALIENABLE RIGHTS, no intrinsic value in yourself except for those which they who rule bestow on you or withdraw on a whim. You are a ‘human resource’ to be managed for what they decide is the ‘common good’. I’ve recently been commenting on another site about health care, where I brought up the situation of the ‘Liverpool death pathway’. The British national health service, as always, teetering on the brink of collapse was looking to save money, so what they decided to do was ‘target resources’, and how they decided to do this was to put patients who were expected to die from their condition on a ‘death pathway’ which entailed actually ‘bumping them off’ by not feeding them or hydrating them when they were helpless to feed themselves, of course they could also make the case that it saved mortally ill patients unnecessary suffering. ALL nice and reasonable sounding, unless it was your granny. EXCEPT, being bureaucrats they set quotas, targets, and the hospital staff being good little bureaucrats themselves set out to fill those quotas, so once they ran out of people for whom death was imminent they started MURDERING people who would have otherwise made a full recovery, ANYONE, justabout, over a certain age, people who may have had years or even decades of happy, fulfilled life in front of them, WORSE, some patients and families noticed the instruction on their notes and complained, AND THEY STILL DID IT, convinced that they were doing the right thing ! (or only following orders). It wasn’t until the clamour against it got so big, and they had murdered THOUSANDS that it was stopped, and as far as I know NO-ONE was ever disciplined or even admonished.
    Godlessness is what turns forty people who happen to be standing close to someone the US government has deemed a terrorist, and therefore a legitimate target for a drone strike, from men women, children, with hopes aspirations, people who love them, people whom they love, each with an intrinsic value of their own, the right to life and the pursuit of happiness into ‘collateral damage’
    No matter what your opinion on militant islam, terrorism, blasting forty people at a time into atoms in pursuit of US foreign policy should NOT be an option, and anyone with an ounce of humanity should recognise this as plain WRONG. and I am very much NOT a pacifist.

  13. @Joed : “He probably doesn’t want his neighbours to get all 7th century on him. “

    LOL, but yes, as Goethe’s Faust said: “Das also ist des Pudel’s Kern” or words to that effect which mean: and here we have the core of it: I so often ask myself: how would I have behaved during the rise of the last nazis? Survival instinct or courage?

    @ Eeyore: OMG !! just watched that video: physically I wanted to vomit – this whats-his-face is just soooooooo repulsive….but that’s about as “accessible” a portrayal of this guy (mohamed) and how he conned a whole future of the planet. A must watch! – but after breakfast if you are squeamish, like I am !

  14. It’s hard for me to conceive of Palin as “a nice chap” when he slanders Christianity by tacitly claiming that Christians would be violent just like Muslims were Life of Brian to be made today. It’s a preposterous and outlandish statement on the face of it, but it is an insidious and malevolent libel when analyzed.

    Some “nice guy.”

  15. Michael Palin did to Christianity what Tina Fey did to Sarah Palin.

    People still think Tina Fey was actually Sarah Palin to this day. Same with Michael Palin’s version of the Crusades and Spanish Inquisitions to this day they think this is what took place.

    When in reality the crusaders in general were the most Nobel people to walk this planet.

  16. – Ox AO

    I find it astounding that the left has actually managed to make it an established fact that the Crusades were an evil and unnecessary policy carried out by white people for no other reason than that they were a bunch of big fat haters. I am filled with perverse admiration by the fact that the lying bastards actually managed to “prove” that the Medieval Christians had no right whatsoever to defend themselves against the cruelest most blood-thirsty bandits ever to walk the earth. These are the greatest liars who ever lived. They’re good…very good…

  17. – Rita

    Imagine yourself standing at your door facing the Gestapo. Now imagine that your legs are shaking so badly that you are literally unable to move, and your throat is so dry and constricted that you cannot make a sound, and there is a big wet spot forming in your crotch from where you have just peed yourself. I’m not exaggerating. Unless you’re an experienced street cop, or a combat vet, or a Hell’s Angel, that is exactly how it would have been in Nazi Germany. Feeling brave?

    • The Nazis foolishly allied themselves with Islam, but they had at least one valid point. Namely, that Germans should run Germany. The holocaust (which I indeed believe happened) was a horrible and unnecessary thing do have done, but influential Jews should have been firmly told, and then compelled, to leave Germany to native Germans who actually felt loyalty to their country, and not to some transnational tribe that, unfortunately, has a history of banding together against their host societies.

  18. Some Guy: Try watching South Park, Family guy, Drawn together and a bunch more and tell me you can’t mock Jews. Its actually open season.

    • It’s Jews doing it, though, so they’re ok with it, and anyway, it’s usually to mock the anti-Semite as a stupid white trash paranoid conspiracy theorist. Regardless of whatever Jew-mockery is permitted, it’s still predominantly liberal Jews who control entertainment outlets and it’s liberal Jews who pushed for political correctness, a.k.a. Marxism, and massive Third World immigration to the First World to undermine the West. Jews decide who can be mocked and criticized and who can’t. Marlon Brando knew exactly what he was talking about.

  19. SAD thing is, the life of Brian would fail for two reasons not mentioned above, firstly ironic humour, (apart from the bitchy, spiteful, sneering, sarcastic type indulged in by left wing ‘comedians’ and commentators) has been completely pummelled out of us by political correctness,secondly, anyone under, say 35 has such a poor knowledge of the bible, history, and literature in general that just about all of the references to the bible, Romans, Jews, will be completely lost on them.
    The Biggus Dickus sketch ma still raise a titter though.

  20. The Crack Suicide Squad was put on the editing floor. The Jew was lampooned in it. Most people will not have seen the excerpt.

  21. Some guy. No they didn’t take out the stuff mocking jews from the video versions. I don’t know what you think you remember but it’s all still in there. They didn’t bow to pressure from the jewish community because, unlike from the christian side, there wasn’t any jewish opposition to the movie to speak of.

    I don’t really see how someone could make a comedic movie about the life of muhamad. I don’t see the humor potential in the rape of a nine year old child.

    An actually good comedic movie scewering muslims was The Infidel.

    It skewers islamic knee jerk antisemitism, fundamentalism and the pathetic regard with which such pompous ratbags are held. The protagonist, played by Omid Djalili, finds out he’s adopted and is really jewish. It’s sort of like Watermellon Man – the Melvin Van Peebles film where a white guy wakes up one day to find he’s become black.

    Citizen Khan has returned for a second season as well. I haven’t watched it this season as it’s just not very good. That’s intentional as it’s made for an immegrant audience and so the humor is intentionally broad (the creators words, not mine). It’s full of all sorts of little jabs.

    I’m curious to know how they reacted to the faux outrage some terrorist agitator types tried to concoct after the first episode. Weather they carried on or punked out in some way.

  22. @ Chris Jones: “Imagine yourself standing at your door facing the Gestapo…snip… Feeling brave?”

    There, in a nutshell you have my motivation for nearly all my politics. It informs my near total defence of the Jewish people and Israel etc. Because, as much as I would like to imagine that I would have been a member of the “White Rose” (Weisse Rose), I just know that I have an immense instinct for survival – and so, being born long “afterwards” I have no alibi that I would not have – like the majority – kept silent. That’s why I shout as loudly today as I dare, mostly however from behind the semi-security of my key board,

    PS: I like your take on the Crusades!

  23. Back in the day, we prized “Good Manners”, aka the “Golden Rule”. Avoid topics that may offend or embarrass a new aquaintance, like religion and politics.

    It stifles conversation among strangers only if your general knowledge base is shallow, if you have nothing but opinions to offer. It’s great fun to discover the old gentleman sitting beside you is a bee-keeper, fascinating in no small measure because of the enthusiasm he brings to the table.

    These days it’s easy to find like-minded people who’ll get down & dirty with you. Or keep it between you and your pet hamster.

  24. @ yucki …It’s great fun to discover the old gentleman sitting beside you is a bee-keeper, fascinating in no small measure because of the enthusiasm he brings to the table…”

    When I encounter people like your bee-keeper, I am always reminded of one of the wisest biblical (?) sayings: “First seek the kingdom of god, the rest shall be given to you” (or words to that effect), and I envy him, because he has found “his” kingdom of god.

    Finding a cause, or better still a cause finding you can be even more fulfilling.

  25. Phil:

    Infowars is by a man who knowingly falsifies data to support a claim he makes and is quite likely on the Russian payroll. I will listen to anything you have to say but not to Alex Jones.

  26. Sorry about the hint of sarcasm about that last reply. Do you really think A.J. fabricates so much ? I know he exaggerates, ‘bigs’ himself up a bit – He holds a demo in downtown Austin consisting of six of his employees and two or three bemused onlookers, and to hear him talk you’d swear he’d marched on D.C. at the head of a citizens army, but most of the news items seem to be on the money, if a bit sensationally put over. And he does do a great Yosemite Sam impression

  27. Quote:
    The penny never quite drops does it ? The country that I grew up in was a VERY Christian one, and has been for over a thousand years. The ‘enlightenment ‘ did not happen despite Christianity, but BECAUSE of it – it didn’t happen anywhere else in the world apart from what used to be called Christendom.
    end

    If the Pythons are going to lampoon someone, why don’t they lampoon the foolishness of the leaders of their country and Europe in importing enemies by the millions into the West?
    One need not even be direct to spread an anti-Islamist message.
    After all, If Jesus is the Son of God, and we say it out loud, what’s a good Muslim to do?

  28. Rita –
    You mean Matthew 6:31, which I know because it comes just before one of my favorite verses, 6:34. And the whole of it has such rich, poetic density, I’m going to adopt your verse too.

    Matthew is saying don’t fixate on the corporeal — what shall we eat or wear. [Mt. 6:31]
    “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”

    So, as you say, the bee-keeper has “his” kingdom, and all you need do is “tune-in” to receive a portion of that kingdom. His awe of nature’s design, its bounty, his place in the scheme of things — whatever — the gift to you is an experience of joy overflowing.

    My verse is Mt 6:34, second sentence “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. ***Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.***

    [Rita, you’re welcome to my verse too.]

  29. yucki, thank you.:)I have to confess to a very rudimentary knowledge of the bible, but around your favorite verse, was there not something said about how we should be like the birds and not worry about the morrow?

    Whenever I watch birds I think of this far in the past echo (because I dont even know where I read/heard it, only that it was by someone “in authority”) and I think, whoever said/wrote that has not seen a magpie mother being bullied by her young ones for food, and sea gulls the same, and parrots, and kookaburras , actually all birds I observe seem to have a real stressful life. (sorry, I’m just realising that my pragmatic anthropomorphising is pouring a cold shower over what is truly poetic and rich. ) But while I am on a losing streak I will confess that find the music of your favorite wonderful, BUT I dont understand the ***sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof***? (perhaps it’s that english is not my mother tongue, perhaps it’s more than that, however I would love to understand it – if you have a moment. ‘thank you.

  30. Rita:

    The book, ‘The Selfish Gene’ by Richard Dawkins (A must read book for all in my opinion) details how mama birds have to cope even with emotional blackmail from their offspring pretty much identical to humans in fact. So you are right and even more so.

  31. Rita-
    That verse has 26-billion meanings, as do all, but here’s my personal version for today.

    Disaster looms… closer and closer … You do your best for you and yours, always guided by enlightened intelligence. Prepare in every mundane way, be ready to fight if that’s what it takes. Help yourself, help those who can’t or won’t for whatever reason. Nag them, then just do it for them. Their passivity infuriates you, but you don’t want to lose them. Carry them, if you must.

    Prior to great calamity in the past, one amongst many was told what to do. For example:
    ==>Noah was given extremely explicit instructions; lots of work, finicky details – that wood, 2 of those slimy critters, 4 of these fluffy ones.
    ==> Moses passed word down, ’Put a sign on your door, grab the bread as it is, I don’t know we’re going or when we’ll get there, just don’t argue guys.… — Oh, there’s s pillar of light!’

    Search your soul for heavenly guidance, reach out to kindred souls, extended souls. There are so many receivers for each transmission.
    Then relax, trust in your Creator. Tonight enjoy dinner, make love, sleep well. As it is written: “Take therefore no thought for the morrow.”

    __Because tomorrow _may_ be miserable you want to _practice_ being miserable tonight?? Let tomorrow take care of itself !!

    Therefore: ***Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.***