Monty Python and Philosophy by Gary Hardcastle (best novels for beginners .TXT) 📗

Brian tells them that, “You’ve all got to work it out for yourselves,” shout back in unison, “Yes, yes!! We’ve all got to work it out for ourselves,” which is predictably followed by, “Tell us more!” (p. 72).

According to Sartre, another way that people can manifest bad faith is when they fail to acknowledge that their past choices, taken as a whole, represent or define their character. Since there is no pre-established meaning to life, our meaning can only come from our actual choices, and so if my choices display a certain pattern (such as heroism, cowardice, dishonesty, and so on), then that is the type of person that I have freely chosen to become. Many people attempt to deny these basic facts about themselves. They might declare, “I am really a hero, but I was never in the right circumstances to display my heroism,” an excuse that supposedly explains away their many past flights from any potential danger (this example comes from Sartre’s famous play, No Exit).80 But, Sartre tells us, there is no deep-down, internal property (essence) of “heroism” that makes a person heroic. Rather, we are what we do, and our actual choices are the only means of determining our character, and consequently the meaning we have given to our lives. Of course, we are always free to become a new person if we so choose to act in the future.

Instances of this type of person (who are, as they say, “in denial”) abound in Monty Python. In the “Fish License” sketch, Mr. Praline declares “I am not a loony!,” even though he is pestering a post office clerk for a (non-existent) fish license for Eric, his pet halibut. “I chose him [Eric the halibut] out of thousands. I didn’t like the others. They were all too flat,” he tells the clerk (Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Episode 23, “Scott of the Antarctic”). Sartre would accuse Mr. Praline of bad faith: he is definitely a loony!

One of the criticisms commonly raised against Sartre’s concept of freedom is that he fails to take into account the influence, or limitations, of our genetics (nature) and up-bringing (nurture). Is the alcoholic really “free” to stop drinking, or the homosexual to “choose” heterosexuality? Most would say they are not. And this limited scope of individual choice plays a role in several Monty Python’s Flying Circus sketches. The timid, subservient, Arthur Pewtey has decided he won’t be “pushed around” anymore, but when he tries to stop his wife’s seduction (by the marriage counselor, no less), and is told to “go away,” he instinctively backs down with a meek, “Right. Right.” (Episode 2, “Sex and Violence”). Is Arthur Pewtey really free to change himself into a confident, aggressive person? Similarly, limitations of a more basic physiological sort persistently thwart Ron Obvious’s ambitious stunts, such as jumping the English Channel, or eating Chichester Cathedral (Episode 10, untitled). The point? Monty Python contains much that is existentialist, but it holds the seeds of some powerful objections to existentialism as well.

A Nietzschean Conclusion

I’ve tried to show that Monty Python has some positive, existentialist advice on life. It’s not simply a sarcastic send-up of humanity and the search for meaning. But, Monty Python just wouldn’t be Monty Python if it didn’t also make fun of philosophers and their theories of life! And, indeed, a sketch from Monty Python’s Flying Circus involves two pepperpots who go in search of Sartre in order to settle an argument (Episode 27, “Whicker’s World”). Along the way, conversation reveals details about Sartre, especially as they talk with his wife (Betty Muriel-Sartre). Sartre can be a bit moody, for example: “‘the bourgeoisie this and the bourgeoisie that’—he’s like a little child sometimes,” his wife tells us. And he isn’t much fun on holiday: “He didn’t join in the fun much. Just sat there thinking. Still, Mr. Rotter caught him a few times with the whoopee cushion.” The satirical target of this skit is the pompous and self-important philosopher, and the moral, possibly, is that philosophers should not take themselves so seriously. Even they can be caught by a whoopee cushion. If this last interpretation of the Sartre sketch is in any way correct, then it once again reveals a latent philosophical message in Monty Python. The ability to step back and take an honest look at ourselves, or to laugh at our own pretensions, is a virtue that Nietzsche emphasized: “I will not deceive, not even myself.”81

For Nietzsche, the cultivation of personal virtues, such as honesty, is part of the process by which an individual can form a meaningful, authentic life. Nietzsche describes this process on occasion using “artistic” metaphors, as “‘giving style’ to one’s character” (p. 290). This suggests that the creation of a meaningful life is much like the creation of a beautiful, significant art work. The concept of the “will to power” is important in this context: “every living thing does everything it can not to preserve itself but to become more.”82 Consequently, by conjoining the striving of individuals to grow or flourish with the creative act of fashioning a unique, virtuous character, we may begin to understand what Nietzsche considered a meaningful life. There is a sense in which Monty Python itself fits Nietzsche’s theory. That is, the history or “life” of Monty Python is marked by a continuous internal development and striving to become more, all under the guidance of a well-conceived, if dynamic, artistic plan. As Monty Python’s Flying Circus progressed, the idea of a fluid, “stream-of-consciousness” method of writing sketches and comedic material gradually evolved. Skits with normal beginnings and endings, and with final punch lines, were replaced by an inventive, constantly developing series of bizarre leaps to new material, and yet the material was often cleverly interconnected on many levels.83 With the transition to movies, the plots became more unified and presented a more consistent theme, and the content became more daring. Yet the members of the group were not