History Film / MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian

** The scene where a centurion catches Brian writing "Romanes eunt domus" on a wall and upbraids him for his poor grasp of Latin and forces him to correct his mistakes. [[spoiler:If you're wondering, "Romanes eunt domus" is very bad Latin for "Romans go home", or as the guard puts it, "People that are called Romanes, they go, the house?"... it gives the adjective for "Roman" an incorrect declension and uses an incorrect mood (indicative, when it should be imperative) for "go" and case (nominative, when it should be accusative locative) for "home". The corrected version, "Romani ite domum", is much more accurate.]]

'''Insane Jailer:''' ''(also in completely normal voice)'' Well, I just never really liked them, so I...

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: At least twice. Firstly, the scene in which Brian's followers ignore his message of individuality and original thought to jump on the "Brian is the Messiah" bandwagon; and also the scene where the centurion corrects Brian's Latin, ignoring the fact that the phrase itself is treason (and painting on a wall is vandalism, although graffiti was an accepted method of advertisement back then). Even funnier is that the guard let Brian off after he covered ''the entire building he was tagging'' with the phrase, now written correctly.

* ObfuscatingInsanity: The two guards in charge of the prisoners for crucifixion. Although technically, only one of them is pretending to be insane-the other has a [[ObfuscatingDisability phony speech impediment]]:

'''Speech Impaired Jailer:''' Anyway, get on with the story.\\
'''Insane Jailer:''' ''(in completely normal voice)'' Well, I just never really liked them, so I...

%%* TheCallHasBadReception: From his followers' perspective.

%%* DerailedForDetails: Brian's attempt to tell the Parable of the Talents.

%%* EventTitle

%%* ExactWords: How Brian's followers interpret his instructions.

** One of the guards' face ''screams'' of this when Pilate tells that Biggus Dickus "has a wife, you know". (It's rumored that extras playing the guards were told it was a serious scene and that [[EnforcedMethodActing if they laughed they'd be fired]], in which case the reaction would be real.)

** In as much as a Creator/MontyPython movie can be said to have a "sane" man, Brian usually fulfils this role. Of the Romans, the centurion played by John Cleese seems to be the only one with his head screwed on straight.
** The PFJ take it in turns to be the only sane man. Reg is the only one to realise the futility of fighting for Stan's right to do something which is biologically impossible anyway. But later it's Judith who points out that Brian will be killed if they don't stop debating with each other and take immediate action. (She is, of course, ignored.)

* ThePrankster: The guy played by Eric Idle, titled as "Mr. Cheeky", is actually one, starting from igniting the whole "Big Nose" incident, and later dashed Brian's chance to be freed by claiming himself to be Brian for kicks.

* YouKnowImBlackRight: PFJ member Loretta (played by Idle) is established to be a trans woman early on. Late in the film, Judith loses her temper at Reg and the other PFJ members for wanting to decide by committee what to do about Brian's impending crucifixion and storms out. Reg comments "Another little ego trip from the feminists", prompting an indignant "What?" from Loretta, to which he then apologizes.

* YouKnowImBlackRight: PFJ member Loretta (played by Idle) is established to be a trans woman early on. Late in the film, Judith loses her temper at Reg and the other PFJ members for wanting to decide by committee what to do about Brian's impending crucifixion and storms out. Reg goes, "Whoo! Women, eh?" Then he sees Loretta looking a bit hurt by that and goes, "Oh, sorry, Loretta."

Upon its release, this film drew a lot of controversy, mainly in the form of criticism from various religious groups and orders due to what was perceived as a disrespectful mockery of UsefulNotes/JesusChrist (which in turn was frequently based on the erroneous belief that Brian was intended to be/actually was Jesus, rather than just someone whose life parallelled him in several ways). Rather than mocking Jesus, however, the film actually treats the source material [[JesusWasWayCool with a lot of respect]]. It just points out that UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} may have missed the point on some of what Jesus taught. It is not unheard of for the movie to be regarded as an AffectionateParody by actual ministers. The Pythons themselves have always maintained that the film is not [[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blasphemy blasphemous]] (IE critical of God and Jesus), but rather [[https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heresy heretical]] (critical of ''the church'').

* {{Fanservice}}: The film features a naked Graham Chapman as well as a naked Sue Jones-Davies (Judith).

* LogicBomb: The one man in the crowd that claims he isn't different to those who just repeated "We are all different."

* ADateWithRosiePalms: The opening song says that teenage Brian "started to shave and have one off the wrist."

* PunchClockVillian: The Romans seem more exasperated with their garrison duty and the mayhem that goes on around them, than vindictive.

** From the stoning scene: the Jewish name for God is not "Jehovah", it's "YHWH" (usually pronounced "Yahweh"). As ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' was to observe several years later, the ''Romans'' mispronounced it "Iehovah", and then it became "Jehovah" during the Middle Ages, usually attributed to typographical errors by overworked scribes.

* {{Demythification}}: This movie, despite expectations, actually subverts this. It follows the whacky misadventures of a man who is repeatedly mistaken for a prophet in Roman Galilee, from his adoration by the Magi to his crucifixion by the Romans, and shows (accurately) that there were many self-proclaimed prophets in that time and place. Yet the movie does not make any comment on Jesus' nature, and he stays offscreen except for one scene early in depicting the Sermon on the Mount. Despite this, many censors considered the film blasphemous and it was denied a release in several countries for decades.

* GoneHorriblyRight: Zigzagged. Eric Idle's character gets himself un-sentenced to death twice by joking that he is innocent …but he doesn't actually ''want'' to get off his death sentence.

* {{Demythification}}: This movie, despite expectations, actually subverts this. It follows the whacky misadventures of a man that is repeatedly mistaken for a prophet in Roman Galilee, from his adoration by the Magi to his crucifixion by the Romans, and shows (accurately) that there were many self-proclaimed prophets in that time and place. Yet the movie does not make any comment on Jesus' nature, and he stays offscreen except for one scene early in depicting the Sermon on the Mount. Despite this, many censorers considered the film blasphemous and it was denied a release in several countries for decades.

Upon its release, this film drew a lot of controversy, mainly in the form of criticism from various religious groups and orders due to what was perceived as a disrespectful mockery of UsefulNotes/JesusChrist (which in turn was frequently based on the erroneous belief that Brian was intended to be/actually was Jesus, rather than just someone whose life parallelled him in several ways). Rather than mocking Jesus, however, the film actually treats the source material [[JesusWasWayCool with a lot of respect]]. It just points out that UsefulNotes/{{Christianity}} may have missed the point on some of what Jesus taught. It is not unheard of for the movie to be regarded as an AffectionateParody by actual ministers.

** People in ancient Judea have modern Anglophone names like Brian, Reg or Stan/Loretta.

* LastSecondWordSwap: In "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" the word "worst" is replaced at the last minute by "best" as part of the songs' BlackComedy effect.

* DudeNotFunny: The zealots of the Suicide Battalion were envisioned as being ANaziByAnyOtherName, with pickelhauben, a symbol that was a mix of a Swastika and the Star of David, and a leader named Otto who wore a toothbrush mustache. This was all set up in a scene that was filmed and promptly cut for not being funny.