History Trivia / MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife

** Also, Cleese and Chapman tell the woman after the birth that she can get a video of the birth of her child on VHS and Betamax!
*** ... and Super 8mm film!

** "The Third World" originally had a third segment about Martin Luther, following on from the Protestant couple's scene. Why the sequence was removed is unknown, but it was filmed, as a book of the movie's script, which was published around the movie's premiere, features it complete with screenshots.

* ScienceMarchesOn: Thirty years after it was written, Creator/EricIdle and physicist Prof. Brian Cox re-wrote the lyrics to the Galaxy Song. They decided it needed an update because subsequent scientific discoveries meant much of the information in the original song was no longer accurate. It was performed as part of the Python's farewell shows at the O2 arena in London in 2014, complete with a pre-recorded clip at the end where UsefulNotes/StephenHawking runs over Cox for picking at the original version's inaccuracies, before proceeding to "sing" the song himself.

* ScienceMarchesOn: Thirty years after it was written, Creator/EricIdle and physicist Prof. Brian Cox re-wrote the lyrics to the Galaxy song. They decided it needed an update because subsequent scientific discoveries meant much of the information in the original song was no longer accurate. It was performed as part of the Python's farewell shows at the O2 arena in London in 2014.

* EnforcedMethodActing: The infamous Mr. Creosote scene was filmed in a warehouse with no air conditioning and a dairy-based prop vomit that went bad after several days of shooting. This, combined with [[NauseaFuel the content of the sketch itself]], made the extras very nauseous and several of them (including one in the bottom right-hand corner) can be seen [[VomitIndiscretionShot actually vomiting]] as they exit the restaurant covered in Creosote's remains.

** Before the Pythons decided to make a sketch movie about the meaning of life, two ideas were considered for the movie. The first was ''Monty Python's World War III'', with sponsored armies and soldiers wearing military uniforms full of advertisements. Another idea was the Pythons being tried for fraud, accused of making a tax dodge, not a movie. They spend the entire movie trying to prove that they're shooting an adaptation of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'' in the Caribbean. At the end, they're found guilty and sentenced to execution, and each one of them gets to decide how they're going to die. The idea was used in the death sketch, where Arthur Jarrett has chosen to die while pursued by naked girls.

* ProtectionFromEditors: ''The Crimson Permanent Assurance'' was filmed as if it were a completely separate project. Creator/TerryGilliam got his own soundstage, crew and cast. This segment continued to expand because, according to Gilliam, nobody told him to stop.

* UncreditedRole: Creator/NigelHawthorne makes a small cameo in "The Crimson Permanent Assurance" bit as the man walking by the building when the anchors are raised.
** Michael Caine cameos as one of the mortally wounded soldiers in the Zulu war segment (a scene reminiscent of [[Film/{{Zulu}} the movie where he got his big break...]])

** Two involving Mr. Creosote.
*** The sketch almost didn't make it into the film. Creator/TerryJones' first write-up of the sketch with Creator/MichaelPalin fell flat and had to be re-written by Creator/GrahamChapman and Creator/JohnCleese (who saved the sketch from being binned because he wanted to play the head waiter, whom he thought had the funniest part).
*** Jones initially wanted Gilliam to play Mr. Creosote. Gilliam persuaded Jones to play the character instead.

* UncreditedRole: Creator/NigelHawthorne makes a small cameo in "The Crimson Permanent Aussurance" bit as the man walking by the building when the anchors are raised.

* UsefulNotes/HollywoodAccounting: Creator/EricIdle, on his ''Exploits Creator/MontyPython'' concert tour at the TurnOfTheMillennium, noted that this movie was the only Python film made with major studio backing (Universal Pictures)...and thus the only one that apparently didn't turn a profit. So in this tour's version of "The Crimson Permanent Assurance", there's an additional verse about studio accountants.

* WriteWhatYouKnow: The idea for the hospital sketch came from Creator/GrahamChapman, himself a physician, who had noticed that hospitals were changing, with "lots and lots of machinery".

* NobodyEverComplainedBefore[=/=]YouNeverAsked: The reason why the Crimson Permanent Assurance short film went over budget and originally ran about half an hour (the movie trimmed it down to sixteen minutes). Creator/TerryGilliam explained that nobody told him to stop.

* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: The "Autumn Years" portion (where a fat guy vomits everywhere and explodes from overeating) is notably the only scene in ''any'' film to have disturbed '''[[Creator/QuentinTarantino QUENTIN]] [[PrecisionFStrike FUCKING]] [[Creator/QuentinTarantino TARANTINO]]'''. That certainly says [[NightmareFuel a lot]] about it.

** According to the DVD audio commentary, the Arthur Jarrett segment was a remnant of a previous draft of the film, where all of Monty Python were going to be convicted at the beginning of the film for trying to use it as a tax dodge, and each be sentenced to death in a manner of their choosing.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: The "Birth]]" sketch was, at the time, a cutting satire on what was seen as unnecessary spending on medical equipment. Nowadays, anyone who's seen a modern medical drama, with the surgeons surrounded by massive banks of electronic equipment, may wonder what all the fuss is about -- to the point that operating ''without'' such equipment nowadays would be seen as unusual and dangerous. Other parts of the sketch though remain relevant.

* ThrowItIn: The line, "Hey, I didn't eat the mousse!" was improvised on the spot.

* EnforcedMethodActing: The infamous Mr. Creosote scene was filmed in a warehouse with no air conditioning and a dairy-based prop vomit that went bad after several days of shooting. This, combined with [[NauseaFuel the content of the sketch itself]], made several of the extras very nauseous and several of them (including one in the bottom right-hand corner) can be seen [[VomitIndiscretionShot actually vomiting]] as they exit the restaurant covered in Creosote's remains.

* UsefulNotes/HollywoodAccounting: Eric Idle, on his ''Exploits Creator/MontyPython'' concert tour at the TurnOfTheMillennium, noted that this movie was the only Python film made with major studio backing (Universal Pictures)...and thus the only one that apparently didn't turn a profit. So in this tour's version of "The Crimson Permanent Assurance", there's an additional verse about studio accountants.
* NobodyEverComplainedBefore[=/=]YouNeverAsked: The reason why the Crimson Permanent Assurance short film went over budget and originally ran about half an hour (the movie trimmed it down to sixteen minutes). Terry Gilliam explained that nobody told him to stop.
* RetroactiveRecognition
** The teacher's wife in the sex education scene? That's Patricia Quinn, better known as Magenta from ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow''. Quinn got the part due to the fact that Michael White, who produced ''The Rocky Horror Picture Show'', also produced ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' as well. [[{{Fanservice}} Many RHPS fans were pleased]].
** Harder to notice, but [[{{Series/Frasier}} Daphne]] is a dancer in the "Christmas in Heaven" and "Every Sperm is Sacred" numbers.
** Also harder to notice, but Creator/MichaelCaine is a British soldier injured in the Zulu war scene.
** Series/MaxHeadroom as a CorruptCorporateExecutive.
** One of the dinner guests who get taken away by Death is [[Series/TheHitchHikersGuideToTheGalaxy Simon Jones]]. This is especially uncanny given that the afterlife appears to be some kind of [[Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse restaurant]]. And humourously, he plays the husband of Terry [[NamesTheSame Jones]].
** One of the elderly accountants in the "Crimson Permanent Assurance" is none other than the [[Series/DoctorWho Supreme Dalek]] himself, under his human alias ''John Scott Martin''.

** The second verse of "The Galaxy Song" was meant to be an animated sequence along with the instrumental part, but Terry Gilliam opted out of animating it in favor of shooting more of "The Crimson Permanent Assurance".

*** The sketch almost didn't make it into the film. Terry Jones' first write-up of the sketch with Michael Palin fell flat and had to be re-written with Graham Chapman.
*** Jones initially wanted Terry Gilliam to play Mr. Creosote. Gilliam persuaded Jones to play the character instead.

* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: The "Middle Years" portion (where a fat guy vomits everywhere and explodes from overeating) is notably the only scene in ''any'' film to have disturbed '''[[Creator/QuentinTarantino QUENTIN]] [[PrecisionFStrike FUCKING]] [[Creator/QuentinTarantino TARANTINO]]'''. That certainly says [[NightmareFuel a lot]] about it.

** According to the DVD audio commentary, this segment was a remnant of a previous draft of the film, where all of Monty Python were going to be convicted at the beginning of the film for trying to use it as a tax dodge, and each be sentenced to death in a manner of their choosing.