History Film / MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife

* AnimalDisguise: The two men dressed as a tiger in the jungle. **Why** they are dressed as a tiger is never made clear.

''Creator/MontyPython's The Meaning of Life'' arrived in 1983 as the last hurrah of the complete six-man troupe, directed by Creator/TerryJones. For the rest of the 1980's, the Pythons grew apart and it wasn't until the death of Creator/GrahamChapman in 1989 that they officially went their separate ways. The film marked the troupe's return to sketch-based comedy after two films that followed a linear plot. The film's sketches are loosely connected and arranged by the stages of human life.

This is notable as ''by far'' the grossest of the Python films, via such highlights as the aforementioned "Live Organ Transplants" sketch and the restaurant scene featuring the projectile-vomiting Mr. Creosote, which is notably the only movie scene that has ever disgusted Creator/QuentinTarantino. That didn't stop it from receiving the Grand Prize of the Jury award at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival, however.

** Subverted in that while the initial impression is that he is to be [[spoiler:fucked to death]], in fact his fate is to [[spoiler:dive off a cliff into his own open grave]].

* DisproportionateRetribution: Played for laughs. A man is apparently sentenced to death for making sexist jokes.

* JustTheIntroductionToTheOpposites: present in the "Growth and Learning" segment when schoolboys study quietly before their teacher arrives, whereupon they become rowdy and disruptive.

-->'''Grim Reaper:''' [I have come to] take you away. That is my purpose. I am Death.\\

-->'''Maître d':''' Anozzer bucket for monsieur... ''(Creosote vomits on his leg)'' and perhaps -- a khhhhose.

--> '''Pakenham (Michael Palin):''' A tiger? In Africa?\\

'''Pakenham:''' Well, I don't think that's very likely- ''(Ainsworth sshs him)''

--> '''Grim Reaper:'''' Quiet! Englishman. You're all so fucking [[BritishStuffiness pompous]]. None of you have got any balls.

-->'''Grim Reaper:''' ''(poking him in the eye)'' Quiet! Englishmen, you're all so fucking [[BritishStuffiness pompous]]. None of you have got any balls.

-->'''Narrator:''' Democracy and humanitarianism have always been trademarks of the British Army.\\
'''Sergeant Major''': Rubbish!\\

--> ''O Lord, please don't burn us.''
--> ''Don't grill or toast your flock.''
--> ''Don't put us on the barbecue''
--> ''Or simmer us in stock.''
--> ''Don't braise or bake or boil us,''
--> ''Or stir-fry us in a wok.''

--> ''Oh come on! I mean, do we look like the sort of chaps who'd creep into a camp at night, steal into someone's tent, anaesthetise them, tissue-type them, amputate a leg and run away with it?''

-->'''Housewife:''' [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight Get that for me, would you, Deidre?]]

* InsaneTrollLogic: When the Liver Harvesters show up and demands the organ donor's liver, he protests that he still using the liver and that he only agreed to give it away "in the event of death." The Harvesters reply that they can absolutely take a living man's liver because no one has yet survived having their liver taken by them, so therefore they haven't broken the "in the event of death" rule.

* InsaneTrollLogic: The Liver Harvesters can absolutely take a living man's liver, because no one has survived having their liver taken, therefore they haven't broken the rule that you will only take a liver in the event of death.

* TheHandIsGod: PlayedForLaughs. A British Army officer is opining about how "we'll always need a military, and may God strike me dead if it's ever otherwise." Cue BoltOfDivineRetribution doing just that, and a giant hand withdrawing into a cloudbank afterwards. Which is immediately followed by a [[DrillSergeantNasty sergeant major lambasting his troops]], "Don't stand there gawping, like you've never seen the hand of God before!"

* JustTheIntroductionToTheOpposites: present in the "Growth and Learning" segment when schoolboys study quietly before their teacher arrives, whereupon they become rowdy and boisterous. Additionally, the boys are utterly disinterested and clinical about sex whereas the teacher is affectionate with his wife whilst they demonstrate sex in front of his students.

* InsaneTrollLogic: The Liver Harvesters can absolutely take a living man's liver, because no one has survived having their liver taken, therefore they haven't broken the rule that you will only take a liver in the event of death.

* BookEnds: Not in the movie itself, but for Creator/MontyPython as a whole in hindsight -- what turned out to be the troupe's final film ends with a TV set playing the original credits for ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus''.

-->'''Major''': Look, he was fast asleep, and someone, or something came in and removed it!\\
'''Man Dressed as the Front of a Tiger''': ...[[FridgeLogic without waking him up]]!?\\
'''Major''': ...yes.\\
'''Man Dressed as the Front of a Tiger''': I don't believe you!

* GagBoobs: Unusually, it's not because of their ''size''. In the "Christmas in Heaven" number, all of the apparently-topless dancing girls are wearing fake plastic breasts. The plan was originally to have them be topless, but it was decided that plastic breasts would be a lot funnier. It was also out of necessity, as not all of the actresses had the same-sized breasts.

* SkewedPriorities: The Roman Catholic parents are so vehement in the church's rejection of contraceptives that they are absolutely swarmed with children they can't afford to raise (to the point of basing a song around it), yet they see no problem with selling those children for scientific experimentation when the dad loses his job at the mill. Considering we see those children in {{Heaven}} at the end, they likely died from it.

* {{Gainaxing}}: The women in the bit mentioned under HowWouldYouLikeToDie below.