Life Imitates Monty Python

The way some Leftists carry on these days, you'd think they'd never watched Monty Python's Life of Brian. Gerard Baker has a hilarious riff, using lines from Life of Brian:
Monty Python's Life of Brian

By the time they’re finished they’re not so sure about the whole insurgency idea after all and an exasperated Reg tries to rally them: “All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?”

Real life in Monty-speak

In the last month, the pace of progress has accelerated, and from Beirut to Kabul.

Confronted with this awkward turn of events, Reg’s angry successors are asking their cohorts: “What have the Americans ever done for us?” “Well, they did get rid of the Taleban in Afghanistan. ’Orrible bunch, they were.”

“All right, the Taleban, I grant you.”

“Then there was Iraq. Knocked off one of the nastiest dictators who ever lived and gave the whole nation a chance to pick its own rulers.”

“Yeah, all right. Fair enough. I didn’t like Saddam.”

“Libya gave up its nuclear weapons.”

“And then there’s Syria. Thousands of people on the streets of Lebanon. Syrians look like they’re pulling out.”

“I just heard Egypt’s going to hold free presidential elections for the first time. And Saudi Arabia just held elections too.”

“The Palestinians and the Israelis are talking again and they say there’s a real chance of peace this time.”

“All right, all right. But apart from liberating 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan, undermining dictatorships throughout the Arab world, spreading freedom and self-determination in the broader Middle East and moving the Palestinians and the Israelis towards a real chance of ending their centuries-long war, what have the Americans ever done for us?”
Movies aren't necessarily about wisdom, and the ones that try too hard to drive home a message often come off as preachy and uninteresting. The good movies are the ones that have something else going for them, like gags, humor, drama, or a real story. Most of all, people must be able to relate to them. That last one's a bit tougher for the Python crew, but I personally hang around in circles in which Life of Brian is almost as famous as Monty Python and the Holy Grail, so in this crowd, it's a winner.

[Cross-posted at Between Worlds]

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