The Meaning of Life

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The Meaning of Life

The Meaning of Life was a Monty Python comedy film made in 1983. This film was essentially a series of comedy skits about the various stages of life - in some ways a return to the sketch comedy format of the original television series.

The resulting film is regarded as a little uneven, though which particular scenes are thought funny varies from person to person. Some more generally praised scenes include:

The opening scene, "birth", where a woman in labour is ignored by doctors, nurses, Japanese tourists, and eventually the hospital's administrator as they drag in more and more elaborate equipment, including "the machine that goes - PING!".
The musical number "Every Sperm is Sacred", a parody of "Consider Yourself" from the musical Oliver, which satirises the Catholic Church's attitudes to contraception and masturbation.

Because the film was not intended for television, some scenes shows a much more black humour than the Monty Python TV series (for example Mr Creosote or Human Organ Transplantation sketch).

The title sequence appears to allude to The Meaning of Liff, released the same year.