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Monty Python and Philosophy: Nudge Nudge, Think Think! (Popular Culture and Philosophy #19)
by
Gary L. Hardcastle,
George A. Reisch, Stephen Faison , John Huss , Edward Slowik , Rosalind Carey , Bruce Baldwin , James Stacey Taylor
,
more...
From the 1970s cult TV show, "Monty Python's Flying Circus," to the current hit musical "Spamalot, the Monty Python comedy troupe has been at the center of popular culture and entertainment. The Pythons John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam are increasingly recognized and honored for their creativity and enduri...more
Paperback, 1st Edition, 288 pages
Published
March 30th 2006
by Open Court
(first published March 1st 2006)
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This is the second book in the "Philosophy and pop culture" series I've read (the first being inspired by the TV show "Lost"). This one, inspired by the Monty Python show and movies, was more fun to read than the Lost book. Given the source material, many of the authors of this collection of essays tried to inject Pythoneque humour into their pieces, some of them doing it quite well. Given that Monty Python often dealt directly in philosophical humour (think of the philoso...more
For the heavy-duty thinker/Python enthusiast. Sometimes funny, always illuminating.
I've seen other "...and Philosophy" books treat James Bond, Seinfeld, and Watchmen, all of which were worth a good skimming, but never worth spending the 10-20 dollars. (I'm but a poor college philosophy major.) But, when I saw this at the bookstore, the inner Python in me squealed and I bought it on the spot.
Overall, it was a fine read. I wish I had flipped through the pages first though. My problem with this book is its lack of philosophical diversity. With only one exce...more
Overall, it was a fine read. I wish I had flipped through the pages first though. My problem with this book is its lack of philosophical diversity. With only one exce...more
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You have to know the series pretty well to appreciate most of this book... at the very least a working knowledge of the most popular sketches (or access to youtube). Although the subject matter has the potential to be very funny, unfortunately a lot of these writers are not. An overall interesting read, but not that enlightening.
I enjoyed it much more at the beginning. The essays started to get repetitive. They cited the same sketches and even the same quotes from philosophers it seemed at times. Interesting points were made, but after the third time they became less interesting. Still a great read for Python fans however.
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Overall, I enjoyed it. But a critical point is being familiar with Monty Python; the more that you like Monty Python, the more you will like this book. I am not extremely familiar with them, so this wasn't my favorite book ever read. Does cause you to think though. Isn't that the point of reading?
Interesting viewpoints of current day philosophers views of Monty Python's sketch comedy and movies. A lot of it is spot on but others interpretations are really reaching. A bit of a difficult read like most philosophy texts but fun for the most part.
I enjoyed this book a lot. There were sections, such as the essay on Existentialism in Monty Python, that intrigued me enough to get up and find more of my existentialist books. The one draw back I saw was the overuse of the philosophy of Wittgenstein. He was mentioned in almost every other article, and it began to get a bit tedious.
Wolfman
added it
Some of it was over my head, but there were parts that were both funny and educational. It was fun to go back and watch the sketches and movies that were discussed in the book with an eye to the philosophy involved.
I've always said that everything I learned about philosophy I learned from Monty Python. Mostly because of their "Bruces' Philosopher Song". Now I know more, whether I'll remember any of it going forward is up for debate, but it was interesting, especially when examples were cited out of classic sketches.
Para quem gosta de filosofia principalmente. Os Monty Python são mesmo só para contextualizar.
Mas á medida que vais lendo e lembrando os sketches pensas "pois é!".
Mas á medida que vais lendo e lembrando os sketches pensas "pois é!".
An interesting book, yes, and fun; hey, with the Pythons as your starting reference point it would be tough to go wrong. But as a collective work, it has a malady common to that genre - not all the essays are worth reading. As one of the authors notes, the most noticeable difference between philosophers and Pytons is that philosophers aren't funny. There are insights in this book, and it is worth reading; but be prepared to slog through some chaff to get to the good stuff.
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Hard to sit down and read straight through unless you really like all schools of philosophical thought, and even then, I don't think individual sketches really merit in-depth philosophical explication. There is a whole chapter devoted to the Piston Engine sketch, which nearly made me stab myself in the eye. Still, definitely worthhile to leaf through if you're a Python fan with an elementary grounding in philosophy...but maybe only leaf through it, not buy it.
vetsina eseji je neuveritelne zajimava a samozrejme (to snad ani nemusim dodavat, nikdo snad neceka spanelskou inkvizici) vtipna. Cely to samozrejme korunuje Brucova pijacka pisnicka o filozofech, ktera je vlastne zaklad :)
This my first experience with Philosophy...scarry. I liked it at first, but the more I read, the more I realized that each article was pretty similar to the first one. I think I probably should have gone in with a little more knowledge of basic philosophy. I probably wouldn't been able to get a little more into it.
Sarah
Sarah
I shelved this under 'satire', but both the editors are philosophy professors. The contributors all have academic credentials as well.
Who knew the Pythons delivered delivered such devastating critiques of ordinary language philosophy?
Amelia
marked it as to-read
A high school graduation gift I've been meaning to actually read.
one of the best in the "Popular Culture and Philosophy" series.
Utter shit.
Alison Flower
marked it as to-read
Bonnie
marked it as to-read
Holly Isemonger
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“Is God really real?”This is a perennial question for the philosophy of religion. Fortunately, the Pythons have answers to it. Perhaps too many answers. If we asked Arthur, King of the Britons, he would certainly testify that God exists, speaks English, and can’t stand people groveling, averting their eyes, ceaselessly apologizing, and deeming themselves unworthy. Yet when we begin inquiring into Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, “there is some doubt” about whether God is really real, or, to put it more philosophically, there is doubt over whether God’s existence can be established through a valid argument. There is a long philosophical tradition of constructing rational arguments for the existence and attributes of God, and an equally long skeptical tradition of deconstructing those same arguments. The Pythons have been exemplary participants in the latter tradition, either through parody, or by echoing in a funnier and more succinct way the skeptical arguments of such philosophical predecessors as Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776).”
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“This raises the question, was Brian Cohen divine? Let’s take a look at his miracles. In Monty Python’s Life of Brian, each “miracle” Brian performs leads to greater conviction on the part of his followers that his every utterance is Divinely sanctioned. His first miracle is to be “taken up” into heaven, only to be spotted in full sprint moments later. For his next miracle, he causes a juniper bush to bring forth juniper berries. Later he miraculously restores the power of speech to Simon, a hermit of eighteen years (by landing on his foot, that is). As evidence of Brian’s divinity mounts, his words are received by the devoted throng as Divine revelation. His exasperated plea for the crowd to “fuck off ” is treated as an invitation to ritual: “How shall we fuck off, O Lord?”
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