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Terry Jones's War on the War on Terror: Observations and Denunciations by a Founding Member of Monty Python
Terry Jones is known the world over as one of the beloved creators of the legendary Monty Python. But independent of the Python team, Jones has been writing columns targeting the Anglo-American response to September 11. His wit and venom are particularly focused on the messianic vernacular of Bush and Blair and the semantics of the "war on terror." As Jones writes, "What really alarms me about President Bush's ‘War on Terrorism' is the grammar. How do you wage war on an abstract noun? ... How is ‘Terrorism' going to surrender? It's well known, in philological circles, that it's very hard for abstract nouns to surrender." Terry Jones's War on the War on Terror proves that in times of high political anxiety, humor and irony are most potent antidotes to the spin emanating from the White House and Downing Street.
208 pages, Paperback
First published December 19, 2004
3 people are currently reading
105 people want to read
About the author
Terry Jones
188 books291 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Terence Graham Parry Jones was a Welsh actor, comedian, director, historian, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and writing partner Michael Palin wrote and performed for several high-profile British comedy programmes, including Do Not Adjust Your Set and The Frost Report, before creating Monty Python's Flying Circus with Cambridge graduates Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Eric Idle and American animator-filmmaker Terry Gilliam. Jones was largely responsible for the programme's innovative, surreal structure, in which sketches flowed from one to the next without the use of punch lines. He made his directorial debut with Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which he co-directed with Gilliam, and also directed the subsequent Python films Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.
Jones co-created and co-wrote with Palin the anthology series Ripping Yarns. He also wrote an early draft of Jim Henson's film Labyrinth and is credited with the screenplay, though little of his work actually remained in the final cut. Jones was a well-respected medieval historian, having written several books and presented television documentaries about the period, as well as a prolific children's author. In 2016, Jones received a Lifetime Achievement award at the BAFTA Cymru Awards for his outstanding contribution to television and film. After living for several years with a degenerative aphasia, he gradually lost the ability to speak and died in 2020 from frontotemporal dementia.
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
Terence Graham Parry Jones was a Welsh actor, comedian, director, historian, writer and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
After graduating from Oxford University with a degree in English, Jones and writing partner Michael Palin wrote and performed for several high-profile British comedy programmes, including Do Not Adjust Your Set and The Frost Report, before creating Monty Python's Flying Circus with Cambridge graduates Graham Chapman, John Cleese, and Eric Idle and American animator-filmmaker Terry Gilliam. Jones was largely responsible for the programme's innovative, surreal structure, in which sketches flowed from one to the next without the use of punch lines. He made his directorial debut with Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which he co-directed with Gilliam, and also directed the subsequent Python films Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life.
Jones co-created and co-wrote with Palin the anthology series Ripping Yarns. He also wrote an early draft of Jim Henson's film Labyrinth and is credited with the screenplay, though little of his work actually remained in the final cut. Jones was a well-respected medieval historian, having written several books and presented television documentaries about the period, as well as a prolific children's author. In 2016, Jones received a Lifetime Achievement award at the BAFTA Cymru Awards for his outstanding contribution to television and film. After living for several years with a degenerative aphasia, he gradually lost the ability to speak and died in 2020 from frontotemporal dementia.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
September 21, 2018
I’ve been a Monty Python fan for a long time, so this book was irresistible to me. The author’s bio describes him as “... one of the founding members of Monty Python …” which is silly since, as far as I know, there are no non-founding members of the team. Anyway, Terry Jones wrote a number of editorials in the press criticizing the politics of the post 9/11 world. This book collects them all (I think. It collects a bunch of them anyway) and adds some pithy cartoons by Steve Bell. It's a fun little book, steeped in irony and dignified outrage.
Dealing as it does with events from the first few years of the 21st century, some of these may seem a little dated. And there's also a fair bit of repetition. These weren’t originally intended to be read all at once. Still, they’re well-written, persuasive, and highly amusing. At the very least, it's good to be reminded that not everyone was in lockstep with the Bushes and Rumsfelds and Blairs of the world.
One line, in particular, is worth sharing, as, here in 2018, it's taken on resonance that Jones couldn't possibly have foreseen. From page 152: “Mr. Bush’s election must represent the nadir of democracy for Americans.” If only that were still true … Anyway, recommended for Python fans and political humor buffs at the very least.
Dealing as it does with events from the first few years of the 21st century, some of these may seem a little dated. And there's also a fair bit of repetition. These weren’t originally intended to be read all at once. Still, they’re well-written, persuasive, and highly amusing. At the very least, it's good to be reminded that not everyone was in lockstep with the Bushes and Rumsfelds and Blairs of the world.
One line, in particular, is worth sharing, as, here in 2018, it's taken on resonance that Jones couldn't possibly have foreseen. From page 152: “Mr. Bush’s election must represent the nadir of democracy for Americans.” If only that were still true … Anyway, recommended for Python fans and political humor buffs at the very least.
December 26, 2019
This is a collection of essays Jones wrote protesting the US/UK response to 9/11 – largely by making fun of it. Gets a bit repetitive (which happens when you collect columns written a few weeks apart for a daily newspaper audience), but Jones really does a good job of summing up all of the outrageous shenanigans of Team Bush and Tony Blair. Note that he was doing this a couple of years before most of the US media.
July 31, 2020
This was a great read, I really wish I had known about it when it was first published. Serious sociopolitical topics but delivered with typical Jones wit. I now feel like I should have been far more pissed at Bush Jr. at the time than I was.
December 15, 2018
More like 2,5 stars.
May 25, 2020
Mycket tänktvärt, för argumenten och retoriken är normalt horribel - men mer beklämmande än roligt.
November 25, 2024
Brilliant satire that's still relevant 20 years later, with a couple of serious and damning essays thrown in. Terry J seems like the type of guy I'd love to get a drink and talk politics with.
December 19, 2014
This is a collection of columns written by humorist Terry Jones, beginning in in 2001 shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, and leaving off after Iraq's provisional government was granted limited sovereignty in the summer of 2004. Jones, known for his work with the Monty Python troupe and for his own books (including a controversial scholarly work on Chaucer), was a phlegmatic critic of the Bush presidency, and of the aid and comfort led to the American President by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The book ranges from satire, some of it brilliant; to sarcastic rimming; to editorial spleen.
Interestingly, the book (and its perspective) are strongest in its satirical pieces. "I'm Losing Patience With My Neighbours" was one of the funniest pieces of political humor to appear in 2003, written during the buildup to invasion of Iraq that year. In this, as with "It's Not Really Torture," Jones assumes the character of someone who adopts the logic of American policymakers in his normal relationships - sending up the fractured logic and twisted grammar of wartime in a way that is timeless yet, for our times, very pointed. Don't think it's easy.
The sarcastic pieces, "Bombing For A Safer World" or "Colin Powell's Exploding English" play more for the converted, and while Jones is a very funny analytical thinker, these columns become repetitive and tend towards commentary we have already heard. Pieces like "Shame On Blair" are nothing more than letters to the editor - respectable enough, but do not exhibit Jones's unusual talent and creativity as a satirist.
The book is illustrated with political cartoons by Steve Bell and perhaps padded out ever so slightly. It remains a worthy volume of political humor.
The book ranges from satire, some of it brilliant; to sarcastic rimming; to editorial spleen.
Interestingly, the book (and its perspective) are strongest in its satirical pieces. "I'm Losing Patience With My Neighbours" was one of the funniest pieces of political humor to appear in 2003, written during the buildup to invasion of Iraq that year. In this, as with "It's Not Really Torture," Jones assumes the character of someone who adopts the logic of American policymakers in his normal relationships - sending up the fractured logic and twisted grammar of wartime in a way that is timeless yet, for our times, very pointed. Don't think it's easy.
The sarcastic pieces, "Bombing For A Safer World" or "Colin Powell's Exploding English" play more for the converted, and while Jones is a very funny analytical thinker, these columns become repetitive and tend towards commentary we have already heard. Pieces like "Shame On Blair" are nothing more than letters to the editor - respectable enough, but do not exhibit Jones's unusual talent and creativity as a satirist.
The book is illustrated with political cartoons by Steve Bell and perhaps padded out ever so slightly. It remains a worthy volume of political humor.
January 5, 2008
L'ex-Monty Python Terry Jones offre là une série de satires politiques d'une grande intelligence et avec un humour sans pareil. Polémiste hors pair, il démontre qu'une bonne dérision vaut mieux qu'un long discours pour démonter les arguments de la "guerre contre le terrorisme".
Principal défaut de ce livre, ces chroniques ont été publiées dans divers journaux et l'auteur a tendance à se répéter d'un texte à l'autre. Cependant, certaines d'entre elles sont mémorables, dont le dialogue imaginaire entre Dieu et George W Bush.
Principal défaut de ce livre, ces chroniques ont été publiées dans divers journaux et l'auteur a tendance à se répéter d'un texte à l'autre. Cependant, certaines d'entre elles sont mémorables, dont le dialogue imaginaire entre Dieu et George W Bush.
October 6, 2010
This is a collection of essays written by Terry Jones of Monty Python fame regarding the war on terrorism and the run up to the Iraq War. Now, I like Monty Python as much as the next person. Quite a bit more, in fact, but... I see no reason for this book to exist. I'm not sure why Terry Jones feels we should care what he thinks about this situation. He has been known to write some funny stuff, but this sure isn't it. It switches from sarcasm to satire to serious and none of them are particularly funny and/or entertaining. He didn't like the war or any of the principals involved. We get it.
June 14, 2011
Funny and scathing and intelligent, as one would expect from Terry Jones, Oxford-taught historian and Circus member. But we've had Change (tm) now, so dwelling on Bush/Blair/Iraq/terror/etc/dumbness is not high on my to do list. Would have liked to have picked this up in 2005 when it was published.
January 9, 2013
As much as I like the ex-Python and his viewpoints, this book was not as good as I hoped. He is witty and his anger towards Tony Blair is heartwarming, but this being a collection of articles he wrote between 2001 and 2004, he does repeat himself, a lot. His views on language always being the first casualty of a war is original, though.
July 14, 2008
A collection of columns from the Guardian, I believe. It's a fast read, but I recommend spacing this one out over several weeks, as if you were reading a weekly column. Read too quickly, they can become tedious.
Read
September 24, 2008Why does it always take a comedian to tell the truth? Great book.
Read
July 30, 2011Compilation des chroniques d'un ex-Monty Python à l'humour assez grinçant. Un regard féroce sur l'actualité post 11 septembre.
September 10, 2016
The material dates itself and although I agree with him, I think this is probably his weakest book.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews