By Carl Trueman, First Things, June 8, 2023
Carl Trueman is a professor of biblical and religious studies at Grove City College and a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
When I was growing up in England in the seventies and eighties, Monty Python infused my childhood and youth. The TV series decisively shaped my sense of humor. At age fourteen, I attended a talk by Monty Python creator Terry Jones on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. His display of wit, broad learning, and love of engaging big ideas left me with a lasting desire to teach and to write. And Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life was the only movie I ever sneaked in to see while underage. Python defined a certain generation of English schoolboys, of which I am one.
The Pythons were always controversial, however, because, like all great comedians, they mocked the powerful and the complacent, whether it was the landed gentry, the politicians of the day, or simply the pompous and self-important. …
