Life of Brian

Life of Brian is the bravest comedy ever made. Monty Python took on organized religion — all of it, simultaneously — and produced a film so intelligent, so funny, and so theologically literate that the religious groups who tried to ban it only proved its thesis: that people will follow anything if you package it with enough authority.

Graham Chapman plays Brian Cohen, a man born in the stable next to Jesus who spends his life being mistaken for the Messiah. The film is not a parody of Jesus — it is a parody of the people who follow messiahs. The 'Judean People's Front vs. People's Front of Judea' scene is the greatest satire of political sectarianism ever written. The stoning scene. The haggling scene. 'He's not the Messiah — he's a very naughty boy.' Each sequence is a precision-guided missile aimed at a different form of human stupidity.

The film was banned in Norway, Ireland, and parts of the UK. The BBC refused to air it for decades. Protesters picketed cinemas. And yet the film's argument — that blind faith and groupthink are more dangerous than any blasphemy — has only grown more relevant. The closing number, 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,' sung by crucifixion victims, is the most darkly joyful ending in cinema history. Python proved that nothing is too sacred to laugh at.