Monty Python is a comedy troupe whose brand of surrealism has inspired other influential comedic acts in the future. Their humor is mostly centered on poking fun of politics, culture, philosophy and history with an absurdist point of view.
This matchless humor is exhibited in their cult hit show, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and their memorable movies, mainly Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Likewise, they put out songs in their projects to show their capabilities. In honor of that, here are the top 10 best Monty Python songs from the movies and TV.
“Accountancy Shanty” from Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life
This song was featured in the short film The Crimson Permanent Assurance, insert before Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. To give context for the song, the short is basically centered on a British firm, filled with older accountants, named Permanent Assurance Company as they are taken over by a devious giant American conglomerate.
When the company breaks free from the company, they sail off (literally), thus leading them to sing a simple sea shanty assuring them off their exploits. However, their building-turned-ship dropped to an edge. With a touch of dark context, the “Accountancy Shanty” is morbidly funny.
“The Tale of Sir Robin” from Monty Python and the Holy Grail
This is the ballad sung by minstrels for Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir-Lancelot (Eric Idle). Primarily, they narrate the obvious happenings that they and Sir Robin encounter, and tend to lavish praise on the gallant knight. Or at least they think until Sir Robin was revealed to be a coward, to which they pointed out in song, much to the knight’s embarrassment.
“The Tale of Sir Robin” starts out with heaps of praise for the Arthurian knight, but it gets detailed with its graphic description of how Sir Robin must bloodily go to combat. That leads funny to exposing his cowardice.
“Brian Song” from Monty Python’s Life of Brian
For the opening sequence of the film, it decided to spoof a Bond opening title sequence by aping by the same John Barry style, hiring a Shirley Bassey sound-alike in Sonia Jones and showing an animated title sequence by Terry Gilliam. It is full proof. And the song contained intended repetitions, like any Bond ballad.
For an estimated three minutes, “Brian Song” sets the tone of the absurdist fable of a Jewish man with a deal of bad luck. And that is summed up in the detailed title sequence, filled with the absurdist cutout animation that Gilliam in known for.
“The Liberty Bell” from Monty Python’s Flying Circus
Unlike the songs in this list, this one is not written or composed by any of the six members of the troupe. “The Liberty Bell” is a military march by John Philip Sousa, commonly played by the US Marine Band during presidential inaugurations. Now, it is associated with the Terry Gilliam-animated title sequence of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.
Gilliam himself recommended the use of the score to signal the start of a show with a bell peal. Though, a British comedy show using an American military march is ironic. The difference is Monty Python ends it with a fart noise.
“Every Sperm is Sacred” from Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life
“Every Sperm is Sacred” is a direct poke on public service announcements about contraception and Catholic views on abstinence. Featured in a segment on The Meaning of Life, this song is sung by a Catholic man from Yorkshire (Michael Palin) who lost his job and plans to sell several of his 63 children for scientific experimentation. When one of his children asks him why he did not use protection, the man broke into the ballad itself about his misleading beliefs about contraception.
The song number leads into a Hollywood-level musical number, complete with a parade and street-dancing choreography. Creatively absurd.
“Lumberjack Song” from Monty Python’s Flying Circus
One of the most memorable sketches of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, “The Lumberjack Song” is a ballad of the everyman, in first glance. The everyman singer (Palin) clinging to his “best girl” beside him (Carol Cleveland) proclaims the wonders of a lumberjack until he senselessly expresses his desires to crossdress. He keeps rambling in deep detail what women’s clothing he likes to wear, much to the disgust of the “best girl” and the back chorus of Canadian mounties.
What is effective in this is that Palin keeps a straight face in proclaiming his unwanted “girly” fondness. And it is hilarious.
“Galaxy Song” from Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life
Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life is filled with absurdist segments that gives anything but “the meaning of life”. In one known segment, a paramedic (John Cleese) persuades a frantic woman named Mrs. Brown (Terry Jones) to donate her liver by sending a man in a pink suit (Idle) to sing a ballad about how her life is insignificant, compared to the vastness of the universe. The man throws many information to Mrs. Brown about the galaxy’s statistics. Convinced about the info, Mrs. Brown agrees with the paramedic.
The song is a catchy, fragrant ballad over a dark subject matter.
“Camelot Song” (“Knights of the Round Table”) from Monty Python and the Holy Grail
“Camelot Song” or “Knights of the Round Table” is an abrupt musical number during Monty Python and the Holy Grail. When King Arthur successfully lead Sir Bedevere the Wise, Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Galahad the Pure, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir-Lancelot and their men to Camelot, they break into song to rejoice their sudden victory. However, Arthur decides not to pursue entering the Camelot for being “a silly place”. Patsy earlier noted that it is “just a model”.
The song is a sum-up of the comedy’s classic humor of cutting abruptly to something unexpected. Or absurd. Or shocking. Or silly.
“Spam Song” from Monty Python’s Flying Circus
This song is famously derived from the Spam sketch. The setup is that two customers (Idle and Graham Chapman) order something from the menu, which the waitress (Jones) recites. The menu items comprised any dish containing spam, much to which Chapman’s Mrs. Bun’s distaste. When she proclaims she does not like Spam, a group of Vikings belt out the song, just chanting “Spam, Spam, Spam…” repetitively. (Though, they also sang “Lovely Spam! Wonderful Spam!”)
With the sketch already poking fun of unwanted amounts of Spam in the UK post-World War II, the song hammers it down with a catchy beat.
“Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” from Monty Python’s Life of Brian
“Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” is perhaps Monty Python’s most popular song. Sang during the end of the epic spoof, a crucified Brian had his spirits his high when one of his fellow sufferers (Idle) starts singing the song. They then harmonize with this song expressing the bright side of life during their death sentence.
The ironic content is expected from stoic British humor. But hearing it play on-the-nose is on-brand to Monty Python that it became a popular British staple. And Eric Idle even sang this during the closing ceremony of the 2012 London Summer Olympics.