I was never a Monty Python fan, but I have to admit that some of the skits in their movies were funny. Some were controversial, but also very funny. On Monday, Steven Hayward at Power Line Blog posted an article about plans to create a stage musical based on The Life of Brian. However, there is a problem.

The skit below is the problem:

I think the skit is not only funny, it is very timely. The movie was made in 1979, but the above scene totally captures where we are today.

The article at Power Line Blog reports:

Well guess what? There is a stage musical version of Life of Brian in development, largely because of the success of “Spamalot,” the stage musical version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And guess which scene the producers have said must be cut out? Of course you don’t need to guess at all:

Cleese, 83, the prime mover in the revival, said: ‘I think Life Of Brian is our best film. We are going to do it in London in the second half of next year and I’ve changed certain things.’

One exchange which has had to come out is the discussion between People’s Front of Judea members Stan (played by Idle) and Reg (Cleese). Stan says that he wants to be known as Loretta and to have babies. ‘It’s every man’s right to have babies if you want them,’ says Stan. Reg counters: ‘But — you can’t have babies.’ At which Stan responds: ‘Don’t you oppress me.’

Cleese told an audience at his one-man show last week that when the scene (co-written with the late Graham Chapman) was performed at a read-through for the new show in New York last year, doubts emerged. ‘At the end, I said to the American actors: ‘What do you think?’ And they said: ‘We love the script, but you can’t do that stuff about Loretta nowadays.’

‘So here you have something there’s never been a complaint about in 40 years, that I’ve heard of, and now all of a sudden we can’t do it because it’ll offend people. What is one supposed to make of that? But I think there were a lot of things that were actually, in some strange way, predictive of what was actually going to happen later.’

We have lost our sense of humor.