[Monty Python's Life of Brian] is a send-up biblical epic recounting the biography of a chap born in the manger down the alley from the one people sing about each Christmas. Brian … is just a regular guy…. He does his best to mind his business peaceably (his only message to would-be followers is a perfectly sensible "You'll have to work things out for yourselves"), but ends up being crucified anyway. To make matters worse, one of his fellow sufferers on Golgotha is one of those awful people who grow only more cheerful as the situation becomes grimmer. He insists on leading the condemned in choruses of a Broadway-style tune, The Bright Side of Life, as they hang from their crosses.

This is an excellent example of the movie's contempt for both taste and religion. Life of Brian is even now being protested by spokesmen for various pious groups...