[Monty Python's TV episodes are] most easily described as a National Lampoon romp through history. The rule, in this sort of thing, is that nothing, nobody, should be taken seriously. Much humor is based on simple iconoclasm…. Which crawls over at the morbid end of the spectrum to gallows humor….

It is inevitable that performers will cross the line. It is inevitable that people will tell jokes about the suffering of others, or jokes that make fun of whole races or religions. It is not inevitable that mature critics will encourage that sort of thing.

The Monty Python people now come out with a movie [Life of Brian] in which the life of Christ is burlesqued. When Christ said that the meek would inherit the earth, the Monty Python people got this as "the Greek" shall inherit the earth, because they couldn't hear the words exactly. Blessed are...