Why didn't I buy that private island when I had the chance?
If I ventured into the slipstream...could you find me?
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Dana White, the owner of mixed martial arts promotion Ultimate Fighting Championship has chaffed under the recent social distancing rules. They’ve been cramping his style, and like all professional sports leagues, UFC has had to discontinue its fights. But Dana White is not like most league commissioners or team owners. For one thing, he went on stage at the 2016 Republican National Convention to sing Donald Trump’s praises. He also claims to have been threatened by notorious gangster Whitey Bulger when living in Las Vegas, was involved in a long-running sex tape and blackmail scandal involving a Brazilian stripper working at a club called “Spearmint Rhino” and her boyfriend, and dropped $60,000 on Japanese katanas on the History Channel show “Pawn Stars.” In other words, Dana White’s an all around standup guy without a single blemish on his reputation, and there’s absolutely no reason to worry when he says he wants to restart UFC fights, COVID-19 be damned.
To get his fighters back in the cage and the pay-per-view dollars pouring-in once more, White is reportedly in the process of purchasing a private island. He went on TMZ on Monday and claimed that he was in the final days of securing an island and putting facilities in place to begin staging fights. The idea is that the fighters would be regularly screened for COVID-19, and so long as they’re disease free, they can get down to the dirty business of beating each other to a pulp in new and grotesque ways. It would be comical except that either way, these guys are putting themselves in harm’s way so White can make a buck while ensconced in what sounds like a Bond villain’s backup island lair.
A few days ago I wondered if we were on the brink of gladiatorial fights being staged in the basement of Mar-A-Lago. While this isn’t quite the same thing, it feels pretty close. Dana White and Donald Trump are chummy, and it’s hard to imagine the current administration raising a finger to shut-down a fight promotion on Skull Island. We’re lucky the President’s entire pandemic response hasn’t been limited to throwing rolls of paper towels at people’s heads. Increasingly, it seems like the best way to understand our present is to look to the past. And remember, if something looks ridiculous, and feels too absurd to be real, it almost certainly exists, and odds are, someone out there loves it.
Today’s Recommendation: Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979)
One of my favorite scenes in the Life of Brian comes when the main character, Brian, approaches the shadowy progressive rebel group the People’s Front of Judea to sell them some outlandish Roman snacks during the “Kiddy Matinee Show” at the local Colosseum. In the space of about two minutes we witness the dysfunction of activist movements when they turn against themselves, a send-up of professional sports, theft of a body part, and a rather forward-thinking exploration of sexual politics. The film opens with the Three Wise Men stopping at the wrong manger and ends with a cheerful song and whistle track during the crucifixion of Brian—whom the masses have mistaken as a the real King of the Jews—and you never question the absurdity of it all.
The barbs in Life of Brian are sharp and constant, and while it’s ostensibly a satire about Christianity, repeat viewing reveals that the British sketch comedy group Monty Python isn’t making fun of Jesus—in fact it seems like they mostly agree with him—but rather are taking on corrupt religious institutions and dogmatic thinking at every turn. Michael Palin explained the thinking in 1979 in fairly clear terms: “It was quite obvious that there was very little to ridicule in Jesus’s life, and therefore we were onto a loser. Jesus was a very straight, direct man making good sense, so we decided it would be a very shallow film if it was just about [him].”
At the time, though, the film was considered quite blasphemous and former Beatle George Harrison had to put up the money for the film after the head of EMI read the script and pulled the funding. Even once it was made, Ireland and Norway banned it (if you really want the story, there’s a great history at the BBC). Religious groups in the US protested it vehemently, although the number of theaters showing it tripled after an attempt to ban it. John Cleese went on TV at the time and said the protests were the best thing that ever happened to the film and that he wanted to send them champagne in thanks. As recently as 2013, public screenings of the movie were still banned in parts of Germany. (That said, it returned to UK theaters for a celebratory release around this time last year.)
The film is remarkable in several ways. It’s an artifact of an era defined by arguments over religion and who it belonged to and by progressive and youth movements abutting against established, conservative power structures. It’s also wickedly funny, even today. While there are some comedies that seem to lose their luster after a few decades, Life of Brian feels just as vibrant and satyrical as it ever has. At this particular moment in time, it’s perhaps more relevant than it ever has been.
A word of warning, though. A few of the individual jokes have not aged well, although the vast majority hold-up and the themes are unassailable. You’ll have to be somewhat forgiving. And the Pythons don’t pull any punches, so it’s best to avoid this film if you have a thin skin. And remember, “blessed are the cheesemakers.”
Monty Python’s Life of Brian is available to stream on Netflix.
Reading List:
I mentioned it above, the BBC’s history of Monty Python’s Life of Brian is really quite interesting and worth a read.
There’s a fantastic feature over in The New Yorker about a missionary who went to Uganda to run a health clinic. Everything seemed in order, except that plaintiffs allege she wasn’t a doctor had no idea what she was doing.
Benjamin Reeves is an award-winning screenwriter, journalist and media consultant based in Brooklyn, New York. Follow him on Twitter @bpreeves or write to him at breeves.writer@gmail.com.