I BLAME MONTY PYTHON for being a philosophy nerd & my metabolism for being a night owl.
twas 10-11pm, mid-1970s Puerto Rico. was ±10 and already an insomniac. so i turn on, my tiny hand-me-down B&W tv, to the local local PBS; which was the only station with programing at that hour.
this is what i saw: Monty Python's "International Philosophy" aka the philosophers' soccer match.
twas my first Monty Python episode and, to this day, my all time favorite one.
h/t
https://mastodon.social/@johnmacintosh@swiss.social/112038524105816239
"Hegel is arguing that reality is merely an a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant via the categorical imperative is holding that ontologically, it exists only in the imagination and Marx is claiming it was offside".
OMG people have re-enacted this skit everywhere and in this version, ROSA LUXEMBOURG AND CLARA ZETKIN are subbed in for two philosophers on the Germany side and i just DIIIIIIIIIIIIED* laughing
https://iv.ggtyler.dev/watch?v=SpTECAl53ic
(yes this is my ghost typing from the never after)
whoops, i threaded these wrong, but whatevs:
i knew my version was missing Marx and sure enough, here's the whole skit as it was projected during their Hollywood Bowl special
https://iv.ggtyler.dev/watch?v=i21OJ8SkBMQ
Michael Palin's sportscasting for this skit is absolutely on point. that's why it is such a gem of a comedy skit: this is true sportscasting with actual philosophy scholarship that turns it into a parody of both pop culture and academia.
seriously, this *IS* the perfect Monty Python sketch.
OOH! OOH! OOH!
at Wikipedia, came across this article about a 2010 re-enactment by the UK's "The Philosophy Shop"
"Who's the thinker in the white? | TV comedy | The Guardian"
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/apr/28/monty-python-philosophers-football-match
and here's the video of the match! it's not as funny but totally endearing. they're an org that train philosophy majors to teach philosophy to elementary school kids
@steter the part of Nietzsche getting yellow carded because we have no free will always kills me, LOL
@blogdiva "Marx is claiming it was offside" is the line that cracks me up, just for its abrupt change in register
@blogdiva And this was my first Monty Python song!
https://youtu.be/l9SqQNgDrgg?si=hqq5JEYmIQhy64D4
Rene Descartes was a drunken fartes I drink therefore I am.
@blogdiva one of the greatest sketches of all time, absolutely brilliant
@tuckerteague right?!?!? seriously, this should be in the dictionary as the perfect example of parody. it's brilliant.
OMG Liza what a moment that must have been. I never saw this skit! I love the end where he's detailing the various German philosophers' protests. My first Monty Python was MP & the Holy Grail, on mushrooms, in some high school friend's basement. I think we watched it 3 times straight through.
@blogdiva
Ooooh that's a good one.
So many great moments. Upper Class Twit of the Year is one that often comes to mind, too. My favorite line "His father was a cabinet minister and his mother won the Derby"
Slickest yo mama joke, ever.
AND NIGEL... has run himself over.
@violetmadder @blogdiva
What a great twit!
@IntentionallyBLANK @blogdiva … the “Proust Summarization Contest”!!
@blogdiva I first saw that one skit while I was minoring in philosophy as an undergrad . Had somehow missed this one sketch during repeats until I was studying the preSocratics over summer break and hurt myself laughing