The Meaning of Life

Trivia: When the title first appears, it says "Monty Python's Meaning Of Liff," which abruptly changes to "Life" with the title is struck by lightning. Author Douglas Adams (friend of Graham Chapman and occasional Python contributor) contacted Terry Gilliam to ask if he could use the title "The Meaning Of Liff" for a mock dictionary he was writing at about the same time. Adams and the Pythons agreed that the crossover publicity could be mutually beneficial. (00:17:35)

Xofer

Trivia: When the spirits of the hosts and the dinner party guests are following the Grim Reaper, Debbie says, "Hey, I didn't even eat the mousse." This line was not in the script; it was ad-libbed by Sir Michael Palin.

Trivia: During the restaurant scene with Mr. Creosote, John Cleese entices Terry Jones to finish his meal with a "wafer-thin mint," and Jones explodes in a shower of gastro-intestinal ejecta. In the chaos that follows, as dining guests flee in revulsion, we see Cleese in the background reach into Mr. Creosote's exploded torso and pluck out a very small object (presumably the wafer-thin mint) and start to place it in his own mouth. Cleese improvised this, adding another layer of disgust to the scene.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: In the boardroom of the Very Big Corporation of America, the company's holdings are listed on the wall in the background. It is a repeating list of names, some which are Monty Python puns, inside jokes and references to other scenes in the movie. The listed names are: Acme Construction Company; Payne, Bickers and Dogood Ltd.; Stn. Pendons Ltd.; V. Rich and Son; Doneys (Florence) ; Mirage Land Co.; Arctic Geo. Lab Co.; Liver Donors Inc.; World Wide Wine Corp.; Universal Amalgamations Ltd.; Consolidated Steel Co.; Micro Computer Inc.; Moonscape Products Ltd.; Rubber Goods Incorporated; D.Odgey Enterprises Ltd.; Money Factor Printers Ltd.; Better Plastics Corps.; D.Crepid Holdings; Super Big Ltd.; Space Propulsion Lab; Interstellar Travel Corp.; Dawking's Mining Co.; Lange and Sons (International) ; Cooper's (Purveyors) ; Dickinson Kincain Association; The All Enveloping Co. Ltd.; O.Verpaid Associates Ltd.; E. Normons and Sons; A. Maze and Lee Huge; Horace Mann and Yure Ltd.; R. Devious Inc.; Wakefeld and Daughter; Vast Holdings (Europe) Ltd.; Phil Thevich Consortium; Fastness and Vast Co. Ltd; Star Bright Merchandise Org.; X. Tortion World Wide Ltd.; Cartwright Tutorials; Black and White Picture Co. Ltd.; R. J. McArthur Parks Ltd.; Walker, Walker and Jones Bros.; Data Travel and Experiments.

Charles Austin Miller

Trivia: "Frasier" actress Jane Leeves is one of the dancers in the "Christmas in Heaven" number.

Trivia: The 'vomit' Mr Creosote spews in the restaurant sketch was a mixture of ground potatoes with water and other coarse vegetable materials.

More mistakes in The Meaning of Life

Paitent: What do I do?
Dr. Spenser: Nothing, dear! You're not qualified.

More quotes from The Meaning of Life

Question: Is there a fish visible in the "Where's the fish?" segment, or is it just a joke?

Answer: There is no fish in the scene.

Kevin Howard

More questions & answers from The Meaning of Life

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