Monty Python death. Directed again by Jones solo, "The Meaning of Life" is embellished with some of the group's most bizarre and disturbing moments, as well as various elaborate musical numbers. The film is by far their darkest work, containing a great deal of black humour, garnished by some spectacular violence (including an operation to remove a liver from a living patient without anaesthetic and the morbidly obese Mr. Creosote exploding over several restaurant patrons). At the time of its release, the Pythons confessed their aim was to offend "absolutely everyone". Besides the opening credits and the fish sequence, Gilliam, by now
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl show were sourced from the 35mm prints, and thus suffered from poor quality due to the tape-to-film recording technology used in 1980 that increasingly became out-of-date. In 2008, the original 1,000 lines 1-inch video tapes were digitised and remastered to create a high-quality PAL DVD release. In Europe, this remastered widescreen transfer is available as a standalone Region 2 DVD. In North America, the film is available only as the older lesser-quality full-frame version taken from the 35mm prints, as part of a two-disc set titled "Monty Python Live", which includes the 1998 "Monty Python Live at Aspen" retrospective and