Monty Python's The Meaning of Life Monty Python's The Meaning of Life Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, also known simply as The Meaning of Life, is a 1983 British musical sketch comedy film written and performed by the Monty Python troupe, directed by Terry Jones. It was the last film to feature all six Python members before Graham Chapman's death in 1989. Unlike "Holy Grail" and "Life of Brian", the film's two predecessors, which each told a single, more-or-less coherent story, "The Meaning of Life" returned to the sketch format of the troupe's original television series and their first film from twelve years earlier, "And
Monty Python Martin Comedy World", which ran during the summer of 1974. The concept was to show clips from comedy shows produced in other countries, including tape of the Python sketches "Bicycle Repairman" and "The Dull Life of a Stockbroker". Payment for use of these two sketches was enough to allow Time-Life Films to convert the entire Python library to NTSC standard, allowing for the sale to the PBS network stations which then brought the entire show to US audiences. In 1975, ABC broadcast two 90-minute "Monty Python" specials, each with three shows, but cut out a total of 24 minutes from