Monty Python’s talent for challenging authority is missed today

Today, we face a new authoritarianism, as we are repeatedly told not to 'trigger' reactions in others through words or actions. But this self-censorship connotes an underlying anti-intellectualism, as free thought can be messy.

Members of Monty Python—from left, Michael Palin, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, Eric Idle, and John Cleese—are pictured in 2014. Were the comedy troupe around today, they would more than likely puncture the intolerance of those who take themselves far too seriously, writes Andrew Caddell. Flickr photograph by Eduardo Unda-Sanzana

Opinion

BY ANDREW CADDELL

July 14, 2021

MONTREAL—Could Monty Python’s Flying Circus survive today? Would there be space for its iconoclastic humour in an era of political correctness? This thought struck me while watching a 2015 documentary of the British comedy troupe’s last live show in London in July of 2014, The Me...

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