I’ll take any excuse to post a Monty Python video, and it being the Ides of March is certainly enough to post Julius Caesar on an Aldis Lamp. Skip back to one minute in for The Semaphore Version of Wuthering Heights.

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Sure, it’s all just a promo for Brian Cox’s Wonders of Life on the BBC, but hey, it’s a good rewrite, and Eric Idle is actually doing the singing. All things considered, it’s quite enjoyable. Yup. Quite nice, indeed.

…Can we have your liver, then?

(via io9.)

Benedict Cumberbatch has signed on to play the lead role in Absolutely Anything, about a school teacher who develops magical powers after being visited by aliens voiced by four of the members of Monty Python.

I… am not sure what to make of this.

Not going to lie. If I had this cake I’d want to reenact the tower toppling scene. (That’s Nerdalicious!)

The London Olympics have come and gone, and the world has a slew of amazing athletes to celebrate, in addition to a lot of  dreaming young future Olympians to tend to. Here are 12 photos from the dazzling closing ceremony that capped off the 2012 London Olympics, an event that proved to be just as beautiful as the two weeks of peaceful and inspiring competition that preceded it. Oh, and our favorite pre-Olympics rumor totally panned out, the Spice Girls did perform during the ceremony! Be still my made-in-the-90s heart.

Holly Gilliam is the daughter of Terry Gilliam. Terry Gilliam is a legendary director, and the artist and animator behind all of Monty Python’s very characteristic animated sequences that peppered both their show and feature length films. Terry Gilliam worked in the days before computer animation, which means, as you might have guessed, he’s got a lot of original art sitting around, from backgrounds, to sketches, to the final colored paper cutouts that would be used to animate the Beast of Arrrggghhh.

And now, thanks to his daughter, Holly Gilliam, we get to see it all.

This should be on television, they should make a movie out of it, it should be an app, it belongs everywhere: John Cleese responding to YouTube comments in a video posted by the Monty Python account. In this video, hear what elderberries taste like, Cleese’s take on religion, and what, exactly, constitutes true stupidity.

And yes, he does start this off by saying he’s Michael Palin. That is not just you.

(via http://laughingsquid.com/john-cleese-responds-to-monty-python-youtube-channel-comments/)

Previously in Monty Python

Well, maybe he didn’t get all of Monty Python on the show, but he did get John Cleese. City of Death was written by David Fisher, but heavily re-written by none other than then-script-editor Douglas Adams. When Adams learned that John Cleese would be filming in the same studio on the same day, he persuaded the actor to come in and cameo as a speaking part written for generic art gallery goers. Cleese agreed, on the requirement that his appearance on the show not be announced or publicized in any way, leaving it a bizarre non-sequitur that any Python fan would appreciate.

(via The Geek Twins.)

“Any action in which a man ejaculates or otherwise deposits semen anywhere but in a woman’s vagina shall be interpreted and construed as an action against an unborn child.” — Text from the amendment proposed by Oklahoma State Senator Constance Johnson as a protest to the state’s controversial “personhood” bill (currently being debated in the State Senate) which would force women to listen to the heartbeat of the fetus before going through with an abortion. Sen. Johnson tabled the amendment after making her point and explained her feelings in an op-ed in The Guardian, in which she said:

The Personhood bill would potentially allow governmental intrusion into families’ personal lives by policing what happens to a woman’s eggs without any similar thought to what happens to a man’s sperm.

My amendment seeks to draw attention to the absurdity, duplicity and lack of balance inherent in the policies of this state in regard to women.

Much like the “digital exam” amendment of Virginia State Sen. Janet Howell, Sen. Johnson never expected this to go through, regarding it as a way “to draw humorous attention to the hypocrisy and inconsistency of this proposal.” While we are proud and glad that she is fighting for women’s rights, we are also kinda tickled that the senator might be a Monty Python fan. That’s why we put the “Every Sperm Is Sacred” video after the jump.

Absolutely Anything, based on a script that Terry Jones has been developing with Gavin Scott for two decades, may actually see production this spring. It tells the story of a few aliens and one human and, according to Variety, all those aliens are going to be voiced by the remaining living members of Monty Python, in a group venture the likes of which hasn’t been seen since 1998.

Also Robin Williams.