Re: John Cleese -- and imperialist humour

["Paul Flewers" <trusscott.foundation@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Life can follow art. The Life of Brian was released only weeks before the
group I was with at the time, the Revolutionary Communist Tendency (later RC
Party) and the group from which it had only recently split, the
Revolutionary Communist Group, had a punch-up in Kilburn Square, North-West
London, one Saturday afternoon. Both groups put out press releases blaming
the other for the fracas. Judging from what I was told by comrades who had
been there, it seems that members of my old lot were attacked without reason
by members of the RCG, and I still think that they were telling the truth.
(Nonetheless, our sense of outrage was rather tarnished when two burly
RCTers duffed up an unsuspecting RCGer later that week, sadly enough one of
the less obnoxious of their membership.)

Anyway, looking from the outside, as 99 per cent of the left in Britain was
doing, the similarities between two almost identically-titled left groups
having a punch-up for no apparent reason, and the scene about the various
Pop Fronts for the Liberation of Judea in Life of Brian was too much to be
ignored, and, cruelly disregarding our hurt feelings, had much fun at the
expense of both us and the RCG. The now-defunct Leveller magazine invoked
the relevant scene of the Life of Brian, and one cheeky Cliffite even wrote
a song about it, to the tune of the Lambeth Walk (an old cockney anthemn). A
few of the less po-faced RCTers (including me) saw the ridiculous side of it
all, although, needless to say, we kept our impertinence to ourselves.

Paul F