Monty Python's The Meaning of Life is an album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 released by Monty Python

Monty Python

Monty Python was a British surreal comedy group who created their influential Monty Python's Flying Circus, a British television comedy sketch show that first aired on the BBC on 5 October 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over four series...

 in 1983, in conjunction with the film Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. The album mainly consists of sketches from the film, with a few links performed by Michael Palin

Michael Palin

Michael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....

. A CD

Compact Disc

The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 version was later released.

There are few pieces of dialogue that didn't make it into the final cut of the film included on this album. These include the brief introduction to "The Adventures of Martin Luther

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...

". The waiter's line at the end of "The Dungeon Restaurant" ("Well, it's uh... kind of a link.") is also not in the film.

Reception

The 2006 Special Edition includes new material which was in neither the film nor the original album.

Side one

1. Introduction/Fish Introduction/The Meaning of Life
   The Meaning of Life
   Monty Python's The Meaning of Life is a 1983 comedy film by the Monty Python team. Unlike Holy Grail and Life of Brian, this movie's two immediate predecessors, which each told a single, more or less coherent story, The Meaning of Life returns to the sketch comedy format of the troupe's original...
   
    – 3:01
2. Birth/Frying Eggs – 4:03
3. Every Sperm Is Sacred
   Every Sperm Is Sacred
   "Every Sperm Is Sacred" is a musical sketch from the movie Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. The song was released on the album Monty Python Sings and was nominated for a BAFTA Music Award for Best Original Song in a Film in 1983...
   
   /Protestant Couple/Adventures Of Martin Luther
   Martin Luther
   Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...
   
    – 9:26
4. Sex Education
   Sex education
   Sex education refers to formal programs of instruction on a wide range of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, sexual reproduction, sexual intercourse, reproductive health, emotional relations, reproductive rights and responsibilities, abstinence, contraception, and...
   
    – 4:40
5. Trench Warfare
   Trench warfare
   Trench warfare is a form of occupied fighting lines, consisting largely of trenches, in which troops are largely immune to the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery...
   
   /The Great Tea
   Tea
   Tea is an aromatic beverage prepared by adding cured leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant to hot water. The term also refers to the plant itself. After water, tea is the most widely consumed beverage in the world...
   
    of 1914-18
   World War I
   World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
   
   /Fish – 4:11

Side two

1. Terry Gilliam
   Terry Gilliam
   Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...
   
   's Intro/Accountancy Shanty
   The Crimson Permanent Assurance
   The Crimson Permanent Assurance is a short film that plays as the beginning of the feature-length motion picture Monty Python's The Meaning of Life...
   
   /Zulu Wars
   Anglo-Zulu War
   The Anglo-Zulu War was fought in 1879 between the British Empire and the Zulu Kingdom.Following the imperialist scheme by which Lord Carnarvon had successfully brought about federation in Canada, it was thought that a similar plan might succeed with the various African kingdoms, tribal areas and...
   
    – 8:53
2. The Dungeon Restaurant/Live Organ Transplants
   Organ transplant
   Organ transplantation is the moving of an organ from one body to another or from a donor site on the patient's own body, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or absent organ. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be...
   
   /The Galaxy Song
   Galaxy Song
   "The Galaxy Song" is a song written by Eric Idle which originally appeared in the 1983 film Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, later being released onto the album Monty Python Sings. The song appears toward the end of a sketch named Live Organ Transplants where the 'surgeon', upon failing to...
   
    – 5:59
3. The Penis Song (Not the Noël Coward
   Noël Coward
   Sir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
   
    Song) /Mr. Creosote
   Mr. Creosote
   Mr. Creosote is a fictional character who appears in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life. Creosote is a monstrously obese restaurant patron who is served a vast amount of food while vomiting repeatedly. After being persuaded to eat one more mint, he explodes in a very graphic way...
   
    – 4:36
4. The Grim Reaper/Christmas In Heaven – 7:12
5. Dedication (To Fish) – 1:16

2006 Bonus Tracks

1. Intro Title Song Demo Meaning Of Life (Piano Version)
2. Alternate Intro Title Song Meaning Of Life (Band Version)
3. Fat Song (Deleted Intro To Mr Creosote Sketch)
4. Alternate Christmas In Heaven Song
5. Radio Ad - Philosophers Corner
6. Radio Ad - Officer
7. Radio Ad - German Translation
8. Greasy Hair
9. Dino Viccotti
10. Stretch The Script
11. Grand Prix
12. Hard Of Thinking