Monty Python's The Meaning of Life

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life is a 1983 British comedy built as a series of sketches rather than a single continuous story. The troupe turns its attention to the stages of human existence, from birth and childhood through courtship, middle age and death, with detours into topics such as religion, medicine, war and philosophy. The film opens with an insurance company whose clerks revolt against their younger managers, and it moves through loosely connected episodes in the anarchic style the group had used in its television work.

Terry Jones directed, following Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and Life of Brian (1979); the screenplay is credited to Jones, Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin, and John Goldstone produced. The six members of the group all appear in multiple roles: Gilliam, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Jones and Palin. The credited cast runs to 23 people.

Made for about 9 million dollars, the film took roughly 43 million dollars worldwide, a return that made it a commercial success despite costing considerably more than the group's earlier pictures. It runs 107 minutes. On IMDb it holds 7.5/10 from some 124,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.3/10 from around 2,200 votes, while a critics' rating stands at 7.3/10 from 36 reviews, placing professional and audience assessments close together.