Taken from Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (1983) Directed by Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones Part V: Live Organ Transplants [violin music] ANNOUNCER: The Meaning of Life: Part Five: Live Organ Transplants. [Door Bell] MR. BROWN: [cough] Don't worry, dear! I'll get it! [cough] [Door Bell ringing until door is answered] MR. BROWN: Yes? MAN: Hello. Uhh, can we have your liver? MR. BROWN: My what? MAN: Your liver. It's a large, ehh, glandular organ in your abdomen. You know, it's, uh,-- it's reddish-brown. It's sort of, uhh,-- MR. BROWN: Yeah,-- y-- y-- yeah, I know what it is, but... I'm using it, eh. ERIC: Come on, sir. MR. BROWN: Hey! Hey! Stop! ERIC: Don't muck us about. MR. BROWN: Stop! Hey! Hey! Stop it. Hey! MAN: Hallo [As he takes something from Mr. Brown] MR. BROWN: Ge-- get off. MAN: What's this, then? Mmh. MR. BROWN: A liver donor's card. MAN: Need we say more? ERIC: No!
MR. BROWN: Listen! I can't give it to you now. It says, 'in the event of death'. Uh. Oh! Ah. Ah. Eh. MAN: No one who has ever had their liver taken out by us has survived. MR. BROWN: Agh. ERIC: Just lie there, sir. It won't take a minute. [Eric and Man begin to cut Mr. Brown open. It is a bloody mess] MR. BROWN: [screaming] MAN: Zip it up. MR. BROWN: [screaming] MRS. BROWN: 'Ere. What's going on? MAN: Uh, he's donating his liver, madam. MR. BROWN: [screaming] MRS. BROWN: Is this because he took out one of those silly cards? MAN: That's right, madam. MR. BROWN: [screaming] MRS. BROWN: Typical of him! MR. BROWN: [screaming] MRS. BROWN: He goes down to the public library, he sees a few signs up, comes home all full of good intentions. MR. BROWN: [screaming] MRS. BROWN: He gives blood. He does cold research. All that sort of thing. MAN: Oh. MR. BROWN: [screaming] ERIC: Ehh. MRS. BROWN: What do you, uh,-- what do you do with them all, anyway? ERIC: They all go to saving lives, madam.
MRS. BROWN: Mmm. That's what he used to say. 'It's all for the good of the country' he used to say. MR. BROWN: [screaming] MRS. BROWN: Do you think it's all for the good of the country? MR. BROWN: [screaming] MAN: Hm? MRS. BROWN: Do you think it's all for the good of the country? MAN: Well, I wouldn't know about that, madam. We're just, uh, doing our jobs, you know. MR. BROWN: [screaming] MRS. BROWN: You're not... doctors, then? MR. BROWN: [screaming] MAN: Oh. Blimey no. MR. BROWN: [screaming] MAN and ERIC: [laughing] YOUNG MAN: Mum. Dad. I'm off out now. I'll see you about seven. MAN and ERIC: [Continuing to laugh at the thought of them being doctors] MRS. BROWN: Right-o, son. Look after yourself. MR. BROWN: [screaming] MAN: Oh. Now. ERIC: M-hmm. MR. BROWN: [screaming] MRS. BROWN: Do you, um,... ERIC: [mumble] MAN: Carry on. MRS. BROWN: ...fancy a cup of tea? MR. BROWN: [screaming] MAN: Oh, well, that would be very nice. MRS. BROWN: Oh. MAN: Thank you. MR. BROWN: [screaming] MAN: Thank you very much, madam. MR. BROWN: [screaming] MAN: Thank you. MR. BROWN: [screaming] MAN: Oh, eh,-- I thought she'd never ask. ERIC: You know it. MR. BROWN: [screaming] MAN: Uhh, you do realize, uh, he has to be, uh,... well, dead,... by the terms of the card, uh, before he donates his liver. MRS. BROWN: Well, I told him that, but he never listens to me. Silly man! MR. BROWN: [screaming]
MAN: Only I was wondering, ehh,... well, you know, what you was thinking of doing after that. I mean, [sniff] will you stay on your own,... or is there, uh,... well, someone else, sort of, uh,... on the horizon? MRS. BROWN: I'm too old for that sort of thing. I'm past my prime. MAN: Not at all. You're a very attractive woman. MRS. BROWN: Well, I'm certainly not thinking of getting hitched up again. MAN: Sure? MRS. BROWN: Sure. [pause] MAN: Can we have your liver, then? MRS. BROWN: Oh. No, I'd be... scared. MAN: All right. [snap] I'll tell you what. Look. Listen to this. [music] MAN IN PINK: Whenever life gets you down, Mrs. Brown, And things seem hard or tough, And people are stupid, obnoxious, or daft, And you feel that you've had quite enough, [boom] [MAN in PINK begins singing click here to listen to the song] Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour, That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned, A sun that is the source of all our power. The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see Are moving at a million miles a day In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour, Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'. Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars. It's a hundred thousand light years side to side. It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick, But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide. We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point. We go 'round every two hundred million years, And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions In this amazing and expanding universe. [boom] [slurping sound] The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding In all of the directions it can whizzAs fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know, Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure, How amazingly unlikely is your birth,And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space, 'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.[MAN IN PINK is no longer in frame] MRS. BROWN: [sigh] Makes you feel so, sort of, insignificant, doesn't it? MAN: Yeah. Yeah. [sniff] Can we have your liver, then? MRS. BROWN: Yeah. All right. You talked me into it. MAN: Eric! Return to Main Paper
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