@Tenebrae
I'm not sure Python were
that subversive. I mean their comedy was, for the most part, just plain silly! Don't get me wrong, it obviously took balls to make a film like Life of Brian when they did. And it's a film that has satirical elements, moments where you feel they probably
are trying to communicate a serious message. But I don't, for instance, think that they chose the story of Jesus Christ as the subject for a film because of a burning desire to make a point about organized religion. I think they did it because it suited their style of comedy perfectly lol.
Most of their sketches followed a formula something along the lines of: Take an ostensibly serious scenario, inject an element of absurdity, ramp up level of absurdity as far as it will go (even to the point of breaking the fourth wall just to comment on how silly the sketch had become lol). With the story of Jesus Christ, they had their serious scenario, they had a story that everybody knew, so they didn't have to worry about creating an engaging plot (the bete noire of the balls-out comedy filmmaker, I think it's fair to say lol). They were like kids in a candy shop, I reckon! lol I also suspect that if you were to quote something like this
Simply put, they were subversion incarnate, the most shining example of the West's ability to self-criticism and British subtlety.
to Cleese or Palin, certainly, they'd look at you askance!
As far as British comedy goes, I think Beyond the Fringe, who were around about a decade before Python, were much more subversive. As were the comics of the "alternative comedy" scene who emerged about a decade later.
Just my opinion, obviously.