The Monty Python gags that were ALMOST scrapped: Scenes from The Life of Brian and the Holy Grail were almost scrapped

Some of Monty Python’s most famous film scenes, including The Black Knight, were almost cut out – because the stars thought them “too silly, boring or offensive,” according to the film’s editor.

Julian Doyle said some of Python’s iconic moments like “Biggus Dickus” were almost shelved over fears they weren’t funny.

He worked alongside Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin on Life Of Brian, The Meaning Of Life and The Holy Grail.

He said some of the most memorable moments from the films almost never made it to the big screen due to taste, budget, pacing and humor.

Doyle claimed there were fears that Life Of Brian’s Suicide Squad of the Judean Popular Front would anger Jewish viewers.

Some of Monty Python’s most famous film scenes, including The Black Knight (pictured), were all but cut – because the stars thought them “too silly, boring or offensive,” according to the film’s editor

Some of the most memorable moments from the movies almost never made it to the big screen due to taste, budget, pacing, and humor.

Julian Doyle claimed there were fears that the Judean Popular Front’s crack suicide squad from “Life Of Brian” would anger Jewish viewers

A scene in which a market trader negotiates the price of a fake beard was called “too slow” by the cast – as was “The Knight of Three” from The Holy Grail.

The Black Knight battle of the Grail – one of the most famous Python moments of all time – also almost landed on the cutting room floor.

The skit features the defiant knight, played by Cleese, who loses all four limbs during a duel with Chapman’s King Arthur – but still refuses to back down.

Cleese’s lines — “that’s just a scratch,” “I’ve had worse,” and “okay, let’s call it a tie” — have since become classics.

However, the Pythons felt the sword fight should be removed because it “was so gory that it ruined the rest of the film,” Doyle said.

The stars were “advocates of perfection” and worried that certain gags would hurt the films because they would fail audiences, he revealed.

Doyle said some of Python’s iconic moments like “Biggus Dickus” were almost shelved over fears they weren’t funny

Two scenes with Otto were ultimately removed from the film, but later the Suicide Squad is seen tapping their lifeless feet to the film’s closing song, “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” (pictured, Brian sings the song as he is crucified becomes).

Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin in Monty Python’s Life of Brian (pictured)

On “Life Of Brian,” Cleese felt the famous Biggus Dickus scene was “too silly” and wanted to cut the final section.

Many precious moments were saved thanks to Doyle’s “fanatical persistence,” which Palin later mentioned in more polite terms: “Julian doesn’t let go of anything unless he sees fit.”

Doyle, whose feature films also include Time Bandits and Brazil, said he fought with the stars “with all his might” to keep the scenes.

Introducing his new novel, The Jericho Manuscript, which was inspired by his work on Life Of Brian, he said, “The Monty Python films are now considered comedic masterpieces, and rightly so.”

“But what no one knows, and never knew until now, is that several scenes that later became iconic and divisive institutions in their own right were actually destined to suffer brutal editing.”

“Striving for perfection, the Pythons found some of these sketches too silly, too offensive, or too boring.”

“She and the producers wanted to cut the Black Knight sketch because they felt the scene was so incredibly gory that it would ruin the rest of the film.”

John Cleese with Eric Idle in the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail

The film’s haunting ending, in which King Arthur is arrested just before he can claim the Holy Grail, only came about because the production ran out of money

A scene in which a market trader negotiates the price of a fake beard was called “too slow” by the cast – as was “The Knight Three” (pictured) from The Holy Grail.

Doyle continued, “In the Biggus Dickus scene in The Life of Brian, John Cleese believed that after leaving the scene as a centurion, it became too silly for words when Palin teased the soldiers, to make her laugh.

“Originally he felt like Michael was going out of character. And while John was probably right, when we screened the finished film, the viewers were so hysterical as the scene progressed that they didn’t care about the finer details, they just wanted it to keep going.”

The three feature-length Python films – released in 1975, 1979 and 1983 – followed on from the success of the troupe’s cult comedy series Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

They continue to top the polls for the funniest films of all time, and their influence on comedy has been compared to the Beatles’ influence on music.

But according to Doyle, who worked on all three films as either an editor or special effects designer at London’s Neal’s Yard studios, the six pythons were “persistent in their search for timeless gags” and begged him to edit out whatever they saw fit “Not 100 percent perfect”.

Idle, he said, lost faith in two of his most famous characters – Otto and Harry the Haggler – and asked for them to be removed from Life Of Brian entirely.

Otto is the hapless crack leader of the Udean People’s Front Crack suicide squad, and Idle feared that the character’s satirical Nazi overtones would anger Jewish viewers.

Two scenes with Otto were ultimately removed from the film, but later the Suicide Squad are seen tapping their lifeless feet to the film’s closing song, “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life.”

He said the opening scene in ‘The Holy Grail’, in which King Arthur rides through the mist and pops coconuts, was almost never filmed as the film’s entire £175,000 budget (about £1.5million today) has already been spent had been.

He revealed that the film’s unforgettable ending, in which King Arthur is arrested just before he can claim the Holy Grail, only came about because the production ran out of money.

Doyle said: “I shot the opening scene of The Holy Grail on Hampstead Heath because the budget ran out and we couldn’t go back to Scotland where the rest of the filming was done.

“The original ending was supposed to have King Arthur wading through thousands of corpses, Holy Grail in hand, saying, ‘The best grail I have ever seen!’ But we couldn’t afford a helicopter for the aerial photos, nor the many extras.

“So the final scene of The Holy Grail was changed by the pythons on the hoof and into the anarchic, brilliant ending it is today.”