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"International Philosophy", commonly referred to as the Philosophers' Football Match, is a Monty Python sketch depicting a football match in the Munich Olympiastadion between philosophers representing Greece and Germany. Starring in the sketch are Archimedes (John Cleese), Socrates (Eric Idle), Hegel (Graham Chapman), Nietzsche (Michael Palin), Marx (Terry Jones), and Kant (Terry Gilliam). Palin also provides the match television commentary.
The footage opens with the banner headline "International Philosophy", and Palin providing the narrative. Confucius is the referee and keeps times with an hourglass. St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine (sporting haloes) serve as linesmen. [1] The German manager is Martin Luther. The match is designed as a World Cup for the most well-known western philosophers made global with Confucius arbitrating the match. As play begins, the philosophers break from their proper football positions only to walk around on the pitch as if deeply pondering, and in some cases declaiming their theories. [1] Franz Beckenbauer, the sole genuine footballer on the pitch and a "surprise inclusion" in the German team, is left more than a little confused.
Despite being set in the Olympiastadion, the sketch was instead filmed in Munich's Grünwalder Stadion. [2] It originally featured in the second Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus episode broadcast on 18 December 1972 and was regularly screened at the group's live shows, including Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982) [3] and Monty Python Live (Mostly) (2014).
The Greek players, mostly with long grey beards and hair, play in togas, while the Germans sport a variety of period dress including Victorian frock coats and breeches. "Nobby" Hegel carries a grey top hat, while Beckenbauer wears the red and white of the 1972 Bayern Munich football strip.
Nietzsche is booked with a yellow card for arguing with the referee, claiming he has "no free will". Confucius responded by saying: "Name go in book".
In the second half, with nothing being accomplished on the pitch other than mere contemplation, Karl Marx is noticed warming up vigorously on the German sidelines. Marx soon comes on to substitute Ludwig Wittgenstein, his energy appearing as an obvious game-changer. However, upon the restart, Marx simply pulls up and starts meandering in deep thought like the rest.
With just over a minute of the match remaining, Archimedes cries out "Eureka!", takes the first kick of the ball and rushes towards the German goal. After several passes through a perplexed defence, Socrates scores the only goal of the match with a diving header off an otherwise goal-bound cross from Archimedes.
As the sketch closes, the Germans dispute the call. Through the words of the commentator, "Hegel is arguing that reality is merely an a priori adjunct of non-naturalistic ethics, Kant via the categorical imperative is holding that ontologically, it exists only in the imagination and Marx is claiming it was offside". The replay proves that, according to the offside rule, Socrates was indeed offside, but the sketch, nevertheless, states that the Greeks have won.
The names of the Greek philosophers in the lineup are displayed in German in the sketch, as the match was set in Germany. Despite the sketch, Wittgenstein was in fact Austrian and not German, while Empedocles and Archimedes lived in Sicily. Supporting the main referee Confucius as linesmen were St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, who hailed from what is now Algeria and Italy respectively.
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Inspired by the famous Monty Python sketch, and with the full backing of the surviving Pythons a tribute/replay of The Philosophers' Football Match was held at Wingate & Finchley's Harry Abrahams Stadium in Finchley, North London on 9 May 2010. [4]
This tongue-in-cheek re-staging—on a real London pitch—of the original sketch, was the idea of The Philosophy Shop, a specialist provider of education and training for primary school children. The group works to enable Philosophy graduates at University level to conduct practical philosophy sessions for children aged 5 to 11 as part of a drive to boost their reasoning skills from their first days in the school environment. [4]
Philosophers A. C. Grayling and former England Manager Graham Taylor had been appointed as managers for the event, and players included comedians Mark Steel, Tony Hawks, Arthur Smith, and Ariane Sherine, as well as philosophers Julian Baggini, Nigel Warburton, Simon Glendinning, Stephen Law, Angie Hobbs, and Mark Vernon, plus other academics from universities nationwide. Match supporters included sociologist and BBC Radio 4's Thinking Allowed presenter Laurie Taylor, the BBC's John Humphrys, and educationalist and author Anthony Seldon. [4]
"Bruces' Philosophers Song", also known as "The Bruces' Song", is a Monty Python song written and composed by Eric Idle that was a feature of the group's stage appearances and its recordings.
Franz Anton Beckenbauer is a German former professional football player and manager. Nicknamed "Der Kaiser", he is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the sport. A versatile player who started out as a midfielder, Beckenbauer made his name as a central defender. He is often credited as having invented the role of the modern sweeper. With success at club and international level, he is one of nine players to have won the FIFA World Cup, the European Champions Cup, and the Ballon d'Or.
Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl is a 1982 concert comedy film directed by Terry Hughes and starring the Monty Python comedy troupe as they perform many of their sketches at the Hollywood Bowl. The film also features Carol Cleveland in numerous supporting roles and Neil Innes performing songs. Also present for the shows and participating as an 'extra' was Python superfan Kim "Howard" Johnson.
Olympiastadion is a stadium located in Munich, Germany. Situated at the heart of the Olympiapark München in northern Munich, the stadium was the main venue for the 1972 Summer Olympics.
Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus are a pair of 45-minute Monty Python German television comedy specials produced by WDR for West German television. The two episodes were respectively first broadcast in January and December 1972 and were shot entirely on film and mostly on location in Bavaria, with the first episode recorded in German and the second recorded in English and then dubbed into German.
Monty Python's The Meaning of Life is the third and final soundtrack album by Monty Python, released in 1983 alongside their last film. Billed as "The only soundtrack album to be introduced by live fish! ", it consists of sketches and songs from the film, with a few links performed by Michael Palin and a brief appearance from Terry Gilliam.
Edward Ian MacNaughton was a Scottish actor, television producer and director, best known for his work with the Monty Python team.
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Städtisches Stadion an der Grünwalder Straße is a football stadium in Munich, Germany. It was built in 1911 and was the home ground for 1860 Munich until 1995. Local rival Bayern Munich also played in the stadium from 1926 until 1972, when they moved to the new Olympiastadion. It is the home ground of the second teams and the U–19 teams of Bayern and 1860. As of the start of the 2013–14 Bundesliga season, Bayern Munich Women also play their home matches at the ground. Since 1860 Munich were relegated from 2. Bundesliga to Regionalliga Bayern at the end of the 2016/2017 season, the senior team returned to the stadium and have played there ever since.
Paul Strathern is a Scots-Irish writer and academic.
The 1975 European Cup final was a football match between Bayern Munich of West Germany and Leeds United of England, played on 28 May 1975 at the Parc des Princes in Paris. It was the final match of the 1974–75 season of Europe's premier cup competition, the European Cup. Bayern Munich were appearing in their second final; they had won the previous season's competition, beating Spanish team Atlético Madrid 4–0 in a replay after the first match finished 1–1. Leeds were appearing in their first final.
The 1974 FIFA World Cup final was the final match of the 1974 FIFA World Cup held in Munich, Germany. It was the 10th FIFA World Cup competition, held to determine the world champion among national men's football sides. The match was contested by the Netherlands and West Germany, with West Germany winning 2–1. The Netherlands opened the scoring via a Johan Neeskens penalty in the second minute, only for Paul Breitner to equalise with another penalty in the 25th minute before Gerd Müller scored the winning goal in the 43rd minute, claiming West Germany's second FIFA World Cup.
Monty Python's Flying Circus is a British surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, and Terry Gilliam, who became known collectively as "Monty Python", or the "Pythons". The first episode was recorded at the BBC on 7 September 1969 and premiered on 5 October on BBC1, with 45 episodes airing over four series from 1969 to 1974, plus two episodes for German TV. A feature film adaptation of several sketches, And Now for Something Completely Different, was released in 1971.
The 1976 Intercontinental Cup was an association football tie held over two legs in November and December 1976 between Cruzeiro, winners of the 1976 Copa Libertadores, and the winners of the 1975–76 European Cup, Bayern Munich.
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