Presenting stoning as a curious fore-runner to reality TV, The Life Of Brian beautifully played on the idea of delicate femininity -not least in Terry Jones genius performance as Brian's mother - but also in the stoning scene that featured a flock of blood-thirsty, bearded women who kept forgetting themselves in their haste to get a kill on their hands.
3. Your Mother Was A Hamster - The Holy Grail
Silliness is only really funny when it is wholly committed to: you can't be half-ludicrous or the bit suffers, and the ingenious, memorable taunts of the Frenchman in The Holy Grail are both brilliantly silly, and wonderfully cutting, because of his conviction. It is not a slight on someone's character to smell of elderberry, but thanks to the Pythons, the insult still carries wonderful weight.
