The Philosophers' Football Match
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The Philosophers' Football Match is a Monty Python sketch depicting a football match in the Olympiastadion at the 1972 Munich Olympics between philosophers representing Greece and Germany.
Instead of playing, the philosophers competed by thinking while walking on the pitch in circles.[1] This left Franz Beckenbauer, the sole genuine footballer on the pitch (and a "surprise inclusion" in the German team, according to the commentary), more than a little confused. The philosophers included Plato, Socrates and Aristotle on the Greek team, and Heidegger, Marx and Nietzsche on the German team.[1] Confucius was the referee and Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine (sporting haloes) were the linesmen.[1] The German manager was Martin Luther.
The sketch originally featured in the second Monty Python's Fliegender Zirkus episode and later included in Monty Python Live at the Hollywood Bowl (1982).[2]
Contents |
[edit] Outcome
Nietzsche receives a yellow card after claiming that "Confucius has no free will"; Confucius say "Name go in book". Socrates scored the only goal of the match in the 89th minute, a diving header from a cross from Archimedes (who gets the idea of using the football first after shouting out "Eureka!"). The Germans dispute the call; "Hegel is arguing that the 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 [with apt materialism] is claiming it was offside."
[edit] Line-ups
The names of the Greek philosophers in the line-up are displayed in German in the sketch.
(Ludwig Wittgenstein was, of course, Austrian.)
[edit] Trivia
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The narrator mentions that Germany had beaten "England's famous midfield trio, Bentham, Locke and Hobbes" in the semi final.
In the sketch, Archimedes is played by John Cleese, Socrates by Eric Idle, Hegel by Graham Chapman, Nietzsche by Michael Palin, Marx by Terry Jones and Kant by Terry Gilliam.
Brazil's World cup team of 1982 and 1986 featured a player called Sócrates.
When the line-ups are displayed at the beginning, Nietzsche is listed as number 10. The commentator announces him as the one being booked, but number 5, Schelling, is the one being put in the book.
The goalscorer was in fact offside, as pointed out by Karl Marx.
At the start of the match the narrator mentions that the German team had attracted a large amount of press coverage due to "team problems"
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Gener, Randy. (May 1, 2006) American Theatre The French Misconnection, or What Makes a Writer French. Volume 23; Issue 5; Page 42.
- ^ Larsen, Darl. (2003) Monty Python, Shakespeare and English Renaissance Drama. Page 45, Publisher: McFarland & Company. ISBN 0786415045
