Quentin Tarantino Reveals the Monty Python Scene That Made Him Sick

Quentin Tarantino has revealed the Monty Python scene that made him feel genuinely sick, and it wasn’t the famously gory “Live Organ Transplants” sequence in The Meaning of Life.

While that scene, in which John Cleese and Graham Chapman remove Terry Gilliam’s liver while he’s still alive, is full of blood and gore, it didn’t turn Tarantino’s stomach.

The moment that really did was “The Autumn Years” segment, featuring Mr. Creosote, a grotesquely obese dinner guest played by Terry Jones. In the scene, Creosote repeatedly vomits in increasingly disgusting ways, making it notoriously hard to watch.

Tarantino recalled his reaction to The Irish Examiner: “The only time I’ve ever had to look away, because I couldn’t bear to watch, was The Meaning Of Life, when that fat b***** keeps being sick. I felt really nauseous – it was just too much. I was looking around and I thought, ‘If anyone here is sick and I have to smell vomit, I’m going to hurl’.”

Even for a director known for pushing the limits of on-screen violence, the scene was extreme. “I just about held onto my lunch in the end, but I still can’t think about that scene without retching,” he added.

The Mr. Creosote sketch was one of the final Monty Python pieces to involve all six members of the comedy troupe.

Terry Jones and Michael Palin wrote the initial outline, which John Cleese and Graham Chapman later expanded. Terry Gilliam created the fat suit that eventually became an open chest cavity, while Eric Idle contributed the opening song, “The Not Noël Coward Song.”

Tarantino, who often explores graphic and violent imagery in his own films, said the scene showed him how far audiences could be pushed. Even he, someone used to cinematic blood and gore, found the sight of Mr. Creosote vomiting repeatedly impossible to handle.

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