MORE than 20 years after Monty Python's satire, Life of Brian, was banned in parts of Britain for its "blasphemous" contents, the comedy has topped a poll of films containing people's favourite funny lines.
Terry Jones, the film's director, played the mother of Brian, a young man mistaken for the Messiah.
Delivering the winning line to a crowd hoping to catch a glimpse of their idol, he declared: "He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy."
Mr Jones said yesterday: "The line was first performed to an audience of Arabic-speaking Tunisian women and they didn't think it was funny at all. The poll comes as a bit of relief after all these years of uncertainty."
Such was its popularity among voters that Life of Brian also took seventh and tenth place in the poll.
John Cleese's attack on Roman rule - where he asks "what have the Romans ever done for us?", before listing a string of benefits including sanitation, roads and public order - came seventh.
In tenth place was the line "I'm Brian and so's my wife", delivered by Terence Bayler, playing Gregory.
Michael Caine came second in the poll with "You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off", shouted to gang members practising for a bullion raid in the 1969 caper The Italian Job.
Mike Myers, the Canadian actor, took third place with "Yeah baby", the catchphrase of Austin Powers.
Dad's Army, the BBC's World War Two comedy, provided the funniest line from television. The winning line was "Don't tell him Pike," delivered by Captain Mainwaring, played by Arthur Lowe, in a scene where a German officer demands to know names of the Home Guards.
Cleese was in second place as Basil Fawlty in Fawlty Towers. After insulting a group of German guests over dinner, Mr Fawlty tells his staff: "Don't mention the war."
Derek "Del Boy" Trotter, the dodgy salesman played by David Jason in the BBC1 comedy Only Fools and Horses, came third with his admonition to his young brother: "Rodney, you plonker".
The poll was conducted by Bol.com, an online shop and part of the German internet media group Bertelsmann.
