Galaxy Song is one of the songs in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life.

Galaxy Song originally aired as the music in «Live Organ Transplants», in which a magical man comes out of the fridge to tell a woman that—in the grand scheme of life, the universe and everything—it is incredibly unlikely that she existed at all and should therefore feel a little better…

whenever life gets you down,
and things seem hard or tough
and people are stupid, obnoxious or daft
and you feel that you’ve had quite enough…

I’ve always read it in a slightly different way. Monty Python, being themselves, must be pointing at all these amazing facts about the universe to point out that we’re small and insignificant (and therefore should always look on the bright side of life because «there’s bugger-all down here on Earth»). The appropriate way to respond, per the Pythons, should be to laugh.

If our lives are so meaningless, maybe there’s no need for taking ourselves so seriously.

See also


(It’s also worth noting that the Pythons have taken some liberties with the scientific figures they quote. Wikipedia, as usual, has the technical details)


making love in a canoeAndy’s Brevity Quest 2019 (202 words) → radical