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[[File:Monty Python Live 02-07-14 11 09 02 (14415348139).jpg|thumb|"Every Sperm Is Sacred" performed at the Python reunion, ''[[Monty Python Live (Mostly)]]'' in 2014]]

"'''Every Sperm Is Sacred'''" is a musical sketch from the film ''[[Monty Python's The Meaning of Life]]''. A satire of Catholic teachings on reproduction that forbid masturbation and contraception, the song was released on the album ''[[Monty Python Sings]]'' and was nominated for a [[British Academy Film Awards|BAFTA]] Music Award for Best Original Song in a Film in 1983.<ref name="pythons"/><ref>{{Cite web |title = BAFTA Awards: Original Song Written for a Film in 1984 |publisher = [[British Academy of Film and Television Arts]] |url = http://awards.bafta.org/award/1984/film/original-song-written-for-a-film |access-date = 2015-08-02}}</ref>

André Jacquemin and David Howman wrote the music and [[Michael Palin]] and [[Terry Jones]] wrote the lyrics and performed the song, which is hailed as one of the Pythons' great sketches.<ref>{{Cite book |last = Gale |first = Steven H. |title = Encyclopedia of British Humorists: Geoffrey Chaucer to John Cleese |publisher = Taylor & Francis |date = 1996 |page = 155 |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=AH-fDkzVH1cC |isbn = 978-0-8240-5990-3}}</ref> Viewing Python as the "great originator" of combining provocative humour and high-quality original music, ''[[Family Guy]]'' creator [[Seth MacFarlane]] regarded the song as his favourite Python number, stating, "It's so beautifully written, it's musically and lyrically legit, the orchestrations are fantastic, the choreography and the presentation are very, very complex – it's treated seriously."<ref>{{cite news |title=8 TV Shows and Comedy Stars Inspired by Monty Python |url=http://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2019/09/8-tv-shows-and-comedy-stars-inspired-by-monty-python |access-date=30 September 2019 |agency=BBC America}}</ref>

==Content and production==
The song is a [[satire]] of [[Humanae Vitae|Catholic teachings on reproduction]] that forbid [[masturbation]] and [[contraception]] by artificial means. The sketch, called "The [[Third World]]", is about a Catholic [[Yorkshire]] worker played by [[Michael Palin]], with his wife played by director [[Terry Jones]]. They have sixty-three children, who are about to be sold for scientific experimentation purposes because their parents can no longer afford to care for such a large family with the local mill being closed. When their children ask why they should not use any form of birth control, or why the father cannot perform self-castration, their father explains that this is against God's wishes, and breaks into song, the chorus of which is:

{{poemquote|Every sperm is sacred,
Every sperm is great.
If a sperm is wasted,
God gets quite irate.}}

[[File:Monty Python Live 02-07-14 11 10 37 (14598659831).jpg|thumb|right|The stern Protestant couple (Palin and Jones at the 2014 Python reunion) comment disapprovingly on the Catholic Church forbidding contraception while the Catholic couple next door (and their 63 children) sing "Every Sperm is Sacred"]]
The production in ''The Meaning of Life'' was filmed in [[Colne, Lancashire]], and [[Burnley, Lancashire]], and choreographed by [[Arlene Phillips]] to a storyboard by Jones.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Douglas |first1=McCall |title=Monty Python: A Chronology, 1969-2012, 2d ed. |date=2013 |publisher=McFarland |page=958}}</ref> The hearty and cheerful nature of the musical number is counterpointed as the children are marched off to their fate as the song ends, singing a dour rendition of the chorus as their middle-aged [[Protestant]] neighbours (played by [[Graham Chapman]] and [[Eric Idle]]) comment on the teachings of the [[Catholic Church]]. They add that they have two children, which is the exact number of times they have had sex in their marriage. The grounds of [[Cartwright Hall]] art gallery in [[Bradford]], West Yorkshire, was used as a location for the singing and dancing nurses.<ref name="TA">{{cite web |url=http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/news_cityoffilm/news_cityoffilm_bradford/4461633.Cardinals_in_Shipley_/?ref=rss |title=Monty Python comes to town |work=[[Telegraph and Argus]] |access-date=19 August 2019}}</ref>

The song is a [[parody|style pastiche]] of the song "[[Consider Yourself]]", from the musical ''[[Oliver!]]'' by [[Lionel Bart]]. Later, Jones denied that it was explicitly written to make fun of the genre of [[musical comedy]]: {{"'}}Every Sperm is Sacred' is not a parody of these things, it just ''is'' those things, it's a musical song, it's a hymn, it's a Lionel Bart-style musical, but it's not making fun of a Lionel Bart-style musical."<ref name="pythons">{{cite book
  | last = Chapman
  | first = Graham
  |author2=John Cleese|author3=Michael Palin|author4=Terry Gilliam|author5=Eric Idle|author6=Terry Jones|author7=Bob McCabe
  | title = The Pythons: Autobiography by the Pythons
  | publisher = Macmillan
  | date = 2003
  | page = 323
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=KG7uvKrlUwAC
  | isbn = 978-0-312-31144-5}}</ref>

The song was performed at ''[[Monty Python Live (Mostly)]]'', with Idle singing Palin's part. It was also followed by the discussion from Protestant married couple with Palin and Jones playing the Protestant husband and wife respectively.

==Influence==

===Sexuality and reproduction===
The phrase "every sperm is sacred" has become almost proverbial in the field of [[Animal sexual behaviour|animal]]<ref>{{cite journal
  | last = Singson
  | first = A.
  | title = Every Sperm Is Sacred: Fertilization in ''Caenorhabditis elegans''
  | journal = Developmental Biology
  | volume = 230
  | issue = 2
  | pages = 101–109
  | publisher = [[Elsevier]]
  | date = 2001
  | issn = 0012-1606
  | doi = 10.1006/dbio.2000.0118
  | pmid = 11161565| doi-access = free
  }}</ref> and [[human sexuality]] and [[human reproduction|reproduction]].<ref>{{cite journal
  | last = Braun
  | first = R.E.
  | title = Every Sperm Is Sacred--Or Is It?
  | journal = Nature Genetics
  | volume = 18
  | issue = 3
  | pages = 202–204
  | date = 1998
  | issn = 1061-4036
  | doi = 10.1038/ng0398-202
  | pmid = 9500533| hdl = 1773/4324
 | s2cid = 44857156
 | hdl-access = free
  }}</ref> This extends to such areas as [[cloning]], where the song is used to criticize anti-cloning activists who argue that every embryo or fertilized egg is sacred.<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Charo
  | first = R. Alta
  | author-link = Alta Charo
  | chapter = Every Cell Is Sacred: Logical Consequences of the Argument from Potential in the Age of Cloning
  | editor-last = Lauritzen
  | editor-first = Paul
  | title = Cloning and the Future of Human Embryo Research
  | publisher = Oxford University Press US
  | date = 2001
  | pages = 82–92
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=8dJKqjVh0iEC
  | isbn = 978-0-19-512858-1}} P. 82.</ref> [[Abortion-rights movements|Abortion-rights]] activists have sung the song outside [[abortion clinic]]s to ridicule their opponents,<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Peters
  | first = Cynthia
  | chapter = Every Sperm Is Sacred
  | editor-last = Fried
  | editor-first = Marlene Gerber
  | title = From Abortion to Reproductive Freedom: Transforming a Movement
  | publisher = South End Press
  | date = 1990
  | page = [https://archive.org/details/fromabortiontore00frie/page/187 187]
  | url = https://archive.org/details/fromabortiontore00frie
  | url-access = registration
  | isbn = 978-0-89608-387-5}}</ref> legal scholars have alluded to it in discussions of women's reproductive rights,<ref>{{cite journal
  | last = Millbank
  | first = Jenni
  | title = Every Sperm Is Sacred? Denying Women Access to Fertility Services on the Basis of Sexuality or Marital Status
  | journal = [[Alternative Law Journal]]
  | volume = 22
  | pages = 129–29
  | date = 1997
  }}</ref> and [[Emily Martin (anthropologist)|Emily Martin]] describes its usage as a [[Reductio ad absurdum|''reductio ad absurdum'']] of anti-abortion positions.<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Martin
  | first = Emily
  | author-link = Emily Martin (anthropologist)
  | chapter = Body Narratives, Body Boundaries
  | editor-last = Grossberg
  | editor-first = Lawrence
  | editor2=Cary Nelson|editor3=Paula A. Treichler
  | title = Cultural Studies
  | publisher = Routledge
  | date = 1992
  | page = 422
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_hgYfQP5aRMC
  | isbn = 978-0-415-90345-5}}</ref>

===Religion===
The religious import of the sketch is significant, and is reflected in the widely dispersed usage of the phrase. In the book ''Monty Python and Philosophy'', the argument is teased out to reach a broader (still humorous) conclusion: "The Pythons ask us to consider the consequences of the belief that God cares about our reproductive practices and sees everything. If so, then he watches our sexual activities. ...Christians must concede that all things considered, this [watching people have sex] is one of God's less onerous activities."<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Hardcastle
  | first = Gary L.
  |author2=George A. Reisch
  | title = Monty Python and Philosophy: Nudge Nudge, Think Think!
  | publisher = Open Court Publishing
  | date = 2006
  | page = 129
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wPQelKFNA5MC
  | isbn = 978-0-8126-9593-9}}</ref> [[Philip Jenkins]] discusses the sketch as an important sign of a growing willingness in the popular media of the 1970s and 1980s to criticize the Catholic Church, saying that "Catholic attitudes toward sex and contraception are ruthlessly parodied" in the song, proving that "Catholicism was available as a legitimate subject of serious fiction."<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Jenkins
  | first = Philip
  | title = The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice
  | publisher = Oxford University Press US
  | date = 2003
  | page = [https://archive.org/details/newanticatholici00jenk_514/page/n171 161]
  | url =https://archive.org/details/newanticatholici00jenk_514
  | url-access = limited
  | isbn = 978-0-19-515480-1}}</ref> [[Richard Dawkins]], in his ''[[The God Delusion]]'', cites the song for that reason, the illustration of the "surreal idiocy" of some pro-religion, [[anti-abortion]] arguments.<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Dawkins
  | first = Richard
  | title = The God Delusion
  | publisher = Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  | date = 2006
  | page = 300
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=yq1xDpicghkC
  | isbn = 978-0-618-68000-9}}</ref>

===Masturbation===
It is sometimes difficult to separate the comic from the serious application of the phrase, and two recent publications on the [[human penis|penis]] use it for precisely that purpose, ''Talking Cock'', by [[Richard Herring]],<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Herring
  | first = Richard
  | title = Talking Cock: A Celebration of Man and His Manhood
  | publisher = Thunder's Mouth Press
  | date = 2004
  | page = 109
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=pImpYNhh4J0C
  | isbn = 978-1-56025-608-3}}</ref> and ''Dick: A User's Guide''.<ref>{{cite book
  | last = Moore
  | first = Michele
  |author2=Caroline De Costa
  | title = Dick: A User's Guide
  | publisher = Marlowe & Company
  | date = 2003
  | page = 43
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=7T4sMnjpvvwC
  | isbn = 978-1-56924-429-6}}</ref> In both cases, the sketch is used to ridicule those who condemn [[masturbation]], and [[sexual intercourse|sex]] for any purpose other than [[procreation]].

==Reverse censorship==
According to the interview with Palin on the DVD extras, he said ''"''at the end of my '''sock'''''"'' in the original scene, with the word "[[human penis|cock]]" being overdubbed later. This was done because the scene featured numerous [[underage]] children and the Pythons were already concerned they were "pushing the limit". Years later, several of the child actors stated they had no idea what they were singing about.<ref name="dvd">{{cite video | url=https://www.amazon.com/Pythons-Meaning-Two-Disc-Collectors-Edition/dp/B0000A0MFJ | title=Monty Python's the Meaning of Life (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) (1983) | publisher=[[Universal Studios]] | work=[[Amazon.com]] | date=2 September 2003 | people=[[Monty Python]] | medium=[[DVD]] | asin=B0000A0MFJ}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Monty Python}}

[[Category:1983 songs]]
[[Category:Criticism of the Catholic Church]]
[[Category:Monty Python songs]]
[[Category:Satirical songs]]
[[Category:Black comedy music]]
[[Category:Songs critical of religion]]
[[Category:Songs written by Michael Palin]]
[[Category:Songs written by Terry Jones]]
[[Category:Semen]]