 During one of the first screenings of the film in front of a live  audience, director Terry Jones noticed that when music was played  during the jokes, there was a diminishment of laughter from the  audience. He went back and edited the music out whenever a punchline  was delivered. At the subsequent screenings, he noticed a dramatic  increase in the audiences positive reactions to the jokes. From  that point on, whenever he directed, he remembered to stop the music  for the funny parts.