Remember Monty Python and The Holy Grail? Got to be one of the silliest films ever to make it off the cutting room floor. And since it makes fun of both Medieval English hierarchy and the French, it will always be one of my favorites.
So my wife and daughter were away last weekend and my 10 1/2 year old son and I were left our own devices. I’ve had the film in my VHS collection for more than 20 years, so I thought I would see if Roger (who is really into silly humor) would find anything funny about The Grail. We got halfway through it in our first sitting.
He found the opening credits (Wik) amusing, followed by “Bring out your dead.” He liked the insulting Frenchman pictured above (”Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!”) hurling insults and livestock at Arthur and his knights (”Fetchez la vache!”).
Since he had just learned in school about the Trojan War, Roger laughed out loud at Sir Bedevere’s ill-fated Trojan rabbit and its subsequent use as a weapon by the Frenchmen. Since I didn’t want him to get any kinky ideas about spanking, I fast-forwarded through the Castle Anthrax.
Much to my amusement, every now and then when I bump into him in the house, Roger says “Ni. Go fetch me a shrubbery.” But the line that left the most lasting impression was the knight who refused to quit fighting Arthur even after suffering the loss of both legs and arms. I have heard “Come back or I’ll bite your legs off!” one too many times in my house the last few days.
Of course, smart as Roger is, much of the rest of the half-film we watched was lost on him, as it was probably lost on me when I first saw it in high school (with Jake and some others, I believe, at the Orson Welles Cinema in Cambridge, Mass.).
After this dubious experience in parenting, I was reminded of an interview I conducted in September with Mark Devey, the new head of Indian Mountain School. Devey is not only a Pythonophile, but he grew up watching the comedy troupe with his father, who was also a school headmaster.
In fact, Devey liked Python so much he later directed a stage review of it at Fessenden School and taught an elective on the subject at Episcopal Academy near Philadelphia. Now that’s pedagogical bravery if I ever saw it — making the subject academically meaningful and living to tell the tale.
“Monty Python humor is perfect for middle school because it’s so silly,†Devey told me.
Not only silly, but it’s the perfect elixir for a night at home with your goofy kid. Now for part 2 …
9 responses so far ↓
1 Marshall Miles // Mar 17, 2007 at 12:05 am
Love Monty Python….Saw the Holy Grail about 10 times as a kid!!!
Favorite line I still use today….
I f**t in your general direction….
2 Tim Abbott // Mar 17, 2007 at 8:38 am
I once wrote a parody Python sketch in which a knight (John Cleese) is confronted with an officious scribe (Terry Jones) enforcing environmental regulations on his castle: moat without riparian buffer, fairy shrimp making it a vernal pool, red dragon hide on the wall evidence of a rare species taking). Best lines:
“Look, are you clear on the concept of a moat? They’re meant to intimidate! Nobody’s going to postpone his afternoon dip on account of some amorous prawns!Can you imagine a barbarian horde reacting to a moat full of fairy shrimp? ‘Oo, those langoustines look menacing, Attila, we’d best reconsider our amphibious assault!’”
http://greensleeves.typepad.com/berkshires/2005/10/a_conservation_.html
3 fred // Mar 17, 2007 at 12:41 pm
go see SPAMALOT…. it is a work of genius.
4 Terry // Mar 17, 2007 at 6:50 pm
Tim,
Very clever greenie humor. Sounds like a great idea for a short film parody. I’ll bet Mark Devey et al would love to make it into a shorty w/ the film students at IMS.
5 Doug Richardson // Mar 18, 2007 at 7:35 am
Monty Python, for me, is the absolute quintessence of humor; their stuff ranges from the most childishly silly (yet still funny) material (”The Fish-Slapping Dance”) to some material that requires postgraduate study (the Philospher’s Soccer Game). Either way, they put me on the floor no matter how many times I watch it.
Best “Grail” line?
“That’s no orrrrrrrrrrdinary rrrrabbit…”
6 Mark A. Devey // Mar 18, 2007 at 8:52 am
The following scene is my favorite of all time. It is from The Holy Gail. It is the scene where Arthur has a politocal debate with a man and woman knee deep in mud.
ARTHUR
I am your king!
OLD WOMAN
Well, I didn’t vote for you.
ARTHUR
You don’t vote for kings.
OLD WOMAN
Well, how did you become king, then?
ARTHUR
The Lady of the Lake, her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held Excalibur aloft from the bosom of the water to signify by Divine Providence … that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur … That is why I am your king!
| OLD WOMAN
| Is Frank in? He’d be able to deal with this one.
DENNIS
Look, strange women lying on their backs in ponds handing out swords … that’s no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
ARTHUR
Be quiet!
DENNIS
You can’t expect to wield supreme executive power
just ’cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
ARTHUR
Shut up!
DENNIS
I mean, if I went around saying I was an Emperor because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, people would
put me away!
I didn’t pick up on the content of this dialogue as a kid until I watched it several times. Now, I can’t stop laughing. Their scripts are either riduculously silly or deep and powerful. Either way, Monty Python is a great vehicle for middle schoolers and adults who still enjoy a good laugh. I will be teaching a Monty Python elective course in the fall at Indian Mountain School.
7 Terry // Mar 18, 2007 at 6:03 pm
Mark,
Perhaps the best scene in the movie. Although I think you are being charitable in describing what the peasants are slopping as “mud.” It always looked to me like something more … odoriferous.
I particularly like the ending when Arthur grabs Dennis by the ears and the latter yells, “Help, help, I’m being repressed!”
8 Mark A. Devey // Mar 22, 2007 at 9:11 pm
“Bloody peasant…”
9 John Snelling // Aug 28, 2007 at 10:09 pm
My personal favorite is:
Brother Maynard: Armaments, chapter two, verses nine through twenty-one.
Cleric: [reading] And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, “O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.” And the Lord did grin. And the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths, and carp and anchovies, and orangutans and breakfast cereals, and fruit-bats and large chu…
Brother Maynard: Skip a bit, Brother…
Cleric: And the Lord spake, saying, “First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin. Then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it.
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