My Favorite Movies – Monty Python and the Holy Grail

“Listen, strange women lyin’ in ponds distributin’ swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.” – Michael Palin as Dennis

“I fart in your general direction.”
“It’s just a flesh wound.”
“She turned me into a newt!”
“We are the Knights who say NI.”

Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Quotes uttered repeatedly by Dungeons and Dragons storytellers, Sega Dreamcast collectors and Magic: the Gathering champions. Watched in millions of dark basements and dormer apartments, mouths agape, forming the words before they’ve come across the screen. It’s an awkward kid’s dream – a movie dedicated to dark, dry humor with a plethora of t-shirts and merchandise still available.

What can I say? It’s also absurd British comedy at its best, a twisted retelling of the country’s most famous character. It’s not just funny to awkward, geeky computer fans – it’s actually funny.

The story is timeless – King Arthur, after all, was the English language’s second hero after Beowulf – and the treatment is exacting in its randomness. But the story is purely a vessel for a series of inappropriate and clever jokes. Really, MPatHG is a long sketch comedy presentation, an extension of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, except with a theme and a large budget.

I mean, look at this movie. There are no horses, only coconuts that make a galloping noise. The major enemies are a killer rabbit, a knight with three heads and the Knights that say Ni. The film moves in and out of animation, in and out of historical context and places random nationalities all around England. Yet, it’s completely logical when viewed as a whole.

That’s what makes it so different – it’s a television show posing as a movie posing as a historical drama, a tongue in cheek look at England’s most cherished legend.

It’s classic and silly, hidden and popular. It takes both extremes and brings them together, a combination as unlikely as the themes itself.

Also, it’s funny. And that’s really all you need to know.

My Top Ten Comedy Films (in no order)

1. Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
2. Blazing Saddles (1974)
3. Kids in the Hall: Brain Candy (1996)
4. Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
5. Ghostbusters (1984)
6. This is Spinal Tap (1984)
7. The Jerk (1979)
8. A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
9. The Big Lebowski (1998)
10. Airplane! (1980)