You know a comedy
group is part of pop culture, nay culture itself, when they are included in a
dictionary. Pythonesque: after the style of or resembling the absurdist or
surrealist humor of Monty Python’s Flying
Circus, a British television comedy series (1969-74). British comedians
Terry Jones, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Graham Chapman, and
American Terry Gilliam changed the face of televised comedy, paving the way for
Second City, Saturday Night Live, Kids in the Hall, The Simpsons, and even South
Park. And then, in 1974, the gang decided to make movies. The result: “Monty
Python and the Holy Grail.” Horses not included, but coconuts were available.
Funny thing about the
very first time I saw this Holy Grail of comedies. It was in Spanish. I don’t
exactly remember where, but this was back in the late 90s when my family and I
were living in South America. It was playing on TV and since my dad used to
live in England, you can bet he knew who the Pythons were. I didn’t know, but
once I saw the bit with the Trojan rabbit I was sold. I didn’t understand all
of the dialogue since my Spanish wasn’t that good at the time, but once you’ve
seen a giant wooden rabbit being tossed through the air by a bunch of vulgar
Frenchmen, you get the picture.
The plot, or what
stands for a plot, is the standard legend of King Arthur’s quest for the Holy
Grail. Except in the Python’s world, King Arthur (Graham Chapman) along with
his squire Patsy (Terry Gilliam) must first convince people he really is the
king. “I didn’t know we had a king,” says a well-spoken peasant. “I thought we
were an autonomous collective.” The peasant gets even more skeptical when
Arthur tries to convince him he got his legendary sword from a lady in a lake.
Once Arthur has
assembled the Knights of the Round Table, which include Sir Bedevere The Wise
(Terry Jones), Sir Lancelot the Brave (John Cleese), Sir Robin the
Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot (Eric Idle), and Sir Galahad the Pure
(Michael Palin), the quest is on. After an unfortunate encounter with the
aforementioned foul-mouthed Frenchmen, Arthur believes the knights should seek
the Grail separately. This leads to several humorous misadventures for each
knight, such as Lancelot crashing a wedding party, Arthur and Bedevere running into
the dreaded Knights who say Ni, and Galahad nearly losing his purity with Zoot
(Carol Cleveland) and her fellow lascivious ladies at castle Anthrax.
Will they find the
Grail? They should be more concerned about the poor modern-day historian who
was slain by one of the knights, triggering a police investigation. The Pythons
don’t just break the fourth wall; they bring it down with a bulldozer.
Since the cast came
from a television background and were more used to performing sketch comedy, it
might explain why the movie is not so much a straight narrative but a series of
gags waiting to happen. The result is a loose story with a running time of 87
minutes, but every sketch works. Unlike the lazy guys behind “Epic Movie,”
“Disaster Movie,” and, I don’t know, “Crappy Movie,” the Pythons don’t only
rely on cheap physical gags to appeal to the lowest denominator. When the
knights find clues about the Grail’s location inside a cave, they debate
whether or not the name of the castle indicated on the walls is really “Castle
Aaaarrrrrggghhh” or if the writer actually wrote down his own scream as he was
being killed. Seriously, which explanation is the least ridiculous when reading
something like that on a cave wall?
For devoted Python
fans, I highly recommend the Extraordinarily Deluxe Edition of the movie. It
includes a visit to the movie’s locations by Michael Palin and Terry Jones, a
featurette about the proper use of a coconut, and my favorite, a Lego animation
of the “Camelot Song.” With a song and a dance number like that, its proof
these guys would be funny in any language.
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