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Monty Python & The Holy Grail at 50

I reviewed it for a college newspaper just as A FISH CALLED WANDA came out. I might have even seen them both originally on that same 1988 day. I did write ''It's so funny you can't even breathe.'' Which is my preferred style in the manner of AIRPLANE, WANDA, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING or HOT FUZZ.

It's certainly got most memorable film intermission of all time. Plus the best-ever scene mentioning the word ''Antioch.'' What could I add about those opening credits, or sloppily deliberate lack of end ones?
 
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‘What else floats in water?’

‘A good gravy!’

Sooooo funny…

(Story time — During my first year at military school/college, one of our duties as freshman was to keep the upperclassmen entertained by saying jokes, current events, etc., during meals. The head of the table, usually a senior (‘First Class’, or Firstie) would set the rules for how the table should act, and we’d act off that.

So, in this case, the Firstie assigned each of us Beanheads (freshman or Fourth Class) a quote from the Holy Grail that we had to say every time before what we really wanted to say. Of course, the more cheese or over-acting while doing so… the better.

Mine was the ‘Well, she turned me into a newt! A newt? *pause* ‘I got better.’ exchange. Got pretty good with the timing, etc. :rofl:

The guy next to me was given the part where Patsy gets an arrow in the chest and then states, ‘Message for you, Sir!’ :rommie:

Trying not to laugh while he was thumping his chest and yelling that out… was a real challenge.

This probably doesn’t make a lot of sense but, you had to be there.)

Cheers,
-CM-
 
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There was a hobby gaming shop not too (ridiculously) far from here that almost always had Monty Python and the Holy Grail running on a TV...

Never get tired of that loony film.

You reminded me of Guardian Games and I got wistful. Lots of evenings playing with the Trek group I was in. They always had something SF, fantasy or cult playing on viddy up on the walls and there was usually a food truck in the parking lot.

 
Holy Hand Grenade!

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Love that part… ‘Skip a bit, Brother!’ :lol:

I forgot to mention at the Academy, and part of the reason why we had to act out various lines above, was that the dang movie was always playing somewhere in the dormitory 24/7… or at least seemed like that. The entire Corps of Cadets practically had it memorized.

We held a pep rally one time where the swim team walked into the gym/arena area wearing the standard issue dark blue shower robes, smacking their heads with kick boards while chanting the (Gregorian?) chant similar to the earlier scene in the movie… as you can imagine, the place went nuts!

Cheers,
-CM-
 
I have a difficult confession to make.

I watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail... and I generally don't laugh. Like, I find it funny intellectually, but not in a laugh-out-loud way. (This is true for a lot of Monty Python for me. A Bit of Fry and Laurie, I laugh uproariously. Python, not so much.)

The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, on the other hand, is so funny that I have damn near blacked out from laughing at it.

The album is only tangentially connected to the film -- some of it is a "news report" on the premiere of the film, and some of it plays a bit like a DVD commentary track -- but it is genuinely zany. (Cleese's German logician, who is analyzing the logical reasons why his wife hates him and is having an affair with the milkman, is a riot.) The Python comedy records are great.

I've bought a number of unlicensed Holy Grail TeeFury shirts over the years (and I really wish the Pythons would license more official merchandise, because there's a market for it).

I like it. I admire it. I even have Mark Forstater's book on the film and his lawsuit over Spamalot profits (which led to the 2014 reunion shows). But I am so dead serious watching the film.
 
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