Posted on 04/09/2025 5:40:24 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Fifty years after Monty Python and the Holy Grail redefined comedy, stars Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam look back on the freedoms – and limitations – that shaped the film.
An independent British comedy made on a shoestring by a television sketch troupe? It sounds like a film destined to be forgotten within weeks of leaving cinemas – assuming it reaches cinemas in the first place. But Monty Python and the Holy Grail is still revered as one of the greatest ever big-screen comedies, 50 years on from its release in April 1975. Terry Gilliam, who co-directed the film with Terry Jones, thinks he knows why. "Every time I watch it I'm completely bowled over by how incredibly wonderful it is," Gilliam tells the BBC. "It's still so funny, and I just love everything about it."
The Monty Python team first appeared on TV together in a BBC series, Monty Python's Flying Circus, in 1969. Five of the six members – Terry Jones, Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle and Michael Palin – had honed their craft in student comedy societies at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. The sixth, Gilliam, had moved to the UK from the US, and provided animated segments which linked their surreal sketches. In 1971, some of these sketches were reshot and compiled into a film, And Now for Something Completely Different, but the Pythons had ambitions to make a bona fide feature film – or some of them did, at least.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
On a side note, back in the Nineties, my brother and his wife took ten kids (ten!!!) into their small two room in house apartment on my parents house and raised them for over a year. It was a sad thing, My brother's sister-in-law wasn't really competent to raise all those kids, and the Greek guy who impregnated her took off with all their money and went back to Greece, never to be seen again. The house and the kids (all with completely Greek names like Socrates and such) were in a sorry state, and Child Protective Services were going to put them in a foster home so my brother and wife took them in. They ranged from about four years old up to 14 IIRC at the time.
All boys, too.
An amazing act, in my eyes.
Anyway, I was visting one day, and looking out the second story window at the kids, all of them running around doing strange things and singing in unison (poorly) something, and I couldn't quite make out what it was.
They had their arms fully extended, spinning around in place, running to and fro, and it looked vaguely familiar...then it hit me.
They were ALL doing this!!!!
Now, this was more than 20 years after the film was released! It made me suspect there was something in the movie that appealed particularly to little boys!
Ni!
though were tough and able.
quite in de fat ti gable.
between our quests, we sequin vests and impersonate Clark Gable.
here is a bit of an old man’s insight.
Young men if you find a girl who actually believes Monty Python is funny, she is likely an amazing candidate for marriage.
Great story...thank you for posting it...enjoyed it very much!
In a deep bass voice.... “I have to push the pram a lot....”
I have always thought that was a nugget of truth...it has crossed my mind more than once!
Alas, my wife of many years does not get it at all, and is more likely to roll her eyes in exasperation at me!
I fart in your general directions...
Very few ladies appreciate a good Monty Python reference.
Your Mother was a Hamster, and your Father smelt of elderberries.
Funny before it even started from the very first opening credits scroll!
“A møøse once bit my sister.”
We apologize again for the fault in the subtitles. Those responsible for sacking the people who have just been sacked have been sacked.
Ni!
~~~
I want......a shrubbery !
"...quite in de fat ti gable. Between our quests, we sequin vests..."
It never occurred to me, in the world of the Internet, to look up those "lyrics"!
Whenever I heard it, I would, in my mind, sing it like this:
"...though we're tough and able. Mmm mm mm mm mm mmmm. Mmm mmm mmm mmmm...mm mm mmm mmm and impersonate Clark Gable..."!
Peasant: Who’s that then?
Dead Collector: I dunno, must be a king.
Peasant: Why?
Dead Collector: He hasn’t got shit all over him.
Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!
In the circles I inhabit, there are a huge number of references in everyday life to The Holy Grail!
One of the reasons I enjoy Free Republic...all one has to do is even obliquely reference the film in the most obscure way, and there will be dozens of posts, graphics, and quotes ranging from A møøse once bit my sister.” to “Well, how do you become King then, eh?”
Love it...makes me grin every single time. There is value in that.
While on a tour of Scotland I was at Castle Doune where the Rabbit scene of the movie was filmed. Walking up the pathway to the castle we came upon a rabbit nibbling grass. Everyone froze, then grabbing at our cameras to get the pic. It was perfect.
the song is brilliantly written with syllabic cadence and as it says in the lyrics
and many times we’re given rhymes that are quite un sing able.
all to rhyme with table.
Ahem...
Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?
Life of Brian is a funnier film, in my opinion.
Pie Iesu Domine, dona eis requiem...
THWAK!
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