The anarchist peasant from Holy Grail was a political awakening for me.
Supreme executive power derives from a mandate of the masses, not some farcical aquatic ceremony!
If I went around calling myself emperor because some moistened bint lobbed a scimitar at me they’d put me away!
(It’s amazing how much of this aligns with Graeber’s work)
I believe he was supposed to be a digger actually. But anarchist peasant is pretty close
The fact that their sketch use of “spam” made it into general usage.
And their name inspired the name of the third most used programming language
I can’t believe no one has mentioned my favorite running Python gag:
That’s because nobody expects them
I’m torn between “every sperm is sacred” and the biggus dickus scene. Both make me laugh uncontrollably every time.
He has a wife, you know…
“You know what she’s called? Incontinentia… Incontinentia Buttocks WILL YOU STOP LAUGHING!?”
That scene is always able to make me laugh.
They told the actors playing the guards it was very important that they keep a straight face throughout, and then planned on cracking them up. Or so I’ve been told
I believe it is true. The extras were told they wouldn’t get paid if they laughed. I love when he swings his toga around and gets in that guards face - “how 'bout you centurion? Do you find it risible to laugh when I say the naaaame…”
I think most of the scene was scripted apart from the part about his wife which was improvised, that’s why you can hear the crew behind the camera laughing as well.
Here’s the video I got that from: https://youtu.be/RmCWDZulUuQ
I’d like to think it was less a threat and more an appeal to professionalism.
“We’ve got to get this scene, and time is running out. You guys have to treat this like you’re doing Shakespeare live. Whatever you do, don’t fuck this up.”
The Biggus Dickus sketch is brilliant.
Judean People Front vs People Front of Judea. So many issues of today can be boiled down to that discussion.
Also, I kind of agree that everyone has the pholosophical right to be pregnant, even if it’s not a possibility.
SPLITTER!
The aqueduct?
Oof, too many to choose from. The first that came to my mind were the argument clinic and the cheese shop sketch.
My hovercraft is full of eels.
If one studies any foreign language, one of the first things one should learn is how to say “My Hovercraft is full of eels”. And in fact I have done this. Why? Because when someone is studying an unusual choice of language (in my case it’s Modern Greek) one is inevitably asked to “Say something in (Greek in my case)”. So the sentence, which is objectively absurd, actually becomes useful. I’m considering Irish as my next language. Why Irish? Maybe speaking some Irish would help me get an Irish passport so I can escape from Fascist America.
Argument clinic is what I was going to choose haha
my go-to phrase for this is always “lots of snow but no flashlight” due to a scene in an old Swedish movie
Argument clinic is what I was going to choose haha
This isn’t argument! This is abuse!
You’re just contradicting me
No I’m not
The entirety of Holy Grail, for starters. My high school history teacher said that it was one of the most realistic depictions of life in the Middle Ages ever put on film.
After that…
“What have the Romans ever done for us?”
“The roads!”
“Well, yeah. Obviously the roads. I mean, the roads go without saying, don’t they? But apart from the sanitation, the aqueduct, and the roads–”
…and…
“Oh, we used to dream of livin’ in a corridor! Would ha’ been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woke up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House? Huh.”
The burn the witch sketch. I still show it to students to show how bad science and good science differ
Earlier this morning, while reading the final Discworld novel, I came across this reference Terry Pratchett made to Monty Python. It’s not my favorite thing to come out of Monty Python, but it made me smile.
He’s a lumberjack & he’s OK
I can’t narrow it down to one gag, but Holy Grail as a whole.
The castle of aaaaaargh.
Perhaps he was dictating it.
It’s only a model
Shh!
Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, song from Life of Brian
The Universe Song from Meaning of Life is also great
I forgot about this one! Brilliant
Such a jaunty representation of nihilism.
Crunchy frogs?
A newt???
My top favourite is already the top most voted so I’ll just mention a few that I think are classics that I didn’t see on the list:
Sir robin bravely ran away
Holy hand grenade
The animator having a heart attack
Biggus Dickus, I remember my dad cracking up over it the first time I saw Life of Brian (not his first time, obviously). And now, more than 15 years later we’re still in tears when just mentioning the name or watching the scene for the x’th time
edit: Life of Brian, not Holy Grail… sleep induced brain didn’t work that well anymore
Biggus dickus sketch is from the life of Brian though.
He’s a phony! A big, fat phony!
right! i was half asleep and not thinking that well anymore…
You know, he has a beautiful wife…
