For their first feature-length film drawn from original material, the Monty Python team decided to tackle the Arthurian legend. Funded by rock stars looking for tax write-offs at a time when UK income tax could be as high as 90%, Monty Python and the Holy Grail is one of the funniest movies ever made.
Although contemporary audiences who went in expecting a straight adaptation of King Arthur’s search for the Grail were baffled, the film was generally praised as an instant comedy classic — and it’s only picked up new fans as the years have gone on. So, as difficult as it was to narrow it down, here are the 10 funniest scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
The Opening Credits
Most comedies use the opening titles to simply credit the cast and crew, and save the jokes for when the movie actually begins, but not Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The Pythons will find room for humor anywhere. In Holy Grail’s opening credits sequence, there are inexplicable “Pidgin-English-Swedish” subtitles that disappear when the people creating the titles are “sacked” in the middle of the titles.
Then, the people who sacked them get sacked before the credits style switches to a flashy, colorful, ‘60s-style design. Opening credits have never been this wildly unpredictable.
Invisible Horses
The opening shot of Monty Python and the Holy Grail instantly establishes that it doesn’t take itself seriously at all. Following the absurd opening credits, we fade in on an English landscape draped in fog. The sounds of horses’ hooves galloping echoes through the frame. And then, King Arthur and Patsy ride through the foggy veil, but they’re not riding horses.
They’re pretending to ride horses while Patsy knocks two coconut halves together to create the sound of hooves. The film’s budget wouldn’t accommodate horses, and the movie itself immediately acknowledges that with a hilariously meta gag.
“We Are The Knights Who Say ‘Ni!’”
A lot of the gags in Monty Python and the Holy Grail are ripped straight from historical facts about the Middle Ages, but some of them are just straight-up absurdist comedy.
For example, the three conjoined knights who live in the woods and identify themselves as “the knights who say ‘Ni!’” They then proceed to live up to that name by repeatedly saying, “Ni!”
The Trojan Rabbit
When King Arthur and his party arrive at a castle, some French soldiers taunt them and claim to have the Grail in their possession. After the soldiers catapult some farm animals at them, Bedevere has the bright idea to infiltrate the castle in a Trojan Rabbit.
Unfortunately, the plan backfires when the French soldiers use their giant catapult to launch the Trojan Rabbit right back.
Tim The Enchanter
All the Pythons play a ton of different roles in Holy Grail, but John Cleese arguably has the most memorable, from Sir Lancelot to the taunting French soldier.
One of those characters is an enchanter who identifies himself as Tim. The juxtaposition of a fantasy character with a mundane name like Tim is hilarious on its own.
The Camelot Song
When Monty Python and the Holy Grail first hit theaters, Camelot had a place in the public consciousness due to the Broadway musical of the same name and the lavish Hollywood movie musical that was adapted from it.
In Holy Grail, when King Arthur decides to head to Camelot, there’s a hilarious homage to the musical featuring all-singing, all-dancing knights. At the end of the song, Arthur delivers the perfect anticlimactic punchline: “On second thought, let’s not go to Camelot. ‘Tis a silly place.”
“Bring Out Your Dead!”
The Pythons aren’t particularly well-known for their dark humor, but when they have done sketches with a pitch-black comic sensibility, they’ve been incredible. There’s a prime example early in Monty Python and the Holy Grail when a corpse collector comes through a village saying, “Bring out your dead!”
One of the villagers piles an elderly relative onto the cart, but the old man claims that he’s still alive. The villager insists that he’ll be dead in no time, despite the old man saying he’s “getting better.”
The Killer Rabbit Of Caerbannog
Upon arrival at the cave that supposedly contains the written location of the Grail, King Arthur and his knights are confronted by the Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog.
At first, it just seems like a harmless rabbit, but the first knight who’s brave enough to face it gets viciously attacked in a cinematic display of bloodshed.
Lancelot Running Towards The Castle
Very few comedies — especially modern comedies — make full use of the capabilities of cinema. These days, comedies are just brightly lit, lightly edited improv shot with bland coverage.
In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, film language itself is used to convey humor, like the repeated shots of Lancelot, really far away, running towards a castle guarded by two knights, which suddenly cuts to Lancelot standing right outside the castle, killing the guards on his way through the gate.
The Black Knight
There are a few scenes in Monty Python and the Holy Grail that could be viewed on their own as standalone sketches and still work just as well. King Arthur’s sword fight with the Black Knight, played by John Cleese, is a perfect example.
No matter how many of the Black Knight’s limbs Arthur lops off, he still claims he’s in fighting form and insists on continuing the duel. Cleese commits to the Black Knight’s stubborn hubris brilliantly, while Graham Chapman contrasts hysterically as the voice of reason.