The brilliance of the ending. Is that, it is a “cop out” ending. Literally, ended by cops.

fun fact, in germany this movie was titled: The knights of the coconuts.

First time I saw this film at the theatre. During the *Intermission* scene. The movie house *ACTUALLY CLOSED THE CURTAINS & TURNED ON THE HOUSE LIGHTS. THEN TURNING OFF THE HOUSE LIGHTS & OPENING THE CURTAINS* in that short time frame. Even *The Movie Theatre* itself got in on the joke. That "Intermission" & "the animator had a fatal heart attack" scenes were my *favorites.* They were sooooo Monty Python.

On second thought, let’s not go to comments section. It is a silly place.

The ending of the film suggests a sequel: Month Python and the Holy Bail.

I'll never forget watching this in a theater when it first came out. I'd never heard of Monty Python, and had no idea of what I was in for. I was in a terrible mood when I entered the theater, but found myself laughing to the point of tears, simply by sitting through the opening credits. A memory I'll always cherish. It's hard to pick a favorite scene, but the peasants arguing with Arthur over class systems is near the top.

On top of how clever the movie is, they managed to make the dialogue endlessly quotable. Virtually every scene is in some way memorable because of this.

"They can play old women, old men, young men." You could just call him Dennis.

The subtitles are something we Norwegians like to call: Norwenglish. It's mixing Norwegian and English language. Making it sound super corny.

it's actually good writing that the discussion about swallows at the start had a pay-off with the bridge of death scene

One thing I noticed with the Sir Lancelot scene where he slaughters all the civilians is that later, when the prince was found to be alive after falling from the window, when he begins to sing all of the people in the room get up to join him. *Even the people who are supposed to be dead and had been lying still up until that point.*

When the wizard kept shooting random fireballs during the conversation I started dying. It’s just soooo stupid haha

I still giggle at the "Brave Sir Robin" song. And Tim the Enchanter is the best.

He didn't mention my favorite joke in the end scene, where a cop slaps a shield out of a knights hand with the line "Put that down, that's an offensive weapon that is!" Officer I'm fairly certain that shields are in fact, for defensive purposes.

Using coconuts as horse sounds is a common radio trope.

The guy on the horse with the historian actually has a horse! Lol i never noticed til now

I suddenly have the urge to......invest in Malden.

And yet _Holy Grail_ does obey the first rule of good storytelling: it picks a consistent theme and sticks with it. The theme is expressed, in this case, not through action, dialogue, character development or plot, but through being the point of at least 75% of the jokes -- namely, "This violence is completely pointless."

Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Film is my favorite knight

This has always been one of my favorite comedy films. To answer one of your questions, I was one of those guys in the 1970s who saw it in the theater. This was actually my introduction to Monty Python, because I had not yet seen the Flying Circus series (in the US it was on Public TV at odd times, and I didn't actually know what it was until after I saw this movie). Anyway, at the end of the film, my friend and I were totally fooled by the fake film break, and we did sit there in the theater (and so did everyone else) for at least five minutes assuming the film was going to get going again. When the lights came up, we were like, "WTF?". It actually pissed us off at the time, but we grew to appreciate how we were kind of part of the joke, it was part of immersing the audience in the fakery. Also, concerning the coconuts/horses....if you watch Patsy banging the coconuts, you see that the sounds don't match the action, which means in addition to the coconuts representing fake horses, they actually were fake coconut sounds, added in post. It's like the fakery was itself fake, at least two layers deep. In fact, it makes me wonder if those are even real coconuts they are carrying, they seem so accurately sawn in half, more like little wooden bowls. It's like, the deeper you dig in the sounds and visuals, the more discordant it gets. I could go on and on, but I won't, but thanks for this analysis. In fact, I'm sure you could do a Part 2 and there would be plenty more to analyze.

I’ve always loved the non sequitur ending of The Holy Grail. A lot of the old Flying Circus bits would end with the police conveniently coming in to put a stop to whatever comedic situation was afoot, to the point that The Argument Clinic sketch ends with them breaking the 4th wall break by saying the Flying Circus is guilty under law for using the fuzz arriving as an ending over and over again. It’s funny how in this film you actually see someone call the police and slowly piece together Arthur’s trail, like for once there’s an actual cause and effect at play with the police joke, however once you think about how pointless it was for the knights of the round table to murder some random historian in the forest you realize that the joke is that the setup is completely arbitrary and stupid lol. Such a clever spin on their running gag.

There's a small picket fence around the shrubs of the Knights who say "Nee."

10:24 The greatest example of all is 1977 Star Wars. George Lucas didn't want any opening title credits to be at the beginning. He was the first to do so with much protest.

13:19 Fun fact: the "inhuman accuracy" here might seem like an action-movie cliche, but it's something Sir Perceval did in Chretien de Troyes' 12th-century poem about him. He kills a knight in the same way near the beginning of the poem, throwing a stick through the guy's eye from a distance. So it's a type of amazing feat that people have always imagined in swashbuckling stories.

In the 2008 special edition dvd they actually begin the movie with the opening credits to a completely different movie. After the credits end you hear a projectionist mutter about how they’ve got the he wrong film. Next we see a sign that says “one moment while we change reels.

"Any similarity to the names characters, or history of real persons is accidental and unintentional. Signed Richard M. Nixon"

3:15 The guy who says "It's only a model" was the guy the made said castle model.

Something of a theory I develop to rationalize the insanity of the movie's inconsistency is that Arthur, his knights and generally everybody else in the movie not in the modern day are cosplayers, all taking part in a big elaborate LARP session that goes horribly wrong when one of the cosplayers kills someone. Curiously, that knight had a horse and yet literally everybody else in the movie didn't. Was that knight just some random rich guy who stumbled into the session and after getting too carried away, killed someone by accident? Either way, the police arrested the wrong people.

My favorite long death quote to yell out in theaters...."I'm not dead yet!"

This and Life of Brian are pure comedy gold.

My dad actually got to see this in the theatre. He said the "intermission" fooled quite a few people.

This is probably the best movie ever made.

I have shouted “get on with it!” in a British accent many a times

You're right about missing things the first time round; "AD 932" never struck me before, but it might be a joke from medieval scholar, Terry Jones. If a historical Arthur existed he'd have lived in the 5th/6th Centuries, whilst the more familiar "Hollywood" Arthur was a product of the 12th/13th Centuries onwards. 932 is completely out of whack, whichever version of Arthur we pick.

Fun point about the Pythons always playing several different characters: When they enter the village looking for a shrubbery, they torture an old woman by saying NI at her. It wasn't until they finished filming the scene that they wondered why they bothered hiring an actress to play the old crone since one of them could've just done it with no issue. One of the rare times they followed a conventional film rule and then immediately realized they could've just broken that too!

Sorry, not gonna finish the episode. I never saw Monty Python, and 9 minutes in I'm dying on the floor from laughter. I'll be back once I watch the movie!

I like how it's an extremely memeable movie. Examples: - "Who are you who are so wise in the ways of science?" - the holy hand grenade - the killer rabbit

I was weaned on Python comedy - one of my favourite parts of the Holy Grail is at the end when they are all arrested - it seems like either the writers ran out of ideas or they ran out of money . . . so, they ended the movie with a mass arrest. Brilliant regardless.

"Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who". I remember sitting around in college, in the 1970s, laughing our asses off recalling this film and all it's crazy funny one liners. "Strange women, lying around in ponds, handing out swords is no basis for a form of government"! It's funnier talking about it, than actually watching it. So Great!

As regards how old the word “shit” is, it’s actually a very old indo-European word meaning to split. In fact the words split, ship, and sever are cognate with shit.

I showed this to my girlfriend and her 2 children who are from Mexico and hadn't even heard of Monty Python before. They laughed all the way through, right until the police show up to stop the storming of the castle. As soon as the credits started rolling, she looked at me, and in the saddest, most despondent tone said "amor... no..." while her kids ran in circles, hands to the sky, screaming all the interrogatives. My favorite memory of any movie.

I think the French are there to comment there has been French input to the Arthurian myth/legend, which is supposed to be Uber British/English. Or it might be that historically the French and the English were enemies, but that seems to easy. Plus, the French guard tells Arthur they already got a grial. The intermission is a great moment because it happens near the end of the film and is completely unnecessary.

I saw this in the theater in 1975. Since you had asked about the intermission, I want to say that, Yes, there were epic movies that I had watched somewhere during my 21 years. Intermissions were common at drive-in theaters that allowed us in the cars to make our way to the concession stand and back to our auto before the movie resumed. As to my experience in the theater with MPATHG, the intermission appeared as a joke. It then went on just long enough to lead people to believe it might be a real intermission. The timing was impeccable. Had it been shorter, I and other members of the audience would have reacted with "Oh, this is a joke intermission." However the seconds longer that it went on made it now appear that it was real. Some people did stand, only to have the movie resume. It quite reminds me of "Her Majesty" at the end of the Abbey Road album by the Beatles. When an album ended, the track would direct the needle to the center of the record, which engaged the record player to lift the arm and return it to the resting position, or, if albums were stacked, drop the next record to be played. The blank space after the end of the last song and the engagement of the mechanism was fairly standard on records of the day. When the jarring opening chord of "Her Majesty" would blare out during the time one was expecting silence, would often surprise or startle listeners, even after hearing the album previously. This reaction is completely lost on listeners of CDs, any tape media or digital media of today. So there.

I love the witch scene that pushes logic to insanity to get to an answer that does not make sense, something often seen in movies and only revealed if you really think about it.

Best ending ever. I never even considered how people felt after the lights came on in the theater after no credits

My dad introduced me to Monty Python when I was a teenager. This came on Comedy Central on a Friday night and we watched it together. I never laughed so hard. It started my love for British comedy. Having lost him last May has been really rough but this brought back a wonderful memory.

I believe that the titles are actually in Mock Swedish, as spoken by the Swedish Chef from The Muppet Show. One of the guests actually learned Mock Swedish by correspondence and found out he wasn't speaking real Swedish.

Funfact: In germany this movie is called "the knights of the Cocunut" (Die Ritter der Kokosnuss)

Never thought of it like this. Even on the poster it says "Sets the cinema back 900 years"

Worth noting that I still have an old VHS copy of the movie, and there are a fair number of differences. In the more recent edition, Michael Palin is the narrator, but he was not on my VHS version. Some of the narrator lines also change. The whole sequence of the Tale of Sir Galahad is quite different - that whole sequence where Dingo questions the existence of the scene in the movie never happens. The ending in the VHS just...ends. Done. The intermission music isn't there. Also, obviously there are no end credits. All of the people responsible for making them had been sacked at the start.

"Its not that terrible." "No, I meant terribly violent." "Oh yeah, yeah..."

What, no mention of the "aptly named Sir-Not-appearing-in-this-film"?

Another thing to notice is when the Famous Historian is dead, you can still see him breathing (or maybe that's just my eyes being funny), which adds to the whole ridiculousness of this movie

A couple side notes that weren't really brought up is how every time the book of the movie is shown someone else's hand is there, almost pointing to how this story is all over the place. And at 24:10 where Arthur even flinched at the loud music starting up

30:50 I love how they *clearly* used a plastic skull for this scene..

I loved Monty Python's Icelandic Saga. Invest in Malden!

Until today, the question-bridge scene makes me laugh so hard that I can't hold my tears. The dumb scenes makes this movie brilliant. I can watch it over and over, but the puns never gets boring.

Yes, they used to use coconuts as horse hoofs in movies. I saw an old short film about the foley artist. It was black and white and probably from the fifties. In it, they show all the things that they would use to make sounds. I also remember that thunder was a thin sheet steel that the waved violently. They had a old wash board but I forget what sound it represented. Raw meat, all kinds of stuff is used by the foley artist.

It’s a red flag if you bring up this movie to a new acquaintance/friend and they haven’t seen it. How could one understand modern humor without experiencing the very essence of comedy?

" what are those things coming out of her nose?" Space Balls!!" " Oh shit there goes the planet."

The nordic lookin subtitles are using "Ø" and "Ä" together which is quite weird because in Danish/nowegian we use "Ø" and "Æ" and in german/swedish they use "ö" and "Ä"... Mixing the two seems very made up to me :P

Also my #1 comedy movie, for the multi layered, almost psychedelic nature of it...You could go even deeper.

he glossed over the best scene in the entire movie. the we found a witch scene.

"Makes Ben Hur look like an Epic!" Why am I laughing so hard at this?

The bit at Castle Anthrax where Zoot (or was it her "twin sister"?) talks about her scene not being cut was actually cut from the VHS version of the film, but is in the DVD. An additional funny bit there.

Comedy is harder than drama. This is the best comedy of all time, therefore this is the best movie of all time.

"We are eight score blonde and brunettes" and then the legal disclaimer, "all between the ages of sixteen and nineteen and a half". Clever

35:39 - *glares HARD at "Rise of Skywalker" xD

I love the internal consistency of this film. Bedevere is complimented by Arthur at the end of the witch scene: 'Who are you who is so well versed in science' poking fun at Medieval reasoning. However it turns out the girl does weigh the same as a duck and breaks the fourth wall with a simple: 'It's a fair cop'. On set, Gilliam was trying very hard to make a 'real' movie and became very cross with Jones, who was happy to just replicate their sketch comedy television aesthetic. (It is Gilliam with a hard G, a la Guilliam, not a soft one a la Jilliam, b the way)...

One more interesting gag about the “Famous Historian” scene, we know it’s not one of the main characters who killed him because he was actually riding a horse

The final gag was excellent, sir.

"Must be a king..."

Your points about the serious, grand soundtrack were definitely *subconsciously* intentional on the directors' part at least! Originally the movie had a totally different score by Neil Innes, using period-accurate instruments (Sir Robin's song is an example that made it into the final cut). But Gilliam and Jones found that it sounded too "quaint" and that extra-serious, epic-sounding music made the film much funnier, since it acted as a contrast and foil to the absurd humor. So their conscious reason for choosing the epic music was a basic rule of comedy: silly humor is way, way funnier if it's contrasted with a serious tone. But as you point out, that contrast is always satirical on a deeper level, even if the creators weren't thinking about that at the time.

Collative Learning: I think James Cameron's The Abyss just started with the film's title and went straight into the movie, but I can't think of any other examples. Star Wars: Umm... hi.

37:00 I discovered Monty Python and the Holy Grail in the late 1970s, during some kind of strike that forced the CBC to play movies more or less continuously. Whoever put on the Grail had the genius of immediately following it with what looked like a documentary on Norway. Another Python production, of course!

You forgot to mention how all the slaughtered guards and guests spring to life (despite being bloodstained) as soon as the musical number begins at the end

The best part of the video is Rob chuckling at the movie.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail has always been my favorite movie. Just something about the simplicity and humor just seemed to always make me smile.

Little fun facts -In non English versions th scene about the cut scene is not dubbed but the original -The German name of the movie is Ritter der Kokusnuss (Knights of the coconut)

The ending actually got me, when I first watched the movie at home on a dvd.

When I was little I saw this and I didn't get that the ending was actually the ending, like I thought there was more to it. I've only seen it once but this whole movie was a fever dream.

Black Dynamite was insanely hilarious for the same reasons. Love them both.

When my group of friends first saw this, we watched it 3 or 4 times one day, back-to-back at least once, and we were all sore from laughing the whole time, and finding new jokes each time. I remember we re-wound the cow flinging scene several times. We could NOT get enough of the movie, and the rented VHS tape went from house to house for small viewing parties until it had to be returned.

something that always made me and my friends laugh is that you can see "the famous historian" breathing when hes laying on the ground

I think the Grail, Life of Brian, and Meaning of Life are some of the finest movies ever made.

Fun fact: there were originally supposed to be horses but they ran out of money. Then one of them came up with the idea of coconuts and they thought it was even funnier.

Rob already did a lot on some good Kubrick movies, I’m really excited about this one. He has a way of making inferences that tend to not be too far-fetched, and he’ll often even admit “Okay, this could be far-fetched, but this is what I think after so many careful watches.” It’s a lot more respectable than many other channels who clickbait and claim everything is 100% what they say.

5:42 The fictitious restaurant is apparently called “喫茶” or “Kissa” (pronounced key-ssuh), which means cafe or tea room.

On the start of the Tale of Sir Robbin (20:00), those cliffs and the surroundings are covered in Eucalypts, so clearly that's filmed in Australia. Which then cuts to very much not a euc forest.

One of the greatest Epics ever put on the screen. Words cannot describe the utter poetry and brilliance of MPATHG (Monty Python And The Holy Grail that is). A caleidoscope of multifacetted character study and interwoven plot lines any modern fiction writer would envy.

I discovered this movie on netflix, i then proceeded to memorize the entire move from beginning to end. when i;m bored i'll just start reciting the whole thing with voices.

One of the best youtube videos I've seen in ages

After this, I would love to hear Rob’s critique of John Boorman’s “Excalibur”.

Loved the last joke at end Rob, good one.

"Are you suggesting coconuts migrate?" Classic! 👻

Smh. Didn't even mention the brilliant irony of Galahad starring in a porn plot and then accusing Lancelot of being gay.

One thing i never noticed until recently but the ending is a literally a cop out.

I've been looking for an extensive Holy Grail analysis for so long, thank you so much for this! Talented work!

1:20 This wasn't their first film, though it's easy to overlook it. Their first movie was literally just a 35mm widescreen reshooting of a series of sketches from the first season titled "And Now For Something Completely Different" and it was really there to advertise the show in foreign markets. It's also a great document of certain bits of Great Britain in 1970, just pay attention to the backgrounds, because they shot it on locations and not on a set.

"The End" of Apocalypse Now has the perfect end credits.