Wonderful! My wife and I just showed this movie to our kids last month, and they loved it.
I'd always assumed "Your mother was a hamster and your father stank of elderberries" was just a meaningless bit of Monty Python absurdity.
When my wife explained to the kids that meant your mom is a slut and your dad is a drunk I was flabbergasted. I had never reevaluated that iconic insult from my initial ignorant teenage assumptions.
In Geneva, Switzerland there are various buildings named after John Knox, the early Scot Protestant who lived for a while in Geneva after being exiled. When Knox is mentioned in America his name is normally pronounced "Nox" like Fort Knox is. But in Switzerland the K isn't silent, as I learned when visiting. It's weird when you think about it why English decided that K's at the start of words should be silent.
You must have not had a dad that would constantly ask for you to pass the butter kanife. As a kid, I just assumed bad dad joke about silent letters, but then I saw Holy Grail, and realized he was making a movie reference.
Yeah, I didn't get the masturbation pun for that one until like three years ago; it always seemed like a pretty innocuous title until someone laughed when I mentioned it.
You’re misunderstand me.
I’m blown away at how much I have clearly missed about a movie I like. I’m not sure how I’ve managed to come across as I have - apologies.
As a teen I got in trouble once because I said that as a not at all serious insult to someone. I also didn't know it meant anything. The trouble was he *did* know what it meant but did *not* know it was a movie quote. So he went to the teacher and complained, and such is life.
Huh! Amazing. In my high-school we insulted each other's mothers every day. Going to the teacher about it would have been inconceivable. Was it common practice at your school, an anti-bullying initiative or something? Was this in the US?
Hmm. I don't find that theory convincing. That sort of humor does not really fit in with their body of work, but random absurdity definitely does.
Hamsters aren't really known for promiscuity. Fecundity perhaps, but then the insult is "your mother had a lot of kids"? Doesn't meet the MP standards.
Elderberry wine smells no more like elderberries than wine smells like grapes, so getting from "...your father smelt of elderberries" to "he was a drunk" is quite a stretch. Why not "it means he ate too much elderberry strudel" if we're going for alternate explanations?
But isn't it a deeper commentary into English culture with Gin since the elderberry is what is used to make Gin from just alcohol? They didn't make a joke about grapes=>wine, or peat moss=>scotch.
Just for posterity, this is totally my favorite movie. I don't even know how many times I've watched it staring in high school, and, somehow, I still think it's funny.
Way back in like 2008 or so I went through the interview process of a new job. The last step was a panel interview with the people who would report to me. Their last question was, "what is your favorite movie." When I told them "The Holy Grail" it absolutely sealed the deal for them. It turned out to be a great team and a great fit, too.
I'm glad that story turned out well, but I've really come to detest that kind of cultural thing being part of a hiring process.
I once interviewed for a job, probably 12 interviews with different people over two weeks, everything was going spectacularly, and then the final interviewer just didn't like me culturally for whatever reason, and made that clear in the interview. (And he wasn't even someone I'd work with if I were hired.) But their hiring process required unanimous approval. So I didn't get the job. (An acquaintance of mine on the team confirmed that was why.)
Having to answer a question about your favorite movie isn't right, even if it seems like it's just "fun". You hope it's not something that would ever swing the interview in your direction, but it's certainly something that can lead them to dislike you for reasons entirely unrelated to the job. ("Ugh, Fellini/Bollywood/Midnight Cowboy? What a weirdo. They seemed cool till now. Never mind, pass.")
... but if they do ask the question and then despise you for your answer, isn't it best to surface that during the interview rather than after you've made a commitment to spend 8 hours a day with those people?
You're kinda in luck: next year there's a not-musical stage show produced by Cleese being released. The backstory is pretty contentious though, Idle and Palin have completely disowned it via Twitter for various reasons, not the least being Cleese politicizing it with changes to the Loretta scene and removing the closing "Always look on the bright side of life."
Went to a themed beer tasting where they played this movie. People were doing exactly this but shouting the lines before they were said on screen, kind of soured the experience. Good beer though.
I went to a reshooting sone number of years ago and was quite afraid this would happen. Doubly so as the theater was next to MIT. All in all it wasn’t too bad. Mostly just laughing.
But it sounds like you’re hoping for it to happen . In which case my anecdote says maybe it won’t.
I went to a similar event for The Big Lebowski, it was awesome, everyone was cracking up and quoting it the whole time, a bunch of people dressed as The Dude.
The only downside was the theater's bar was closed for some reason, so no white Russians could be had.
I once watched it at a student run theatre that had somehow retained a physical 35mm copy of this, and showed it once a year. Every time it got a bit more scratched and spliced, but still worked.
They had been doing it for a while, and had rocky-horror picture show levels of audience participation and costumes (Yes, including a cadre of knights in armor that brought their own shrubbery).
We have very different tastes. I went to a big Lebowski showing and the entire movie was like 6 different people shouting an upcoming line between 0 and 20 seconds before it was said. I don't get it
But will the theater operators make publicity from encouraging cameras and singing/dancing like they did for that other title going around the theaters?
Ok I tried so many times to watch this after so many people recommended but I just can’t get it! There are some parts I feel the jokes. Most of the time, I’m clueless about why they are even funny. Is this just the culture difference between the old Brits and American?
It might just not work for you because Monty Python don't do punchlines. They just dial the absurdity to 11.
There is some element of surprise, but rather at the beginning of a scene than at the end of it. Then it's a matter of "how far can you take this situation", e.g. a knight losing all limbs and still claiming "it's just a scratch"
(Sorry for the spoiler but it's been 48,5 years...).
Part of it could also be missing cultural context. Taking the same scene as example, it's a comment on the British "stiff upper lip".
So much of Monty Python depends on a "classical education" to really get all the jokes - for example, the 'philosopher's drinking song' is quite amusing when you know who all the people referenced are.
Or in other words, it was designed for people in Britain who went through a British education of the time.
That's probably true for some of their works, but I think Holy Grail works without that background knowledge. I first saw it when I was 13 (so, very much not educated yet), and I didn't feel like anything went over my head.
I am a huge fan of Monty Python's Flying Circus (watched all episodes and own it on disc and as a book), but I never understood why people go crazy about The Holy Grail. The humor feels different, more silly with less wit to it.
I assume Digital Noise Reduction, rather than Do Not Resuscitate. It looks like more than DNR to me though, there's an added crispness that DNR alone wouldn't do. Some kind of AI upscaling does seem likely, though I've never heard of it being used on film before.
If they could redo just one scene it would be where they're approaching some peril and there's warning signs in the background (like, Keep out!, Certain Death!).
Every time I see it I try follow what they're saying while reading the signs and end up doing neither.
I felt like I'd unlocked some kind of nerd secret treasure chest when I attended a midnight showing of MPatHG in a local theater in college in the early 80's. And again when I picked up the DVD (remember DVD's?) in the early 00's.
And similarly the scene with the various anti-Roman groups that hate each other more than they hate the Romans in Life of Brian was a brilliant satire of how rival progressive groups acted in the 1960s and 1970s
They actually have two versions planned for the theaters: regular silent watching and the "quote along" version which will include subtitles.
"In this new Quote-A-long rendition, fans not only witness the absurdity of Arthurian legend but also actively participate in the laughter. It’s a sidesplitting cinematic event that honors the timeless humor of Monty Python while inviting fans to quote, laugh, and sing-a-long like never before. Get ready to journey into a world of Medieval madness, coconut-clacking horses, and unforgettable one-liners in this uproarious Quote-A-long version of a comedy classic."
Are they into the joke, knowing that this is comedy, and are playing the straight man? I can't imagine a normal person not laughing in utter disbelief.
I absolutely adore Monty Python! Would it be alright if I gently remind our new-age coding enthusiasts, particularly those from the younger generation, that Python (the programming language) was actually named after this incredibly entertaining group, and not the snake species?
And Rust was named after the coffee virus, because it is resilient. It has nothing to do with oxidation or crabs (neither the seafood nor the STD variety).
>Would it be alright if I gently remind our new-age coding enthusiasts, particularly those from the younger generation, that Python (the programming language) was actually named after this incredibly entertaining group, and not the snake species?
Yes. Express anything but actual humor on this forum, because humor is for Redditors so we don't do that here.
I'd always assumed "Your mother was a hamster and your father stank of elderberries" was just a meaningless bit of Monty Python absurdity.
When my wife explained to the kids that meant your mom is a slut and your dad is a drunk I was flabbergasted. I had never reevaluated that iconic insult from my initial ignorant teenage assumptions.