“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” is a satiric comedy about the quest of King Arthur. The movie starts out with Arthur, King of the Britons, looking for knights to sit with him at Camelot. He finds many knights including Sir Galahad the pure, Sir Lancelot the brave, the quiet Sir Bedevere, and Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir Lancelot. Through satire and parody of certain events in history (witch trials, the black plague) they find Camelot, but after literally a quick song and dance they decide that they do not want to go there.
While walking away, God (who seems to be grumpy) come to them from a cloud and tells them to find the Holy Grail. They agree and begin their search. While they search for the Grail, scenes of the knight’s tales appear and the reasons behind their names. Throughout their search, they meet interesting people and knights along the way. Most of the characters die; some through a killer rabbit (which they defeat with the holy hand grenade), others from not answering a question right from the bridge of Death, or die some other ridiculous way. In the end, King Arthur and Sir Bedevere are left and find the Castle Arrrghhh where the Holy Grail is.
They are met by some French soldiers who taunted them earlier in the film and were not able to get into the castle. The movie ends with both King Arthur and Sir Bedevere being arrested for killing a real-life man who was a historian. In the movie, the three main types of comedy I recognized were farce, parody, and satire. Farce is comedy designed to provoke the audience into simple, hearty laughter and often uses highly exaggerated or caricatured character types and puts them into improbable and ludicrous situations.
The Essay on Sir Gawain’s Green Knight Character Analysis
Why did the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight include a character with a bizarre complexion and magical abilities? Why do most people do weird things? Unfortunately, there is no obvious reason for the latter; however, there are quite a few explanations for the former. “The Pearl Poet,” as the unknown author is referred, wrote the poem around the late 1300s in England—a time and place in ...
It also makes use of broad verbal humor and physical horseplay. Some examples of farce in the movie are: o In the beginning of the movie, you hear the sound of music and horses. However, it turns out that it was not horses at all; it was the sound of King Arthur’s squire pounding two coconut halves together to make the sound of horses galloping. They then go on to confront two soldiers at the castle gates o invite their lord to be apart of the round table.
they approach a castle and are quickly confronted by soldiers on top of the castle walls. The soldiers go on to question about their mode of transportation. King Arthur declares he rode on horses through the blistering winter. One of the soldiers protest and state the obvious: they were just banging coconut halves together, and the fact that coconuts come from a tropical climate, so he could not have gotten it in the blistering winter.
King Arthur goes on to explain that a swallow must have carried it. The soldier then offers a rebuttal based on proportion and types of birds. The comedic affect was delivered by the ridiculousness of the situation, the repetition of the soldier’s persistence the fact that they were actually pretending to ride horses by hitting coconuts together. o In another scene, King Arthur is confronted by Lancelot and not allowed to pass. They began to fight and King Arthur severs Lancelot’s arm off. Only for Lancelot to say, “It is just a scratch.” King Arthur thinks that Lancelot will all it quits, but he persists, “I’ve had worse.” They continue their brawl, only for Arthur to slice off Lancelot’s other arm.
He still insists on fighting. The comedic affect of this scene was delivered by the irrationality of Lancelot’s determination to continue fighting despite his severe injuries. o In another scene, King Arthur and his knights try to storm Camelot but are driven away by their enemies are heaving farm animals at them. They brought a new meaning to raining cats and dogs. The comedic affect was delivered by the illogicality of someone throwing animals to defend themselves. It was also ironic that they were not throwing arrow or spears.
The Term Paper on Cast Down All The Stone Merlin Arthur King
Merlin: Myth or Reality Merlin, the greatest magician of all time. He lived, if indeed he lived at all, in Wales and southern England during the dawn of Christianity in those lands, long before written historical records were kept. Yet, his name is universally recognized around the world as synonymous with magic, and his popular image is almost as well known as that of Santa Claus. The beginning ...
Satire is a kind of writing that ridicules human weaknesses, vice, or folly in order to bring about social reform. Satires often try to persuade readers to do or believe something by showing opposite view as absurd or vicious and inhumane. Some examples of satire in the movie are: o There is a scene where a guy is walking around with a wheel barrel full of dead people. He was calling out,” Bring out your dead.” The comedic affect was delivered when a peasant was trying to get rid of a sick older member of his family who was not dead yet. The guy who was collecting the dead told him about the company policy against taking people who are not dead and when he would make his next rounds. The peasant continually insists despite of the objections the sickly older gentleman.
The service guy eventually relents and takes the old man after knocking him out. This scene is a satire on the Black Plague, which was a very common and fatal disease in medieval times. It was also satire on service companies in societies. o Another scene was of King Arthur approaching a few of his “subjects.” When he explained his position as king, the peasants quickly correct Arthur on the proper ways of electing a public official. The comedic affect was delivered from the peasant’s knowledge of political systems and their unwillingness to submit to Arthur’s authority. The satire is meant to show how many people are misinformed on many issues that greatly affect them.
o Sir Robin not quite as brave as Sir Lancelot was a knight that was really a big chicken. He nearly fought a dragon and a bunch of other close encounters. They all end him with him running away. This was satire on how men in society pretend to be something they are not. The comedic affect was delivered when Sir Robin was riding with his entourage through the woods while they sang of his bravery. The lyrics were a bit graphic on details of the countless ways he is unafraid to die.
When he finally realized what they were saying he hastily requested that they stop. Parody is the imitation if a work of literature, art, or music for amusement or instruction. Parody usually uses exaggeration or inappropriate subject matter to make a serious style seem ridiculous. Some examples parodies in the movie are: o The comedic affect of the scene where Arthur and his men are kept away from the castle by farm animal warfare is a parody to when King Uther Pendragon attacked the Duke of Cornwall’s castle and was kept off with fire, soldiers and other one would expect in combat. o There was a scene where King Arthur and his knights hid inside of a wooden rabbit to invade the castle.
The Media and The Youth: How The Media Affect Children and Adolescents
Have you ever compared your own childhood with the childhood of kids nowadays? What do you feel when looking at your children, little siblings or any young person in your family spending a whole day stuck in front of a computer or laying on a sofa watching television? Have you ever thought about the impact that the overexposure to the media produces over the youth? The truth is that, nowadays, the ...
This was a parody of the wooden Trojan horse used to invade the Greeks in the Illiad. The comedic affect was delivered when the king and his men got out of the horse before they even got into the castle. o There were also scenes ever so often a historian would pop up and give you a brief narrative about what was going on in the movie. This was a parody of all the historians that covered the story of Arthur. The comedic affect was delivered when Arthur killed the historian at the end of the movie.
