Monty Python and the Holy Grail 48 1/2 year anniversary in theaters December | Hacker News Reader

Monty Python and the Holy Grail 48 1/2 year anniversary in theaters December

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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.

And now I’m having the same experience

not just a drunk, a cheap drunk.

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.

I thought the basis of gin was juniper berries, not elderberries (although you can make elderberry gin in the same way as sloe gin)

The "good stuff" is made with juniper berries. Gin can be made from whatever is around.

The traditional basis of gin is basic industrial alcohol. The berries are just the flavouring.

https://www.bythedutch.com/genever/

This changes everything. Can you have her explain the whole movie to us?

Edit: Misunderstanding that was cleared up. Thank you!

I took it as genuine interest in learning more about the movie.

I hope you are right and I'm being ungenerous in my interpretation.

If so I apologize.

All good!

Thanks for teaching me something today.

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.

I would watch that livestream

Don't worry, it took me years to figure out that "South Park, Bigger Longer and Uncut" was a double entendre.

For me, it was the Blink-182 album Take Off Your Pants and Jacket.

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.

Wow I’ve listened to that album since I was a teenager and still never figured that out until right now

Wow. One of my favorite albums from my youth, I never got this until you just mentioned it!

"If you see Kay, will you tell her that I love her?"...

Is there a word play in the title I am missing or what do you mean? :/

Bigger, longer, and uncut can all refer to a human penis, or to a movie release.

Only human?

I'm only aware of circumcision being performed on humans.

No way! How could I have not ... got that. All these years ...

Exceptional maturity and good, clean living, I'd wager.

I, on the other hand, seem to still be 13 years old, decades later :)

I was over 40 when I someone explained to me that "kaaa-nigt" was just a strange pronunciation of "knight".

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.

Yeap, same, and even then it wasn't until I watched it with subtitles on.

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.

More of an archaic pronunciation, although maybe emphasized for comedic effect.

Orthography is typically more conservative than pronunciation, so when the language was written down, all letters were pronounced.

Comparing cognates can be interesting.

For example English 'night' with German 'nacht', the original English pronunciation was closer to the German one.

Or 'knife' with French 'canif' (pronounced like it's spelled, for once).

I was today years old when I learned that.

Their game "The Fractured But Whole" is similar.

I reevaluated this in my 20s and 30s - and I still learned the true meaning only just now.

Could you ask your wife if there is also some deeper meaning to "My hovercraft is full of eels"?

Woah buddy this is a family site

I got the elderberries part because Elton John had done a song about elderberry wine. The hamster part, I learned just now.

Maybe I'm dumb, but why does hamster mean slut?

I'm trying to google it and look in slang dictionaries and I'm not finding a thing.

(Elderberry wine makes sense.)

Hamsters breed like rodents, because they are.

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?

Top marks for creativity though.

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?

In this day and age I think Life of Brian needs a re-launch more than the Holy Grail.

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."

https://www.comedy.co.uk/live/news/7343/life-of-brian-stage-...

https://variety.com/2023/theater/news/monty-python-john-clee...

(I don't use Twitter but the war between Cheese vs Idle/Palin is there)

"Eric Idle denies collaborating with John Cleese on Life Of Brian stage show: ‘I have nothing to do with this’"

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dan...

> And, spoiler alert, Brian does not get crucified. But rest assured he will still sing Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life."

Seems like they keep it for the most part. What would this production be without Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life ???!!!

A relaunch is dare possible only because it's about that one in the Big Religions (tm), not the other one.

You just know that every theater audience will be shouting all the lines along with the movie. That alone will make it worth going.

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.

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.

If it soured the experience, the beer wasn't that good.

Visit Belgium more.

But will the theater operators make publicity from encouraging cameras and singing/dancing like they did for that other title going around the theaters?

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.

"You're obviously not a golfer" is my favourite ever movie line

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

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).

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?

You don't need to get it. They're memeing

It is a cult following. They even turned it into a musical in 2005.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spamalot

Lots of Americans love it too, but it’s definitely not for everyone. That’s fine, humor is subjective!

(For my part, I’ve seen every Python movie and TV episode.)

And now for something completely different (they filmed episodes in German)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHs45_EQvO0#python-de

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.

Do you still feel that way? I would honestly be surprised if anyone catches all of the things on a single viewing.

Hard to say. I haven't watched the movie in a decade or more.

I find it interesting that my (at the time) low class, uneducated American family thought it was hilarious.

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.

A lot of it is just silly, but when it’s on it’s on. The “political peasants” scene is a perfect jewel.

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".

Maybe another factor is being the right age when you first see it.

I really liked it in my early 20's, but I've found that my taste for silly / absurdist comedy has diminished over the years.

The film quality looks to be somewhat improved, the copy I have is very grainy looking. I wonder what processing has been done.

AI upscaling.

I hope they include some of the deleted scene with the ladies.

Do you have evidence that AI was used or are you just guessing?

Just guess. And really just facetiously as I doubt Monty Python would use AI to process their film.

It's just DNRed version.

DNR?

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.

To find times near you: https://holygrailincinemas.com/

Looks like it's 2 days, Sunday Dec 3rd and Wednesday Dec 6th

Voi ei. Amerikkassa vaan.

Unfortunately, it seems to be US only.

The quintessential (and hilarious) postmodern film. Can't wait to take my daughter! She has never seen it before.

AND THERE WAS MUCH REJOICING!

(yay)

Well that's one way to get (a very specific type of) people back in the movie theaters!

So it's not dead yet?

I saturated out on Monty Python years ago (after a 24-hour Monty Python marathon) but this movie is still a gem.

The scene with Denis the Constitutional Peasant (https://notallwhowanderarelost268.wordpress.com/2018/04/08/m...) is absolute genius parody of socialism and republicanism (hope that's the right term).

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

You get extra points if you come in costume.

Shouting out all the lines is optional.

Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government!

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."

https://www.gratefulweb.com/articles/48-12-year-anniversary-...

What a good idea oh Lord!

'Course it's a good idea!

(One of my favorite bits.)

Not camelot, it’s a silly place

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=10155385528966778

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.

The whole clip is a joke. Here's another one like that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3m5qxZm_JqM

King Arthur came a lot, didn’t he?

It's only a model.

this is amazing. its going to be a good holiday season

And after the spanking, the oral sex.

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?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Python_(programming_language)#...

And the use of spam for unsolicited messages comes from their spam sketch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycKNt0MhTkk

And also the "egg" distribution format from "spam and eggs".

I wish Nim or maybe Mojo would have been named Monty instead.

"We are the knights who say Nim" nearly works

Would that make Nim package repositories be called "shrubberies"?

>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.

Except for speakers, only 1 or 2 attendees at todays PyCon MEA raised their hand when asked if they knew Python was named after Monty Python.

Is that representative of Monty Python's lower profile among young people or among the middle east however?

I'd note that python is a genus, not a species.

Ironically Python culture lacks a sense of humor.

I think it's just traditional, understated British humour.

C.f. Python's type system.

Did you mean German humor?

Meta could also use reminding: https://lerner.co.il/2023/10/19/im-banned-for-life-from-adve...

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).

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