An Analysis of the Satire Monty Python and the Holy Grail Essay

Monty Python and the Holy GrailMonty Python and the Holy Grail is a hilarious satire of the Crusades. The moviepokes fun at everything from the woman of the age to monsters to the Knights of theRound Table. It is a perfect example of satire, because it makes use of almost everysatirical weapon, although humor is the most commonly used one. I will prove FX Feeny,a professional movie reviewer wrong when he said, In theory, Hail Grail is a spoof of thelegend of King Arthur, but John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Michael Palin, and Co. use thepremise mainly as a springboard for their idiosyncratic (and oft-repeated) skits(httpwww.mrshowbiz.comreviewsmoviereviewsmovies504534.html).The movie starts gets going right from the get go with the satirical aspects. KingArthur is seen through a heavy fog riding a horse towards a castle, or so it seems. Whenhe gets closer you realize that he is actually just hopping up and down, while his fellowtraveler bangs to coconuts together. When he arrives at the castle he asks the guards atthe castle to ask the master of the castle if he would be willing to join the Knights of theRound Table. The guards then ask King Arthur where he got the coconuts he is bangingtogether from, because they only grow in the tropics. This conversation ends up leadingnowhere as the two guards argue over whether or not a swallow could carry a coconutacross the ocean to Europe. A perfect example of the use of exaggeration.In the following scene, cold realistic detail is used (this is one of the few times youwill the word realistic used to describe any Monty Python movie). A man is seen walkingdown the street dragging a cart full of corpses, yelling Bring out your dead and ringing abell. There a dying people lying everywhere and, with the exception of the man yellingBring out your dead, this is actually an accurate depiction of Europe during the time ofthe bubonic plague.In the very same scene there is...

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