Best british comedy ever to be created and at a time when we brits REALLY needed something funny.
I did not realise untill recently that they are responsible for the term SPAM. if they can influence an entire generation (that they do not belong to) without trying they deserve the most high respect. :-)
The following is probably the funniest skit I've ever seen. If you haven't seen The Holy Grail yet, I suggest you stop reading this thread and go rent it.
ARTHUR: Old woman!
DENNIS: Man!
ARTHUR: Man. Sorry. What knight lives in that castle over there?
DENNIS: I'm thirty-seven.
ARTHUR: I-- what?
DENNIS: I'm thirty-seven. I'm not old.
ARTHUR: Well, I can't just call you 'Man'.
DENNIS: Well, you could say 'Dennis'.
ARTHUR: Well, I didn't know you were called 'Dennis'.
DENNIS: Well, you didn't bother to find out, did you?
ARTHUR: I did say 'sorry' about the 'old woman', but from the behind you looked--
DENNIS: What I object to is that you automatically treat me like an inferior!
ARTHUR: Well, I am King!
DENNIS: Oh, King, eh, very nice. And how d'you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers! By 'anging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society. If there's ever going to be any progress with the--
WOMAN: Dennis, there's some lovely filth down here. Oh! How d'you do?
ARTHUR: How do you do, good lady? I am Arthur, King of the Britons. Who's castle is that?
WOMAN: King of the who?
ARTHUR: The Britons.
WOMAN: Who are the Britons?
ARTHUR: Well, we all are. We are all Britons, and I am your king.
WOMAN: I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous collective.
DENNIS: You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship: a self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes--
WOMAN: Oh, there you go bringing class into it again.
DENNIS: That's what it's all about. If only people would hear of--
ARTHUR: Please! Please, good people. I am in haste. Who lives in that castle?
WOMAN: No one lives there.
ARTHUR: Then who is your lord?
WOMAN: We don't have a lord.
ARTHUR: What?
DENNIS: I told you. We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week,...
ARTHUR: Yes.
DENNIS: ...but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting...
ARTHUR: Yes, I see.
DENNIS: ...by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs,...
ARTHUR: Be quiet!
DENNIS: ...but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more major--
ARTHUR: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!
WOMAN: Order, eh? Who does he think he is? Heh.
ARTHUR: I am your king!
WOMAN: Well, I didn't vote for you.
ARTHUR: You don't vote for kings.
WOMAN: Well, how did you become King, then?
ARTHUR: The Lady of the Lake,...
[angels sing]
...her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur.
[singing stops]
That is why I am your king!
DENNIS: Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
ARTHUR: Be quiet!
DENNIS: Well, but you can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
ARTHUR: Shut up!
DENNIS: I mean, if I went 'round saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!
ARTHUR: Shut up, will you? Shut up!
DENNIS: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system.
ARTHUR: Shut up!
DENNIS: Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
ARTHUR: Bloody peasant!
DENNIS: Oh, what a give-away. Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That's what I'm on about. Did you see him repressing me? You saw it, didn't you?
The Accountants Shanty from Meaning Of Life gets me cracking....
"(Up, up, up your premium,
Up, up, up your premiun)
(Scribble away, and balance the books)
(Scribble away, but balance the books)
It's fun to charter an accoutant,
And sail, the wide accountancy.
To find, explore, the funds offshore,
And sail the skoals of bankruptcy!
IT can be manly, in insurance.
We'll update your premium, semi-annually.
It's all tax-deductable,
We're fairly incorruptable,
Sailing on the wide accountancy!"
Then they fall off the cliff. That is cool!
Also, the Pen!s Song is OK...bit disturbing.
"Good evening, Ladies and Gentlemen, heres a number I tossed off recently in the Carribean", that line just describes the song.
I think that Eric Idle is at his most wittiest in Life of Brian, and Meaning of Life.
Also, the Holy Grail has it's fair share of songs, too. Camelot and Knights of the Round Table are the best.
Remember, it's only a model.
Originally posted by MCAIndeed. In Holland several words in the dictionary like 'regelneef' have been invented by the comical duo 'Van Kooten en De Bie'. Most people don't know this, but they were quite influential in that respect in the same period as Monty Python. I wonder if that has happened in more countries than Holland and England alone. Anyone more examples?
I did not realise untill recently that they are responsible for the term SPAM. if they can influence an entire generation (that they do not belong to) without trying they deserve the most high respect. :-)