First Time Watching | Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) | Reaction 

NI!

I was in a grocery store a few weeks ago and saw a craft beer with the title "Migrating Coconuts". I laughed so much a woman passing by asked if I was okay.

“One day son alllll this will be yours” “What? The curtains?” It didn’t make the cut in this video but is such a funny line 😂

I saw this film at the cinema for my 16th birthday. I laughed so much I had to go outside for a bit before I could go back in. I was also a teensy bit drunk. Yes, at 16. This was England in the 70s and no one gave a rat’s arse about under age drinking. What a time to be alive! 😂

“She turned me into a newt… I got better” Best line ever 😂😂😂

At Doune Castle in Scotland where some of it was filmed, you can borrow coconut halves to bang together and run around pretending to be on horseback 🤣🤣🤣

When they made the movie they couldn't come up with a good ending so instead they decided to end it with a literal Copout and its just pure genius. 😂😂

Well, The Holy Grail was filmed in Scotland on a budget of £160,000 and they got soaked silly in the rain. Michael Palin's mum knitted the chain-mail, which is silver wool. I got married in 2001 in the "Castle Aaarg", which is really called castle Stalker, which is owned by a friend of mine.

My favorite line: “This is supposed to be a happy occasion. Let’s not argue and bicker over who killed who!” Dark humor at its best!

I went to see spamalot at the theater. It's a parody of this film and everyone in the audience were python fans. As they did a set change I could see the dark silhouette of a castle battlements so I knew what was coming. Sure enough, the French taunting began and my girlfriend was laughing so much she had to run to the loo. I laughed so much that by the end of it I felt like I'd spent 30 minutes having mike Tyson punch me in the guts. I was exhausted. We got on the tube to go home and the train was full of people from the theater, and the banter was hilarious. Someone even had coconut shells and was galloping up and down the carriage. The sound of people saying "NI" was filling the air. Classic. ✌️♥️🇬🇧

Tim the enchanter takes the show for me. I love when he gets exasperated trying to explain how dangerous the rabbit is and he just waves his hand across the landscape saying "look at the bonessssssss".

The litteral "cop out" at the end was genius in budgetry restrictions.

I know you said twice that they must have had so much fun, but when JOhn Cleese was interviewed about it years later, he admitted that they hated every minute of filming. One main reason was, sadly, that Graham Chapman (King Arthur) was having a horrible losing time fighting his alcoholism (you might see it in his face), and was forgetting his lines a lot. Another main feature was the weather. It was filmed here in Scotland, and as any tourist here knows, and we freely admit, in Scotland we have only 2 seasons in the year. The 15th of July and Winter. It was pretty much cold and wet the entire time of filming. Another point was the trouble they had with the Scottish Tourist Board, who stupidly said they could only film one castle which was Doune Castle. It was annoying because there were some great places to shoot very close to Doune Castle, especially Stirling Castle and the equally beautiful Wallace Monument. They had to shoot several scenes from different angles to try and make it look like different castles. Another detail (although probably a bit dull) , is that Chapman was the only one to wear actual chainmail over his head. Due to budget shortages, all the other Knight's chainmail were in fact knitted metallic wool.

I wrote to Terry Gilliam when I was a teenager and Python was on the telly. He replied with some doodles and funny drawings. I have still got them.

"None shall pass" is even funnier when you realise the black knight is guarding a few planks of wood over a very small stream, which Arthur could have stepped over at any point. 10:25 - The final line in the Camelot song - "I have to push the pram a lot" - is one you may be singing yourself in about 8 months or so!

So our rugby club used to have a themed tour each year, and so of course one year we did a Holy Grail tour. So on our last night, having played all our games, we all got thoroughly fucked up in the middle of some town in Holland, all wearing full knights outfits, and all equipped with coconuts to ride through the town. We ended up in some bar, and whilst we were there a song from the Blues Brothers came on, which had been our tour theme from the year before. It's still the single funniest sight I have ever seen, 30 very pissed and oddly-shaped British rugby players, in some bar in this little Dutch town, fully dressed in knights gear and clapping coconuts, rushing the stage to dance to Blues Brothers.

Two members of the Monty Python team that usually get unfairly overlooked are Carol Cleveland and Connie Booth who both appeared in the TV show and the movies

i've been quoting this movie at every opportunity for the past 30 years much to the annoyance of everyone around me😂

Intermission had a double meaning but the second meaning was to tricky people to thinking they could go for food/toilet break as many cinemas stopped the film to allow for an intermission but obviously it's a fake intermission so people get up and then realise the film is still running and have to sit back down, basically the film is trolling the audience.

I'll never forget the first time I watched this. The black knight scene had me crying my eyes out and my sides aching from so much laughter. It's in my top 3 funniest ever movie scenes. Absolute classic.

So great seeing a reactor who truly appreciates Monty Python's absurdist style of comedy. Hysterical laughter instead of eye-rolling.

I personally can't think as to why someone would get offended at you accusing Monty Python of being stupid, it IS stupid, it's so great because it is so stupid.

I've always had a personal preference for Holy Grail, simply because it feels more 'Pythony' to me and I think it plays to their strengths a bit more. I mean, they're both comedy classics either way.

I like to go around the shops pretending I’m on a horse. I’m 44.

The Life of Brain and The Holy Grail really haven't aged at all. The pair of them still belong in the top 10 funniest movies of all time.

This was probably the best reaction to this movie I've seen so far. None of the jokes went over your head. Well done. 👍👍

Arthur's 'horse' was played by Terry Gilliam, the American Python, who was responsible for all of their animation sequences from their very start! You might like to delve into some of the films he's directed, but many might be a bit arty and hard going for some of your audience. Brazil is one of the best films of all time, though, and is well deserving of a watch.

The guy who did the animations is Terry Gilliam aka Arthur's horse.... he has made some excellent films Time Bandits is worth checking out

Sir Robin's Minstrel was Neil Innes of the Bonzo Dog Band who appeared in the Beatles movie Hard Day's Night. He also founded the Rutles; (All you Need is Cash) a spoof alternative Beatles documentary well worth watching.

The next film 'The Meaning of Life" is not so much a film but a collection of long sketches that only hang together very loosely. Nevertheless it is still very well done and very funny.

another callback to the Swallow joke was when you first see SIr Bedevere, he is throwing up birds tied to coocnuts. Also you should have shown the funniest bit of Sir Launcelot attacking the castle which was the way the guard he didn't stab said "Hey!!! Cracks me up every time.

You can’t help but laugh at these classics😂 especially that rabbit scene, unbeaten till this day😂😂

I've seen this film a squillion times but I still enjoyed laughing along with it with you. Be happy, embrace your Python... 😀

This movie is "stupid" in all manners and it's brilliant. So much of the dialogue is still used in everyday English language. The reason for the coconuts or lack of horses was due to a tiny budget. They couldn't afford real horses 😂

Contemporaries to Monty Python was a trio named The Goodies (Tim Brooke-Taylor, Graeme Garden and Bill Oddie). In my humble opinion they were a hundred times funnier as they concentrated on visual gags. Lighthouse Keeping Loonies was my personal favourite, but The Beanstalk, Kitten Kong, Ecky Thump, and Bun Fight at the Okay Tea Rooms were good also. They ran for almost 12 years on British TV, and to date, they are the ONLY comedians who were officially asked to make their stuff less funny, after a person literally died laughing, after he had been laughing for 20 minutes straight. Sadly, this is a true tale of a real life person from Kings Lynn, England. They are truly superb. Best to void the bladder before watching, or you might wet yourself. If you don't watch The Goodies before you die, you will have missed out.

My favorite line is the Frenchman saying "I fffart in your general direction!". Kills me every time

It is an utterly ridiculous film. And that's exactly why we all love it.

Holy Grail and Life Of Brian are 2 of my fav 5 comedy films (Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and Airplane are the others) All worth checking out.

Honestly I can't pick between this and Life of Brian, both too hilarious in their own ways - this has more memorable stuff (almost every scene can be watched without context and you know what's happening immediately if you've seen it before) and is more quotable, but Life of Brian works more smoothly as a full film and is equally entertaining.

There was also a PC game of the movie that basically followed the movie. You had to walk around picking everything up from each scene, and once you got to the end of the game and started crossing the bridge, the bridge collapsed because all the stuff you carried weighed too much! You had to go back to the beginning and put everything back where it belonged before you could finish the game. 🤣🤣🤣

it's such a great execution, monthy python humor is something else and cemented a lot of modern comedy the spanish inquisition is another gem, you never expect it

My personal favourite of everything the Pythons have done. Great reaction.

Actually they were miserable on the set. It was cold and raining most of the time and the hotel they were staying at only had enough hot water for about half of the cast and crew to shower at the end of the day. Also neither Jones nor Gilliam had ever directed a film before so there was some bickering over how things were to be shot. Plus Graham Chapman was hitting rock bottom with his alcoholism when this was being shot.

Growing up with Monty python, I now realise how I came to develop the sense of humour I have! Just been in tears of laughter at the word "shrubbery". 😆

Terry Gilliam played Patsy the horse, as well as being the animator in charge of everything 🙂 It's always funny waiting for your reaction when the gag hits you in the face - it's great seeing you discover gems of British comedy - keep up the good work your Kingliness !! I'm amazed there are people discovering the pythons for the first time, but I suppose I grew up watching Monty Pythons Flying Circus on TV, then everyone would quote lines from in at school they next day Some other Terry Gilliam movies well worth watching are Brazil ( a dark 1984-like dystopian fantasy) and Time Bandits - these are two of my favourites. He also directed lots of more mainstream movies - Twelve Monkeys is one his best serious films in my opinion

John Cleese's scenes on the top of the castle were actually just a small block wall filmed to look like the castle battlements because John was afraid of heights.

As a french I'm freaking love how the French soldier says "Guy de Loimbard" ! 🤣

Terry Gilliam was solely responsible for the animation, (he suffers the heart attack!). He plays the bridge guardian/quizmaster toward the end, and the jailer in Life of Brian. I think the anti-singing landowner was a gag on a very successful stage play at the time called Camelot. They only used one real castle in the film for each of the different castles, just filmed from different angles. I prefer LoB as it was more polished and felt like it was scripted better, but his was a lot fun.

The film was partly financed by Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. Filming was very difficult, so not much fun was had...contrary to appearances. I think the only one who was "loaded" was Graeme Chapman, who was in the throes of severe alcoholism at the time. This and Life of Brian are sheer genius masterpieces...the likes of which will never be made again. Glad you got the humour.

I still say "And there was much rejoicing: yaaaaay" At least once a day because of this movie😂

Thank you for posting this. I thought Life Of Brian was a better put together film but Holy Grail kept the daftness that was the hallmark of the original TV series.

What was awesome for me about this film was that it also came about at the same time as my discovery of the devil's lettuce.

Saw this during its first week of general release in the UK in '75. We were all given coconut halves at the Cinema, It was pandemonium as people couldn't control themselves during the showing! We had to go back the following week to be able to hear the soundtrack?

"Your arm's off" / "No it isn't" : they must have been going to the Argument Clinic

They used coconuts because they didn't have the budget for horses!

I've seen a few Americans reactions to The Pythons, and they all seem to like them. But you laughed in the places not all of them did! Good onya. Some don't even get the whole horse/coconuts thing. So yours was great reaction ! Enjoyed sharing it with you (Did you know that the Pythons began when they were students at Cambridge? That's why they can pool their specialist knowledge of history and take the piss out of it so hilariously!) And yeah, I know we pronounce things differently - but they are British (and Commonwealth), so they're Monty "PYE-th'n" not "pye-THON".😊😊

Jabberwocky has my favorite fight scene..... Jabberwocky is a 1977 British fantasy comedy film co-written and directed by Terry Gilliam. Jabberwocky stars Michael Palin as Dennis, a cooper's apprentice, who is forced through clumsy, often slapstick misfortunes to hunt a terrible dragon after the death of his father. The film's title is taken from the nonsense poem "Jabberwocky" from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass.

Lancelot whacking the flower on the wall doesn't get old.

Ah yes, The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, which went on to become my favorite video game easter egg when it appeared in Worms in 1997...

Your doggy behind you is being so cute x

You should have watched the intermission bit. They actually hated filming this mainly because of the Scottish weather but also because they struggled to find a direction because Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam jointly directed the film. That caused a lot of tension between the cast and led to the decision to only have Terry Jones as the director of Life of Brian. The name of the other movie is Monty Python's Meaning of Life. Personally I think that it's a better movie than The Holy Grail, with a journey that takes you from birth to beyond the grave. There is also a little sub plot of the support movie, you'll understand when you watch it lol 😂😂

The meaning of life is the other movie. Loved ur reactions KB, I genuinely laughed out loud. It's somehow funnier watching you enjoying the outright madness of the Pythons. Superb mate 👍😂

I still lose it during the exchange with the two guards; "you stay here, and make sure he doesn't leave!"

20:25 You're the first reactor I've seen to get the punchline for this scene. 👏

A newt is a little lizard like a gecko

I love that on repeated watches you can pick out little details. Like after the discussion of coconuts and swallows, later they are walking through a town and in the background someone is tying coconuts to swallow and throwing them in the air

Watch Monty Pythons Flying Circus.. The animator is the US genius Terry Gilliam.. He was the wackiest of all of the Pythons, a real comedy legend

Yes finally. My favourite Monty Python film

I wouldn't worry too much about the '"stupid' comment. I think most of us understood.

The end of the movie is a literal ... Cop out. Which is a joke that flew over my head for a long time.

“It’s a fair cop” British slang for “you got me” The “witch” was admitting she was actually a witch.

It's the meaning of life for me. My father made the mistake of thinking I wasn't listening to what he was watching when I was 6. Then at Xmas my nan encouraged us kids to get up at the family party and sing. You can probably guess what happened next. I only remembered a few lines with every sperm is sacred being one of them.

If you remember the computer game Worms, the ultimate weapon was the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioque, directly taken from this film (sound and everything).

In the original draft of the script, Arthur finds the grail at Harrod's Department Store, because, of course, you can find anything at Harrod's. But they decided to go with a literal cop-out. I think this movie has more quotable lines, but Life of Brian holds together better as a film. Both films are a series of sketches on a theme, but they did a better job at stitching the scenes together into a whole film for Brian.

Certainly a classic film! The joke regarding the coconut shells being used to simulate the sound of a horse, as they gallop around pretending to ride a horse, all came about as the film budget didn’t allow for the cost of real horses! The American actress who played the witch, also was Polly in the series Fawlty Towers. She was John Cleese’s wife at the time.

"I'm averting my eyes, o Lord!" WELL STOP IT

The movie ending is a liberal "Cop Out" because they didn't have the budget for a big fight scene, that was also the original reason for the coconuts, they couldn't afford horses or the lessons needed to learn to ride them. Also the historian was killed by a man on horseback, a real horse, which none of the Grail Knights had, they were framed! (I think it was the French that did it!)

Oddly enough, the scene that Dingo was afraid that they'd have to cut was actually cut in the American release. We Americans didn't see it until the movie was released on home video. Also, the reason for the intermission in the middle of the crossing of the bridge of death was because Chapman froze while crossing it.

Father Jack is turning the pages.

Watching people react to this, I'm always amazed how so many people dont know what a newt is. A type of salamander. I believe the main distinction is that they are better suited at living in water. Webbed feet, paddle tails and things like that. Just one of those situations where you learn something early on and grow up expecting everyone else to know it too.

Fact: the holy hand grenade was featured as a throwable grenade in the Artillery video game series called Worms !

If you thought this was off the wall wait until you watch monty python and the meaning of life 😂. Also if you haven't already you absolute must watch faulty towers it's is probably the funniest thing john Cleese has done

"Camelot? Very nice castle, Camelot... Very good pig country..." It's throwaway comedy gold lines like this that you scarcely notice until you watch Holy Grail a few times.

I love that I keep watching what the dog is doing in the background on the bed 😂

One of my favourite movies brought to my by one of my favourite reactors! Made my Friday morning. Cheers KB!

This film had a ridiculously tiny budget.that's why they used Coconuts. It got funded by lez zeppelin and pink Floyd

there's several castle scenes, all at different castles. except there weren't several castles available, just the one, Castle Doune. so they reused different parts of it to play the parts of several castles. the outside facing part of one wall would be the French castle, the interior courtyard would host the wedding & so on.

The witch scene was golden "she turned me into a newt..... I got better." A newt is a small four legged salamander. The witch played by Connie Booth, was married to John Cleese and stared with Clease in the short run but cult TV sitcom "Faulty Towers."

Too many great moments in this. Love when they save him from the beautiful women and when they start applauding when Tim blows up the tree. I prefer this to Life of Brian but both movies were huge parts of my childhood.

I think I prefer Life of Brian -- but this one is MUCH more memorable / quotable. The only quote I can remember from Life of Brian is "He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy", but I can recall scores from this one!

The ending to this is literally a "cop out"

During the 80s, 90s, and 00s, some D&D groups operated a Python Jar (like a Swear Jar) for people quoting this movie anytime someone had 'a flesh wound', or any conversation over a castle wall, or any mention of a minstrel, or a witch, or an enchanter, or...

Thing I love about this film is that it's actually well-versed in the lore of Arthur. The grail is a Christian stealing of an older Celtic concept, usually a cauldron or well 'from which none leaves unsatisfied', and it represents the 'female principle' of birth and re-birth (look up Disney's 'The Black Cauldron' and you'll see anther false representation, as the cauldron was supposed to heal the sick hungry and injured, not raise an undead army). The Christian version ignores woman entirely, except as an evil witch and a good wife (Gwyn Hwyfar = Guinevere's name is literally that), and re-purposes the grail as the cup of Christ, which legitimises the King's rule. So yes, the castle of the grail containing the 'ho**iest women in all the realm' makes perfect sense. Also, the whole hijacking of the Arthur tradition by the French writer Chretien de Troyes, and the way it all stops when it confronts the dead historians taking all the wonder out of it all. It's worth watching the film 'Excalibur' from the 1980s, as it does almost exactly the same story as MPATHG, beginning with the knights riding out of the mist and darkness, confronting the Christian changes, the French and even the Wagner operas of the German tradition.

Both movies are extremely funny, but to me Life of Brian is actually getting across a message on life (about not following religions on blind faith alone and thinking for yourself) whereas the Holy Grail is much more of comedy for the sake of comedy.

The Black Knight, Killer Bunny, and Knights who say "Ni!" are amongst my favourite Monty Python moments

I love me some Python-quoting with friends. In college my friend Andrew was showing me his new car, a white Volkswagon. As we were coming up on it, he pointed at it, said "There it is!" Without missing a beat, I said, with a slight English accent: "What? Behind the Rabbit?" Andrew took my toss perfectly and slam-dunked with: "It IS the Rabbit!"

I remember people in the Cinema getting up when the intermission came on. Only to have to sit down again a few moments later.

The end of the film is a total ‘Cop Out!’ 😅

I own the special edition dvd and on the box it says you can play along when the monks are singing by holding the dvd case firmly and hitting your head with it at the appropriate times.

I remember watching this when it was UNBANNED and it was being aired on Channel 4 in the UK, when I was about 16 back in the early 90's... and I watched this in my room, on my 12inch colour TV... and the rabbit... it was the funniest thing I had ever seen ever... I was almost on the floor laughing, I could hardly breath, as it was the 1st time I had really seen something that smacked my sense of dark humour so well XD So it will always hold a place in my heart over Life of Brian... which took a little longer to get unbanned on TV (I don't even think you could get it on VHS back then? it was telly or nothing.)