Research Paper On Monty Python And The Holy Grail

Monty Python

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is considered to be a cult classic. Piercing its way into the mainstream through several memorable lines. It satires the medieval times by making fun of knights, witches, and the 100 year war. The movie is not always accurate with the historical events that it depicts. Does the holy grail correctly depict what living in the black plague would be like or how someone would be found to be a witch a witch, and how does it use exaggeration and parody to achieve its humor.

Witch hunts were rampant in Europe in the 1500’s, and people would use many methods to prove that someone was a witch. If someone had witch like features like: a squeaky voice, long nose, squinty eyes, a very wrinkly face, or a mole they were suspect of being a witch. Monty Python shows this with the “Witch Scene” an angry mob brings a

lady that the mob dressed as a witch. The knights convinces the villagers that witches are made from wood, and wood floats. Sense wood floats and so does a duck the witch must weigh the same as a duck. This is all satire using exaggeration making fun of how ridiculous the logic is, but this is actually rooted in truth. Instead of a duck they used bibles as a counter weight, “The suspect was weighed against a heavy Bible or a stack of them. If she weighed less she was guilty. Some got off only if the scales matched exactly”(Bletchly). Innocent people could be killed from test rooted in superstition, and many were killed, “From the 15th to 18th century more than 200,000 – usually innocent victims of mass paranoia – were tortured, burned or hanged all over Europe”(Bletchly). The other accuracy of the scene is the mob wanting to burn the witch. This was a common practice if someone was found to be a witch. In modern times these practices seem barbaric, but in medieval Europe it was something that did happen.
The Bubonic Plague is satirised in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but in medieval Europe it would be no laughing matter.

It devastated Europe, “Over five years, the mysterious Black Death would kill more than 20 million people in Europe–almost one-third of the continent’s population” (History.com). Monty Python makes fun of the tragedy because of how now in society it is unimaginable bringing your dead to a cart on the street when someone dies. A man brings an old man to the cart saying that he is dead when he is clearly alive. The man hits the old man on the head and put him on the cart.This was an actual job people did actually come with carts to collect the dead, “Each night brave souls would walk the streets with a cart, collecting the bodies of the dead. Many people, once they had passed, were thrown into open communal pits, the bodies burnt in mass graves”(History.com). This was a very dangerous job, but necessary to help stop the spread of the disease. They added the old man to break the verisimilitude and add parody to the skit.. The black plague may have haunted medieval Europe, but can now be laughed

at.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail has stood the test of time. Even in pop culture the movie is often quoted. The movie took place in medieval Europe, so what is being made fun of does not become outdated. The humor is not only rooted in things that are relevant to the 70’s. Most of the humor is found in how ridiculous the situations are or how exaggerated things are. From a witch to being burned from false logic, a knight refusing to stop fighting no matter injury, or a brave knight retreating at the thought of battle the humor does not age. It is a timeless movie that will be watched and loved for many generations.
Monty Python and the Holy grail uses exaggeration and parody to make fun of witch trials and the black plague. Monty Python uses satire to make fun of the witch trials, by using parody. They use exaggeration when making fun of the black plague. The movie uses classic satire to make fun of once very serious issues in Medieval Europe. Monty Python and the Holy Grail will be a funny movie through many generation because of its use of satire.