MovieChat Forums > Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Discussion > People actually find this movie funny?

People actually find this movie funny?

posted 16 years ago by jitterbug_cowboy
64 replies | jump to latest

I just saw this last night and I honestly can't understand what people find funny about this film. I actually lasted one hour because I couldn't stand wasting another half hour watching this humourless film.

What's so funny about those French guys catapulting animals?
Or the knight who is dismembered?
Or the thing about the people being sacked for doing those subtitles in the beginning???? What was that all about??? I was in a good mood and it actually made me sad.

And yes, I got all the jokes, there was nothing to actually 'get'.

The day before yesterday I had just watched a movie that was released in the same year as Monthy Python. It's called Love and Death. It's a Woody Allen film. Now that's a funny film. That's laugh out loud funny for one and a half hours, and it's actually ALMOST a masterpiece.

Now these are what I call great comedies: Any Woody Allen film (Annie Hall, Hannah and her Sisters, Sleeper, Love and Death, Manhattan), Charlie Chaplin films, Dr. Stangelove, Some Like it Hot etc...

Monthy Python is such an unfunny movie and it's not because I hate British comedy because I love watching British comedies on BBC Prime like My family or As Time goes By (starring Judy Dench) or Only Fools and Horses. I find those to be actually funny.

I was quite disappointed with this film because I actually like other Gilliam films like Jabberwocky (which is a bit similar in style to Monthy Python), Brazil, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Twelve Monkeys etc.

I would love to hear your feedback about what you find funny in this film.
I didn't offend anyone so please don't be immature.

Thanks and Cheers

ENOUGH from the clown!!!!!!!!

[–] BuckRogersTwentyFifth 15 years ago

Frankly, I don't see why Woody Allens movies are so popular. To each thier own.

I don't have an opinion. The word "opinion" implies the possibility I'm wrong.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] cjpj93 15 years ago

Read "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" and you'll get some of the humor: The flashing of green red and gold in the beginning, the green knight and the black knight fighting, and things like that. It's a satire of Knightly Chivalry and Medieval life.

[–] Movie_map 15 years ago

I honestly don't understand how you can find Love and Death funny but not HG. The humor is similar, all be it with a bit more slap stick in HG. But if you don't find it funny it's pointless for anyone to try and convince you to laugh. Personally, I thought the catapulted cow and the black knight were hysterical.

[–] dbb79 15 years ago

All I can say is: you are not alone. A lot of people hate this film, especially because it's so overrated.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jaddjamar 15 years ago

Why do you care why other people find it funny? Are trying to find out what's wrong with yourself? The message boards are a poor substitute for therapy.

Different people have different tastes.

Plotholes are like Bigfoot, people who claim to see them are just trying to stir things up.

[–] noorallygo 15 years ago

Dumb people like dumb movies like these!

[–] debiler 15 years ago

Dumb people like dumb movies like these!

Heeere we go again...

Why is it that some people will not understand that there is nothing bad about liking or not liking Monty Python? Some people get it, some don't. I myself find it absolutely hilarious. My girlfriend doesn't. But that doesn't mean I have to constantly bitchslap her about it. Neither does she feel differently about me, because I laugh my ass off at scenes where she can't even smirk. I will never have fun watching the godfather, because it bores me to tears. But I do accept that I'm in the clear minority here and that there must be something about this movie that I just don't 'get'.

I blow my nose at you...

___________________________________
I didn't like the Godfather, so what?

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] JPfanatic93 15 years ago

There are actually people who don't find this movie funny?!

[–] debiler 15 years ago

Of course. They are made of wood and float in water, like very small rocks. You can tell because they weigh less than a duck.

___________________________________
I didn't like the Godfather, so what?

[–] shawshank999 13 years ago

LOL!

[–] bhhanson 14 years ago

Actually, it has been my experience that those I know personally that dislike HG tend to somewhat thick, and prefer less cerebral humor such as most present day sitcoms.
As falls Wichita, so falls Wichita Falls

[–] simplex992000 15 years ago

"Or the thing about the people being sacked for doing those subtitles in the beginning???? What was that all about??? I was in a good mood and it actually made me sad. "

WTF?!?

No really.. WTF?!?!?

NO one really got sack... there weren't anyone... it was a jo... oh my god I dont even know where to begin.

Ok seriously, you sound like one of those people who's brains process everything completley literally and seriously. If someone tells you that an egg laid a chicken, you probably try to imagine it. Those "one hand clapping" statements the Zen masters make probably drive you up the wall. There's really nothing that can be done about it, nor can we explain WHY the show is funny. (Margo Leadbetter in 'The Good Life' "Please, please, somebody tell me why its funny!")

Basically, do a search for all comedies and shows like Holy Grail and avoid them. Don't even THINK of watching _Time Bandits_ if you think Grail was bad, your brain WILL melt.

[–] dbkenny 15 years ago

Don't even THINK of watching _Time Bandits_ if you think Grail was bad, your brain WILL melt.

Ha! Time Bandits was one of my favorite movies as a kid, and I recently rented it and made ny wife watch it. I found it as hilarious and entertaining as ever, and she absolutely hated it. She loves "Holy Grail," though, so I guess I can let that one slide.

Tom Waits-Day After Tomorrow
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jM6SQvQKl0Q

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

"Those "one hand clapping" statements the Zen masters.."

They're Koans, not 'statements'.

They are almost literal descriptions of the state of being enlightened, or 'Zen'.

Western, unenlightened mind, that has not experienced Zen even as a Satori, of course tries to explain it with the shining intelligence and learned brain processes, as in 'they're designed to empty your mind by creating a paradox you can't solve' or something.

But I once experienced Zen for a couple of days, then never again since. It was enough to make me realize just how 'literal' or 'direct' those Koans are, instead of trying to understand some kind of weird 'symbolism' or 'layers' about them.

My 'Satori' or 'Zen-experience', whatever one wants to call it, happened by accident, so I don't know how to experience it again - and I thus also have no advice as to how to experience it.

It was like 'direct experience of life' instead of the normal state, where I am just processing thoughts back and forth and observing with or without emotion. It was like something opened up, I was able to 'touch everything' with my very being, and understand life through experiencing it instead of thinking about it.

It's of course impossible to explain, but while and after experiencing it, I understood the Zen koans instead of trying to 'achieve understanding of them' or making theories, as was the case before.

So regardless of what kind of humor someone likes, or how literally someone takes things, those Zen koans can be best understood as 'almost literal, direct descriptions of the Zen state'. Unfortunately the intellect has nothing to do with this understanding, as it's more a 'spiritual feel that you experience more profoundly than anything else'.

Perhaps people that use mushrooms to invoke psychedelic hallucinations can understand the experience to a degree - it's just so direct and pure and feels more normal than anything else, it's like the 'perfect, normal state of being'.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

The situation before the experience, was like someone reading about water, but never having experienced it - he can sort of understand 'swimming', know all the movements, etc., but he can't hear the splashes or feel the water around the body, until he's suddenly dropped into water and learns to actually swim.

Then he realizes that he had a completely different picture of swimming earlier, and yet he thought he understood it pretty well with his intellect.

This is probably the closest metaphor I can conjure about it at the moment.. so talking about Zen koans without the Zen-experience (which might be called 'Satori' - but actual 'enlightenment' would be better), even with good intentions, is going to be misleading.

It's like how one Zen koan mentions that talking about Buddhism without Enlightenment is killing Buddhism.