Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
'Nough said. Monty Python mixes contemporary humor with medieval aesthetic to create a satire of the times. See also the interjection of present-like scenes, especially when the British cops get involved trying to find out who slew the narrator guy. What's interesting is they're not just making fun of it, they're do so intelligently. All the members of the cast have some sort of history degree.
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I think part of the humor that comes out of the anachronistic placement of scenes and people within the plot comes from the fact that they are not chosen at random. They actually correlate to the scenes in a descending manner. That is to say, when the Bobbies show up to investigate, they are there to contrast the knights, whose job they would eventually replace as history transcends into the present. They seem funny to us then— comic and awkward because their actions and reactions in those particular settings have yet to be created. Their signs and signifiers are out of context and suddenly the idea of law enforcement becomes ridiculous. Not current law enforcement applied to the middle ages, but law enforcement in general… We laugh at the billy-club and the word officer within the medieval setting where we would not laugh at them on the present streets of London. That, I think is the beauty of this kind of satire.
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