MovieChat Forums > Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Discussion > Audiences don't get it.. (so much 'woosh...

Audiences don't get it.. (so much 'woosh')


There are jokes that I have never seen any youtubers (for example) react to.

To name a couple of examples from this movie:

- Concorde. No one reacts to how absurd this name is for a servant, as no one seems to either be old enough to remember the groundbreaking Concorde aircraft (it's sad they haven't tried something that beautiful and fast again since). It was a big deal in the seventies, but in the modern times, this word just seems to woosh above audiences' heads.

And how ironic is THAT?

- The Trojan rabbit (or should it be really called 'the greek rabbit', as there were no Trojans in the Trojan horse anyway, as far as I know). Our brave knnnighets push the rabbit to the door of the castle, and then sneak away - BUT before they have even reached the edge of the screen, they ALREADY rise up near the camera.

This is a hilarious joke, and it seems to have wooshed above audiences' heads - how come no one ever laughs at this or reacts to it (or even realizes it is a joke)? People react to this as if it's just business as usual, a normal thing.

HOW THE HECK can 'teleporting knighets' be a normal thing in 932 AD??

To mention similar things in other movies:

- Monty Python and the Meaning of Life - 'Find the Fish'-segment.

How come audiences don't understand what 'red herring' means? It is a fish. And this whole 'Find the Fish' is a 'red herring', it's not supposed to be anything more. I mean, it's so meta, it almost destroys itself, and the only thing people see is 'a weird segment' and 'there is no fish' - but really, the fish is right there, it's A RED HERRING.

Herring is a fish. What's so difficult about this, I don't get it..

- The Cube - what is the whole thing 'metaphor of'?

I am talking about the original 'NBC Experiments in TELEVISION' (emphasis mine) from 1969. Jim Henson was a quirky, weird genius that brought us coherent entertainment and great humor, but he was also an intelligent man. He knew how to twist things around, how to make puns, and how to create things that are so simple and direct, people can't see the forest from the trees.

People have tried to explain 'The Cube' by all kinds of weird philosophy and intellectual onania by talking about 'a man's struggle in modern civilization' and all kinds of egomania like that. Rubbish.

The whole thing is about television. Surprised? Even after my emphasis above? Look, when you watch it thinking 'the answer is TELEVISION', and keep this in mind the whole duration, you'll find that it explains EVERYTHING.

First of all, the word 'television' is mentioned countless times, more than you probably remember.

Secondly, there are all kinds of hints about 'end credits' and 'projection' (which is what television is). Heck, when he breaks the wall, where else but in TV does the repairman have the -exact- shape to fix the wall with - and you even see the CATHODE RAYS through the hole!

Where else but in TV are there all kinds of over-the-top, dramatic events - - think about it, they are showing ALL kinds of 'Television only'-genres, from detective drama, romance, hospital drama and silly TV movie plots to the superficial, fake spiritualism that only TV can offer (well, nowadays many sources offer it, but still).

When you look at everything from this angle, it all becomes clear - only on TV you can see weird and wacky variety shows, only on TV is everything 100% predictable and scripted - even everything our 'protagonist' does.

Only on TV is blood strawberry jam (at least back in the day), and so on.

Of course there's SOME measure of surrealistic oddity to it, like what is the room exactly, what is our protagonist exactly, and so on. I like to explain these things as 'this is what happens on TV when the viewer is not looking', so the characters each have their own 'storage room' where they can then practice all kinds of roles and events so they're ready to perform when they're needed.

Or SOMETHING like that anyway...

Just try to find any other theory that explains things as well as 'television' - heck, even the word 'Cube' actually describes the shape of televisions back then, and all you have to do is change ONE letter to change it into 'Tube', which is what TV used to be called.

Audiences just don't seem to get these things, and it's ridiculously frustrating. Try to level up your intelligence, dear audiences, and understand this kind of things - you'll enjoy life more.

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