Finally understand the ending

I remember dad showing this to my brother and I when we were in junior high for the first time. I really didn't like or get the ending at all.

A few years ago, I finally did research, and what I read at the time makes sense:

You all need to understand first, that this movie was shot on a very low budget. It's one of those gems where they spent more time on writing a great script than they did on everything else. In fact, if you look at the casting on IMDB, every member of the cast played at least 5-6 parts, and several documentaries show that they only used one private castle for all the "castle" scenes in the film, despite showing 3-4 different castles in the story. There's even a fascinating write-up on how well the costume designer kept the costumes semi-accurate, and yet kept to the budget brilliantly. I was shocked to find out that each costume the principal actors wore cost exactly one British Pound to make, and the chainmail you see them wearing is actually very cleverly woven wool. The costume designer even did research for the silly heraldry Arthur and his knights had on their surcoats!

Okay, so back to the ending. Monty Python and the Holy Grail ends abruptly with King Arthur and his knights attacking Castle Auuurrgghhh, because he's pissed the French Knights got there first and have the Holy Grail. But just as his men are charging, the police show up and arrest them, and the film cuts out.

So it turns out, the film-makers had originally planned an epic battle for King Arthur and his knights to take the castle and get the relic they had been seeking for the entire film. But, due to the budget, they couldn't afford it, so they did both copout, both script-wise, and literally. They figured it would be funny and make sense, and even added foreshadowing to it.

I personally never liked the ending, but it makes sense to me now, and I've seen copouts in comedy before, so it's not a new concept. Not exactly funny, but sometimes it makes sense.