Very silly yet brilliant

Rating: 10/10 (1 February 2008)

Like so many pleasures in life, the typical Monty Python fare is a bit of an acquired taste. Their comedy series, "Flying Circus," had many funny moments, but I would estimate that 70% of it was just very silly stuff that was so outlandish and off the wall that it didn't have much of a wide appeal.
Holy Grail had more than its share of silliness as well, but it seemed that the troupe really had outdone themselves here with clever and original material. Some of the bits were so outrageously funny that I must have nearly split my sides laughing at the first viewing with a few friends. And they hurt afterwards as well, so I was apparently not the only one who loved this type of humor.
In typical Pythonesque fashion, much of the humor here is black comedy, with bits of gore sprinkled throughout. There was no swearing or nudity that I recall, which is odd for a comedy, instead there was a great deal of violence. It's almost a bit of a satire on the tendency for media outlets to be bastardized for nudity or sexuality, while extreme violence is often viewed as fine for all audiences.
What it really amounted to was the Pythons making light of the oft untouchable British legend of the immortal King Arthur. There are so many quotable lines and bits of clever dialog that I could probably see the movie a hundred more times and still be heartily amused. This is a true comedy classic and should not be missed.