History Film / MontyPythonandtheHolyGrail

* {{Anadiplosis}}: After the Knights of Ni call for a narrative interlude, one arises that contains:
-->'''Narrator:''' Winter changed into spring, spring changed into summer, summer changed back into winter, and winter gave spring and summer a miss and went straight on into autumn.

* ArbitraryMissionRestriction: The film {{parod|y}}ies this trope when the Knights Who Say "Ni" demand that Arthur cut down the mightiest tree in the forest-- with a ''herring''. Of course, it overlaps with WithAHerring, since the tool is not only arbitrarily specific but also totally inadequate to the task.

* AsHimself: As part of one of the many fourth-wall-breaking jokes, Creator/TerryGilliam is briefly seen as "the animator of the movie"--himself--suffering a fatal heart attack.

* CatchPhrase: King Arthur's "Oh, shut up!", "'''''Jesus''''' Christ!", and "Run away!"

* TheCoconutEffect: Parodied with a literal use of CoconutSuperpowers; all of the knights mime riding horses, while their serfs follow behind them with two empty halves of coconuts, clapping them together. Subverted by the knight who kills off the Historian - the ''only'' knight in the movie to actually mount a horse.

* CrashingThroughTheHarem: Sir Galahad fights his way through a forest in a storm until he finds Castle Anthrax, which has a Grail-shaped beacon overhead. He bangs on the door, and when it opens he falls inside. He meets several young women, one of whom tells him that the castle contains eight score young blondes and brunettes, all between the ages of 16 and 19½. As Sir Galahad escapes from two naughty female doctors, he enters a room filled with the aforementioned eight score young women. Just as he decides to stay, Sir Lancelot arrives to "rescue" him and get him to continue the Grail quest. Sir Galahad then proceeds to [[UnwantedAssistance call him gay]].

''[{{beat}}]''\\

* HammerHilt: At one point during his duel with the Black Knight, King Arthur hits the Knight on the top of the head with the pommel of his sword.

* InsaneTrollLogic: Bedevere's faultless chain of reasoning leading to the conviction of the witch: If a woman weighs the same amount as a duck then she's made of wood because both ducks and wood float[[note]]In reality ducks only appear to be floating by way of being stealthy paddlers[[/note]], and because both wood and witches burn, she must be a witch! In true Monty Python fashion, it works![[note]]Even the "witch" herself admits "It's a fair cop."[[/note]] Also, one of the tracks on the soundtrack album is an alleged philosophy professor analysing the very thing. He concludes that sex is better than logic.

'''Arthur:''' (beat) Look you stupid bastard, you've got no arms left!

* SexyFigureGesture: The Swamp King does the "big breasts" gesture when describing to Prince Herbert how the princess he's going to marry has huuuuge... tracts of land - even though he had earlier established that her royal family does literally possess a large amount of land.

* TakenDuringTheEnding: [[spoiler:PlayedForLaughs. King Arthur and Sir Bedivere are arrested and taken away by modern-day police on [[MistakenForMurderer suspicion of murder]] right in the middle of an epic battle to decide the fate of the Holy Grail, ending the film as an AntiClimax. (An example of RealLifeWritesThePlot, since the reason why Monty Python didn't go through with the whole fight is that they ran out of money and time before they could film the whole battle.)]]

* TrrrillingRrrs: Brother Maynard's novice reading the Book of Armaments:
-->'''Novice:''' Thrrrrree is the number thou shall count, and the number of the counting shall be thrrrrree.

* WeddingDeathJuxtaposition: During "The Tale of Sir Lancelot", Lancelot rushes to the rescue of a prince who is being married against his will in Swamp Castle, and ends up killing a bunch of guests on his way to rescue him. The King was not happy that he killed 8 wedding guests, killed the best man and kicked the bride in the face on his way to rescue his son. When he's being shown round, he ends up killing more as the guests all complain about his actions, and the king could only explain it's meant to be a happy occasion, and no one should bicker and argue about who killed who.

-->'''French Knight:''' I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty-headed animal-food trough wiper. I fart in your general direction. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.

* CassandraTruth: King Arthur and the knights stopped believing Tim when they caught their first glimpse of the KillerRabbit. Then it bit one of the knights' head off.
-->'''Tim:''' I warned you! I warned you, but did you listen to me? Oh no, you knew it all, didn't you? Oh, it's just a harmless little bunny, isn't it? Well, it's always the same. I always told them, but do they listen to me? Oooh, no...\\
'''King Arthur:''' [[BigShutUp OH SHUT UP!]]

* MultipleHeadCase: The three-headed giant whose heads bicker amongst themselves, which ultimately allows Robin to escape while they are distracted.

* {{Facepalm}}: Upon recognizing a glaring flaw in the Trojan Rabbit plan, most of the other knights do this in the background.

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/monty_python_and_the_holy_grail.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:[[{{Tagline}} Sets The Cinema Back 900 Years!]]]]

*** This could be TranslationConvention. Arthur and his knights would have been speaking Old English. Perhaps Arthur used an Old English expression that equates to the modern colloquial adjective "dynamite".