History Film / MontyPythonandtheHolyGrail

** The Arthur of real-world legend is believed to have lived in the 5th or 6th Century AD. It was Æthelstan, founder of the unified Kingdom of England, who was on the throne in 932.

** The historical Arthur is believed to have lived in the 5th or 6th Century AD. Athelstan, founder of the unified Kingdom of England, was (still) incumbent in 932.

* ArbitraryMissionRestriction: The film [[{{Parody}} Parodies]] 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.

* ArmourIsUseless: The Black Knight wears full mail armour, which does little to prevent Arthur from cutting through it to chop his limbs off (though Arthur ''is'' using [[AbsurdlySharpBlade Excalibur]]). Earlier, the Black Knight throws his sword at the Green Knight with enough accuracy to go through the eye slit of the Green Knight's helmet.

** After Lancelot "saves" him from Castle Anthrax, Galahad accuses Lancelot of being gay, which he denies. Subsequently, we see Lancelot rush to a castle to rescue a "damsel" who turns out to be the very effeminate Prince Herbert -- who [[DeliberatelyDistressedDamsel already had an escape plan]]. So not-gay, [[RatedMForManly ostentatiously-hyper-masculine]] Lancelot ends up answering the personal ad of a young feminine guy who [[NotDistractedByTheSexy isn't at all interested]] in marrying a girl with ''huge''... [[UnusualEuphemism tracts of land]].

** The historical Arthur is believed to have lived in the 5th or 6th Century AD. The king of England in 932 was Athelstan.

* AnachronismStew: Although the film is surprisingly faithful to its setting and source material, a good amount of this does still feature for comedy's sake; this ''is'', after all, a Monty Python work.

** The credits is a subtle example: all of the credits guys were sacked at the beginning of the film, so there are no end credits.

* King Arthur and the knights call Brother Maynard up to translate an Aramaic inscription on the wall of the cave. He says it's the last words of Joseph of Arimathea, who hid the grail in "Castle Aarrgh." While the other knights are saying it out loud to guess what it means, the serial {{Malaproper}} Sir Belvedere lets out an "Oooaaagh!" They correct him on his pronunciation, before realizing he's screaming at the terrible beast approaching him.

* RememberTheNewGuy: Sirs Gawain, Ector and Bors show up with no explanation whatsoever, and nobody seems to notice. Though they do appear after a year-long TimeSkip. Brother Maynar shows up in the background at the same time, but it's easy not to notice him until the Holy Hand Grenade scene.

* 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.

** Actress Connie Booth, Creator/JohnCleese's wife, appears as the woman accused of witchcraft.

* CrosscastRole: In a rarity for Monty Python, there's only one example of crossdressing in the whole film: the very minor character of Dennis' mother, who is played by Creator/TerryJones. Even the Pythons comment on this on the DVD commentary, and surmise that, since they could afford an actual cast for the first time, they just naturally hired real women to play the women in the film. Indeed Connie Booth (Cleese's then wife) is cast as the supposed witch, while Creator/CarolCleveland is the main woman in Castle Anthrax.

Full of random quips, hilarious stand-alone scenes, and the type of comedic anarchy and anticlimax that practically ''defines'' British comedy even to this day, the movie was a low-budget success story and has become a cult classic over time. It also revealed Creator/MichaelPalin's versatility, as [[LoadsAndLoadsOfRoles he played something like 10 roles]] over the course of the film. He's not alone, of course; the majority of people and about 80% of the lines are from the Pythonites, leading to some interesting blocking and directing decisions. (Watch Lancelot's helmet.)

* ArtisticLicenceHistory: A man announcing himself as the "King of the Britons" and "Defeater of the Saxons" would never have concluded with "Sovereign of all England". The reason a Briton would have been fighting the Saxons in the first place would be to prevent the establishment of "England", which means "Land of the Anglo-Saxons".

Just a side note-- because Creator/TerryJones was, in fact, an Arthurian scholar, this happens to be not just the funniest but the [[ShownTheirWork most accurate film adaptation]] of Malory's ''[[Literature/LeMorteDArthur Le Morte d'Arthur]]'' [[HilariousInHindsight ever made]], though it is not to be confused with the original myths or other tellings of Myth/KingArthurAndTheHolyGrail. Some of the humour, in fact, is derived from typical Pythonian spins on events and characterizations from the original tales. It also meant that Jones knew ''how'' to caricature a story already muddied by PopCultureOsmosis.

Just a side note-- because Creator/TerryJones was, in fact, an Arthurian scholar, this happens to be not just the funniest but the [[ShownTheirWork most accurate film adaptation]] of Malory's ''Literature/LeMorteDArthur'' [[HilariousInHindsight ever made]]. Though it is not to be confused with the original myths or other tellings of Myth/KingArthurAndTheHolyGrail. Some of the humour, in fact, is derived from typical Pythonian spins on events and characterizations from the original tales. It also meant that Jones knew ''how'' to caricature a story already muddied by PopCultureOsmosis.

** The cow and large wooden rabbit the French fling at the English knights. Catapulting real animals-- which the French ''also'' do-- was a legitimate strategy in sieges, but they were usually dead animals meant to spread disease, not ''living'' livestock. Oh, and it was an ''attack'' strategy-- the animals flung into a besieged castle-- as defenders had more trouble getting rid of the corpses without letting the attackers in.

* AlcoholHic: One of the guards guarding the prince has a hic all through the king's speech about how they should keep the prince in the room.

** Several of the examples listed on the YMMV page under AluminumChristmasTrees would also qualify.

** There actually are stained glass windows in some very old churches showing a knight running away from a rabbit, as an illustration of the sin of cowardice.

* HistoricalInJoke: Alfred, King of the English, actually built a stronghold in a swamp, for his guerrilla war against the Danish invaders.

* GagBoobs: Conversed by the King of the Swamp Castle. Herbert's bride-to-be has ''huge''... [[DoubleEntendre tracts of land]].