History YMMV / MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail

** Because RealityIsUnrealistic, there ''are'' real medieval and pre-modern tales of soldiers losing one limb after another and still insisting to do battle, presumably on sheer adrenaline. One of the Spanish standardbearers in the Battle of the Garigliano, Hernando de Illescas, apparently lost one arm to cannonfire, then the other arm, and ended up holding the standard with his stumps.

** The "Killer Rabbit" is inspired by real medieval religious art, which often illustrated the sin of cowardice by depicting a knight fleeing from a rabbit.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: The best jokes from this movie have been memes for so long and are so familiar by now that it might not be clear why they were ever really funny in context. In fact, quoting the movie around LARP groups is often strictly frowned upon, ''especially'' if it's a newcomer to the group who has never done a LARP before. Not only because they've ''all'' heard those references before, but because if ''one'' person starts doing it, ''everyone'' will start doing it.

** The Italian dub of the movie is an example of this backfiring. As the original movie's humour was considered "too weird" for Italian audiences, almost every dialogue was rewritten with new jokes, making half of the movie's humour being either sex jokes or political satire about taxes (for example, half of the Black Knight's dialogue was replaced with him making homophobic remarks towards Arthur, Tim the wizard says he's training to become a fiscalist and the Knights who say Ni became the Knights who say [[PrecisionFStrike Fuck You]]). Because of this, the Italian dub of the movie is deeply hated by fans. To add salt to the wound, in the early 2000 all the ''Monty Python'' movies were redubbed with more faithful dialogues... except for ''The Holy Grail'', the only one that seriously needed a redub.

** [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-syndicalism Anarcho-syndicalism]] is a real political philosophy, and though this particular variant only applies to capitalist society, the basic ideas had older precursors: actual ancient Germans lived in a society closely resembling anarchist ideals. In fact, a lot of historical monarchies were [[ElectiveMonarchy elective]] to some degree, so people ''did'' vote for kings (although Arthur and the peasant woman arguing about it fits that historical tension anyway).

*** "Tis but a flesh wound"

* EnsembleDarkhorse: The Black Knight, despite only being in one scene, is arguably the most famous character in the film.

** An animated sequence shows naked men blowing trumpets with their anuses. This is actually something seen in quite a few medieval manuscripts for some weird reason.

* MemeticMutation: Essentially, the whole film. There's not one scene that isn't eminently quotable, and several exchanges are considered required basic knowledge for nerd cred.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: A staple of Monty Python humour.
** The Camelot song. 'Tis a silly place indeed.
** The 2-second shot of the prisoner in the dungeon (which occurs right in the middle of the aforementioned Camelot song!)
** '''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHOBw6XwqRo INTERMISSION]]'''
** The opening credits' moose dialogue at the bottom. And the credits themselves being repeatedly interrupted because the people responsible keep getting sacked.
** The Sun and clouds jumping up and down, causing an earthquake.

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHDycUXzNs0 Its main theme]].
** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPW9fmhA4-k The Promised Land]]".

* TearJerker: While it's humorous to see that Lancelot is gone because he's being detain by the police, you can't help but feel bad for Arthur and Bedivere as they call for Lancelot, having no idea what happened to him.

* JustHereForGodzilla: It is not uncommon for viewers (both new ''and'' old) to fast-forward through much of the film just to see its most iconic skits.

** Sir Lancelot saving Sir Galahad from 'great peril' at Castle Anthrax could be a nod to the fact that in a lot of stories Lancelot was the father of Galahad. Which makes changes the ending of the scene to a father dragging his son out of a WildTeenParty.
** Lancelot just suddently going on massive killing sprees was something that happened in some Arthutian stories. However he would be wracked with shame and guilt not just offer up a [[BritishStuffiness Terribly sorry]].

** "What is the capital of Assyria?" is a trick question. Assyria had ''seven'' capitals over its nearly 2,000-year history.

** The 2-second shot of the prisoner in the dungeon (which [[UpToEleven occurs right in the middle]] of the aforementioned Camelot song!)

** "What is the capital of Assyria?" is a trick question. Assyria had ''Seven'' capitals over its nearly 2,000-year history.

** The humorous on-again, off-again RunningGag of characters shouting "''RUN AWAAAAY!!''" is well-known to fans of ''WesternAnimation/EdEddNEddy'', but younger fans aren't as likely to recognize it as being an homage to this film, where it's repeatedly yelled with the exact same inflection as Arthur and his knights flee from danger.

* SignatureScene: The fight between Arthur and the Black Knight is the most well-known and widely-quoted scene in the entire film. And possibly of the Monty Python franchise as a whole.

* AcceptableTargets: The French, naturally. It's a British film. Why else would they have that ''outrageous'' accent? Also, the BLOODY PEASANTS.

* HypeBacklash: A huge dose of DiscreditedMeme has resulted in quite a bit of the humor to lose a lot of its impact.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: WebVideo/RobAger theorizes that the "anachronisms" aren't actually anachronisms at all. They tell the audience point-blank the film is set in contemporary England, and that it's a sort-of SpiritualSuccessor to the "Upper Class Twit of the Year" sketch. It's about a bunch of delusional, up-their-own-arse 1970s aristocrats who, faced with the decline of the British class system, force all of England to abandon modernity and play along with their medieval LARP power fantasy to reclaim their old prestige and glory. At the end, the forces of modernity finally catch up to them and arrest the lot of them for thinking they can do whatever they want to England.