# Is Monty Python and the Holy Grail actually about cosplay? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [February 23, 2014, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020 "2014-02-23T15:12:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2014, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020/21 "2014-02-24T10:09:53Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > As a slight aside, was **Life of Brian** the only Monty Python movie with an actual ending? I remember watching it and being totally shocked. They didn’t leave anything hanging at all. > > Well, except for the obvious. Pretty much. In fact, _Life of Brian_ is really the only film with something consisting of a coherent plot, which apparently bothered some of the Python members so much they inserted the whole alien abduction sequence which had no point whatsoever except as a _deus ex machina_ to explain how Brian survives an otherwise fatal flaw. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2014, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020/22 "2014-02-24T12:32:42Z")
> [@Ken001](#): > > My sister was bitten by a moose. No realli! She was Karving her initials on the møøse with the sharpened end of an interspace tøøthbrush given her by Svenge - her brother-in-law - an Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian møvies: “The Høt Hands of an Oslo Dentist”, “Fillings of Passion”, “The Huge Mølars of Horst Nordfink”. ---
**Author:** ![mimminent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ed8c4c/32.png) [@mimminent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mimminent)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2021, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020/23 "2021-04-22T22:08:03Z")
So there’s this: “The first **LARPs** were run in the late 1970s, inspired by tabletop role-playing games and genre fiction. The activity spread internationally during the 1980s and has diversified into a wide variety of styles…The earliest recorded LARP group is _[Dagorhir](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dagorhir)_ , which was founded in 1977 in the United States and focuses on [fantasy].” [https://web.archive.org/web/20070629193916/http://www.dagorhir.com/dagorhir/history.htm](https://web.archive.org/web/20070629193916/http://www.dagorhir.com/dagorhir/history.htm) Ever heard of Discordianism? It may be that Monty Python inspired LARPing. Or these chaps were conducting in much more progressive anti- establishment sort of ways which is indicative of the time. Grail comes out in '75, LARPing follows two years later. Could be coincidence… would have to ask **Dagorhir**. ---
**Author:** ![mimminent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ed8c4c/32.png) [@mimminent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mimminent)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2021, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020/24 "2021-04-22T22:45:55Z")
The irony of Grail being a LARP is that, well, that’s essentially what modern Christendom is doing, galavanting across the countryside, going from serfdom to serfdom declaring himself, Authur, king. Oppressing and murdering along the way while he pursues his delusion in the face of all manner of depravity, filth, and pestilence. But the peasantry barely acknowledge him, cite “the violence inherent in the system.” The French mock them constantly, and the knights run them on silly errands, which they do not understand, they are naive, truly lost. The world they inhabit is filled with similarly naive and crude individuals engaged in all manner of horrific ignorance and despotic behavior. Meanwhile, in the real world, they’ve managed to commit a heinous crime, and go on about their mission fully oblivious of their affect, consumed with entitlement, submitted to a “higher power.” The film ends abruptly because their delusion ends abruptly when they are confronted with the actual authority; the harsh reality and consequence of their actions in the real world; the scientific forensic methodology of the modern world catching up with them, the tragic naive. Role credits. It’s genius. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2021, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020/25 "2021-04-22T23:04:49Z")
How do you explain in Blazing Saddles though when Lamar escapes the films set to go watch the finished movie at Man’s Chinese Theater. If the movie is still being shot how does he see a finished copy in theaters? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2021, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020/26 "2021-04-22T23:05:56Z")
Have you heard the expression “A Wizard did it.” Well in this case the answer is instead, “Mel Brooks did it.” ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020/27 "2021-04-23T00:22:07Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > If the movie is still being shot how does he see a finished copy in theaters? Instant cassettes. They’re out in stores before the movie is finished. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/nRGCZh5A8T4/maxresdefault.jpg "Spaceballs (5/11) Movie CLIP - We're in Now Now (1987) HD") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRGCZh5A8T4) ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020/28 "2021-04-23T02:08:53Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > If you are trying to create a plausible cohesive “universe” for a Monty Python sketch then you are missing the point…There is no consistent logic and that’s the point. Yes. Thank you. ETA: Oh for Christ’s sake- zombie thread. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020/29 "2021-04-23T15:30:25Z")
Man, I’d love to see a Monty Python zombie movie. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020/30 "2021-04-23T15:39:46Z")
I know this is a zombie, but I think it’s worth mentioning that a sort of precursor to LARPing, reenactments, did exist well before the TV-series, and featured in it (this version of the clip switches to battling kittens, but the intro is the one from the TV-series and not the crappy, later movie version). [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ZoiIrQjc6R8/maxresdefault.jpg "Kittens Reenact the Battle of Pearl Harbor") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoiIrQjc6R8) ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2021, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020/31 "2021-04-23T18:44:07Z")
You’re all loonies. ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020/32 "2021-04-24T18:46:05Z")
I have to point out that probably the best known British re-enactment society, [the Sealed Knot](http://www.thesealedknot.org.uk/) does actually pre-date Monty Python’s Holy Grail. They wouldn’t have been very big then, but they did exist. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020/33 "2021-04-24T20:31:26Z")
I just now learned, from checking [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War_reenactment), that > [@](#): > > Reenacting the American Civil War began even before the real fighting had ended. and > [@](#): > > Although most common in the United States, there are also American Civil War reenactors in [Canada](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada), the [United Kingdom](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom),[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War_reenactment#cite_note-acws-1) [Germany](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germany),[[2]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War_reenactment#cite_note-wbts-2) [Australia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia),[[3]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War_reenactment#cite_note-62nd-3) [Italy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy),[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War_reenactment#cite_note-14th-4) [Denmark](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denmark),[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War_reenactment#cite_note-American_Civil_War_Reenactors_of_Denmark-5) [Sweden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden), and [Poland](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland).[[6]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civil_War_reenactment#cite_note-58th_New_York_Volunteer_Infantry_Regiment-6) ---
**Author:** ![Filbert](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/filbert/32/3433_2.png) [@Filbert](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Filbert)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020/34 "2021-04-24T20:46:26Z")
Surely we have enough of our own wars to re-enact, without borrowing yours? ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2021, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020/35 "2021-04-24T21:08:07Z")
Giving the movie a more rational basis makes it less absurd. That doesn’t sound very Python-like. ---
**Author:** ![Drsunflower1](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drsunflower1/32/12711_2.png) [@Drsunflower1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drsunflower1)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020/36 "2021-05-07T17:17:54Z")
It’s only a model… ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2021, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020/37 "2021-05-07T19:23:33Z")
Shhhh. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-actually-about-cosplay/682020.md?page=1)