Monty Python and the Holy Grail Satire

The film Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a satire. This film satirizes the legend of King Arthur
and the Medieval Society. For example the Monarchy, Knighthood, Church Rule, Privileges of Nobility,
just to name a few. In this essay, I am going to be describing how satire is used in Monty Python and the
Holy Grail to poke fun at the topics.
A satire is used to poke fun of the Monarchy when the peasants are sitting there in front of King
Arthur flinging mud. King Arthur asks them if they know who he is, and obviously they didnt. They said
they didnt vote for him, when in a Monarchy you dont vote for someone. Even after they found out
that he was the king, they still didnt show him the respect that they would in the real Medieval Society.
A satire is used to poke fun at the Womens Roles when a group a citizens pushes a woman up to
the gallows claiming that she is a witch. In actuality, the men actually dressed her up in a witch's outfit
and put a carrot on her nose just so they could see her burn. The way the people eventually decide to
tell if she is a witch or not is by weighing with a duck because both ducks and witches float on water. In
the end they decided she was a witch, in reality she wasnt.
A satire is used to poke fun of the discrimination of the elderly when a few men are walking
down the street with a cart full of corpses saying, Bring out your dead! Then a man tries to put an
elderly man in the cart when he wasnt even dead. While the old man is telling them he isnt dead, they
knocked him out and put him in the cart because there was truly no use for him.
A satire is used to poke fun at the treatment of the worker class when King Arthur comes
galloping along with his side kick when they come across a peasant. King Arthur calls the peasant an old
woman, when in reality its a young man. Then King Arthur says hey you there peasant. And then the
peasant goes My name is Dennis. This shows that its making fun of how the Nobility didnt even care
about peasants.
A satire is used to poke fun at the Privileges of the Nobility at the beginning of the film, when King
Arthur comes along, hipping and hopping acting like he is riding a horse but its merely his squire
banging coconuts together. In real Medieval Times Nobility would always be riding on a horse, or some
kind of other transportation. When you see this you thing the King Arthur isnt a king at all.
A satire is being used to poke fun at the Chruch when they use God as the reason for the quest of
the Holy Grail.
A satire is being used to poke fun at the Knighthood when knights arrive at the cave where the
location of the Holy Grail is hidden. The cave is guarded by a ferocious killer bunny rabbit. When the
knights see the rabbit they laugh and charge at it. The ravenous bunny kills several of the knights before
King Arthur calls the retreat. The knights then blow the bunny to bits with the "holy hand grenade." This
shows that the knights laughed at the bunny, but really got their butts kicked.
A satire is being used to poke fun at the Judicial Process when Sir Launcelot finds a note attached to
an arrow from what he thinks is a damsel in distress; he rushes to a castle and slaughters a castle full of
unarmed wedding guests. He finds out that the note was actually sent by a prince who didn't want to
get married. About a minute later the prince is pushed out the window by his own father, and Sir
Lancelot is invited in to have a drink after killing tons of innocent people. So even though he killed
people he still got away with it because of his nobility.