{"id":58736,"date":"2025-04-28T23:49:12","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T23:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/58736\/"},"modified":"2025-04-28T23:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T23:49:12","slug":"john-cleese-on-monty-python-and-holy-grail-at-50-woke-comedy-critics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/58736\/","title":{"rendered":"John Cleese on Monty Python and Holy Grail at 50, Woke Comedy Critics"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tFifty years after first hitting theaters, Monty Python<\/a> and the Holy Grail is still standing, as it holds a lofty position among comedy-movie royalty. <\/p>\n

\n\tReleased by EMI Films in the U.S. on April 28, 1975, the project marked the first original feature for the legendary British comedy troupe that was known at the time for the BBC<\/a> sketch series Monty Python\u2019s Flying Circus and comprised of John Cleese<\/a>, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle<\/a>, Terry Gilliam<\/a>, Terry Jones<\/a> and Michael Palin<\/a>. Co-directed by Gilliam and Jones, Holy Grail follows Chapman as King Arthur in his quest for the titular vessel. It is considered among the greatest comedic films of all time.<\/p>\n

\n\tDuring a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, co-writer and star Cleese weighs in on how he would change the ending, the group\u2019s members having gone their separate ways over the years, the fact that comedy no longer seems to be prioritized by Hollywood (\u201cIt amazes me that people would want to watch it,\u201d he says of Netflix\u2019s Adolescence), the impact on the industry of people who \u201csuffer from literal-mindedness\u201d and his Harry Potter<\/a> memories as the voice of Nearly Headless Nick in light of the forthcoming streaming series.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGraham Chapman (left), John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam and Michael Palin on the set of Monty Python and the Holy Grail.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tHow does it feel to hit a milestone on a movie that is still so well-regarded?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s extraordinary. Recently, there was a BBC poll<\/a> of international<\/a> film critics, and Python had No. 6 and No. 15 out of 50 best comedies of all time: [1979\u2019s] Life of Brian was 6, and Grail was 15. You feel proud and pleased. I don\u2019t take rankings very seriously, but there\u2019s some sense one knows one was up there with the best, and that\u2019s very satisfying.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you have favorite memories of bringing Holy Grail to the big screen?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWe had no idea what we were doing. We were very lucky. There was some extremely funny material in Holy Grail, and we somehow got it together because Jones and Gillian managed to co-direct it. [There was] the usual Python chaos with one of them creeping down to the editing room and re-editing something while the other one was asleep upstairs, this kind of thing. (Laughs.)<\/p>\n

\n\tThen it opened and was a complete surprise hit. We were thrilled because it was the last thing we expected. When we started Python, the general feeling was, \u201cWhat on earth are these people doing?\u201d [A BBC department head] bumped into our director in an elevator and said, \u201cIs this show supposed to be funny? I think it\u2019s awful.\u201d That was the head of the department. One consistent theme to almost everything I\u2019ve done it is that 85 percent of the people at the top have no idea what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\n\tSo many lines and scenes have become an indelible part of the culture.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI was terribly impressed when the elder George Bush [was president] and a cartoon appeared with him in it in a pet shop, and it was to do with a parrot [referencing a classic Monty Python sketch]. I remember suddenly thinking, \u201cWhoa, we\u2019ve arrived! We\u2019re in the political cartoons.\u201d [And] more and more, particularly with the Black Knight sketch, which Graham Chapman and I wrote. The guy who won\u2019t lie down. It\u2019s very nice because these phrases, they pass into the language: \u201c\u2018Tis but a scratch.\u201d I had a small precancerous thing cut out of my arm in L.A. a few years ago, and when the guy sewed it up, he said, \u201c\u2018Tis but a scratch,\u201d as he walked out of the room. It\u2019s very nice when these things appear in people\u2019s conversation. Python is quite well-known, although I think the younger people don\u2019t know about it, really.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tMichael Palin (left), John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam attend a 2015 screening of Monty Python and the Holy Grail to celebrate the film\u2019s 40th anniversary.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDerek Storm\/Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tAny reason for that, or just because the years go by?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI would like to say it\u2019s because American culture, not the individuals, but American culture has gotten more trivial. It\u2019s all about short attention span. In my day, there were many more good shows about good subjects. The subjects that people are now making movies and television about, they just astound me. It\u2019s either people dressed in a cross between Star Trek and something medieval \u2014 add a few flying dragons, you know what I mean? It\u2019s either that, or it\u2019s the most extraordinary, sordid stuff, which I know is real, but why people would want to watch it on television? This recent thing that\u2019s had such a huge success \u2014 what\u2019s it called? Single word about a boy who kills the girl?<\/p>\n

\n\tAdolescence.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYes, Adolescence. Tragic, absolutely tragic. But it amazes me that people would want to watch it. We all know that there are millions of people living in extraordinarily difficult circumstances, but for me, I don\u2019t know it makes particularly good television.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the U.S., comedies aren\u2019t hitting the theaters as much, or they\u2019re just not getting made, and that\u2019s a sad thing for me.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tI couldn\u2019t agree more. In fact, I\u2019m in the process of making three hours for television, sort of Life of Cleese, with masses and masses of archive stuff because I\u2019ve got archive stuff coming out of my ears. What I\u2019m doing in the third of those shows is saying how sad it is that there is so little comedy and what a good effect comedy has on people. I go to these comic-cons sometimes. There were people coming up to me in large numbers saying, \u201cThank you for helping me through difficult periods of my life.\u201d Because when you laugh, you move your center of gravity to a place that can cope a bit better with the problems of life. That is something that nobody seems to realize at the moment.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGraham Chapman (left) and John Cleese in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tI totally agree.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThere was a famous story about the British Marines in the Second World War, and at one point, they started getting bombed by their own planes because some communication had gone completely wrong. (Laughs.) One of them got really angry about being bombed by the British plane, and the officer said, \u201cLook, if you can\u2019t take a joke, you shouldn\u2019t have joined up.\u201d That kind of humor, it moves us to a part of ourselves that is braver and more positive.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe don\u2019t have that now because we have these people leaping out and saying, \u201cThat\u2019s not funny.\u201d And the problem, a lot of the time, is that they suffer from literal-mindedness. There are literal-minded people here \u2014 particularly in the Midwest, where irony can be hard to find \u2014 and you realize that these people don\u2019t really get metaphor, and they don\u2019t really get simile, and they don\u2019t really get comic exaggeration. In other words, the meaning that they get from statements is incredibly narrow. It\u2019s just the literal meaning, as opposed to the figurative meanings, of which there are so many. They\u2019re going through life with this very attenuated emotional spectrum, just seeing things literally, and they\u2019re then trying to tell people who understand irony and metaphor what they should not be allowed to view.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf Holy Grail were being made today, would you have gotten more notes or less freedom?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tThat\u2019s a very good question. You see, the guy who [originally] told us to make 13 programs, I don\u2019t think he would have given a fuck. But what\u2019s so funny now is I can say \u201cfuck.\u201d If I said \u201cfuck\u201d 40 years ago, the traffic stopped. So that you always have this strange thing. There are certain things that mustn\u2019t be said, and many young people say to people of my age, \u201cOh, you can\u2019t say that.\u201d I want to say, \u201cWell, I\u2019ve been speaking English quite fluently for 80 years, and I don\u2019t think someone of your age should be telling me what I could say.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019ve said previously that you don\u2019t love the ending to Holy Grail. Do you still feel that way?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tYes. It stops being very funny towards the end, and the ending is the best we could come up with. It\u2019s a joke that it\u2019s so bad. I\u2019m coming to America in the fall, and we\u2019re showing Holy Grail and then answering questions afterwards. I have a version of the ending, and as far as I can see, people like it better than the original one. (Laughs.) It\u2019s just pared down. The original one just takes too long to try and build up the tension, and it would be much better if it had been edited. But I think the first hour or so of the film is extraordinarily funny. It tails off a bit, but I\u2019m delighted people like it so much.<\/p>\n

\n\tWith events like that, how does it make you feel about your relationships with the other Python members?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tIf you look at the history of most groups, you find there\u2019s always quarrels at some point, and I think we\u2019ve done quite well. But what people often don\u2019t understand about a team is that a team is not composed of all people who do the same things well. It\u2019s a group of people who do different things well. <\/p>\n

\n\t[Terry] Gilliam, at quite an early stage, really decided that he just wanted to direct movies. Eric [Idle] didn\u2019t really come forward until [1983\u2019s] The Meaning of Life because Eric is very, very strong on music, and particularly on lyrics. Michael [Palin], who\u2019s always loved travel, did some travel programs. Jonesy [aka Terry Jones] did all sorts of things. Chapman was two people, really. He was Chapman sober, who was an extraordinarily good writer and a really fine actor, and Chapman drunk, who wasn\u2019t awfully good at anything or couldn\u2019t remember his lines. Whereas I like comedy, and I very much enjoy simple pleasure: making audiences laugh. Very different people, so inevitably, as we get older and become maybe slightly more authentic, we go in different directions.<\/p>\n

\n\tDo you have any thoughts on the Harry Potter series, given your experience with the franchise?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n\tWell, not really. When you\u2019re doing special effects, you never get to meet the other actors. It\u2019s special effects shooting, which is not really interesting. I said to the director, Christopher Columbus, after a take, \u201cWas that any good?\u201d And he\u2019d say, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d (Laughs.) One special effects person said to me, \u201cWould you look surprised on the next take?\u201d And I did. He said, \u201cThat was really good. Can you look surprised at half that speed?\u201d And this is a man [doing] special effects \u2014 right at one end of the spectrum \u2014 who\u2019s never really spent any time around these human beings because they\u2019re so unpredictable. (Laughs.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fifty years after first hitting theaters, Monty Python and the Holy Grail is still standing, as it holds…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[192,77,30683,8082,522,27170,30684,30685,30686,30687,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-58736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-bbc","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-eric-idle","11":"tag-harry-potter","12":"tag-international","13":"tag-john-cleese","14":"tag-michael-palin","15":"tag-monty-python","16":"tag-terry-gilliam","17":"tag-terry-jones","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114418271200543839","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}