Monty Python Rises Again!

The British Library, which has access to Michael Palin's private archives, has found new details of three scenes from Monty Python's Holy Grail.  (Palin's comments are included in this version.)


The Black Knight actually had a buddy.

His compatriot was the Pink Knight, who demanded smooches for passage. ( Hobbes would have approved.)

Calvin & Hobbes by Bill Watterson (2012), via Pinterest

Remember the end of the movie, when everyone gets arrested and dragged off?

Well, they first visit a bookstore for lonely cowboys. Let's put it this way -- Pardner, if ya ain't gotta copy of Black Beauty, them thar's fightin' words.

I'm not sure what the third scene is -- maybe a riff on 'Harmless little bunny, eh?

Or the Frenchman shouting colorful insults from the castle wall.

"Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelt of elderberries."

All I know is that this British comedy troupe managed to be rude, funny and insulting... sometimes all at once. We still repeat their lines, decades after we first heard them, including the Comfy Chair:

(No one expects the Spanish Inquisition.)

Ministry of Silly Walks:

And that great classic, Spam:






But my very favorite remains "How Not to Be Seen:"

The principle works for textile restoration, too.