Monty Python and the Holy Grail
[
Triumphant music plays as King Arthur and Patsy ride through the English countryside toward a castle in the distance. Along the trail they come across a peasant...]
King Arthur: Old woman!
Dennis: Man!
King Arthur: Man... sorry! What knight lives in that castle over there?
Dennis: I'm 37!
King Arthur: What?!
Dennis: I'm 37! I'm not old!
King Arthur: Well I can't just call you "man"!
Dennis: You could say Dennis.
King Arthur: I didn't know you were called Dennis!
Dennis: Well you didn't bother to find out, did you?!
King Arthur: I did say sorry about the "old woman", but from behind you looked...
Dennis: [
interrupting King Arthur] What I object to is you automatically treating me like an inferior!
King Arthur: Well I am King!
Dennis: Oh, King eh? Very nice! And how did you get that, eh? By exploiting the workers! By 'angin' onto outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences... in our society. If there's ever gonna be any progress...
Female peasant: [
interrupting Dennis] Dennis! There's some lovely filth down 'ere! Oooh! How d'ya do?
King Arthur: How do you do, good lady? I am Arthur, King of the Britons. Whose castle is that?
Female peasant: King of the who?
King Arthur: The Britons!
Female peasant: Who are the Britons?
King Arthur: Well, we all are! We are all Britons! And I am your King!
Female peasant: I didn't know we had a king! I thought we were an autonomous collective.
Dennis: You're fooling yourself! We're living in a dictatorship! A self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes...
Female peasant: [
interrupting Dennis] Oh, there you go. Bringing 'class' into it again!
Dennis: Well, that's what it's all about! If only people would hear...
King Arthur: [
interrupting Dennis] PLEASE! Please, good people, I am in haste! Who lives in that castle?
Female peasant: No one lives there.
King Arthur: Then who is your lord?
Female peasant: We don't have a lord!
King Arthur: [
bewildered] What??!
Dennis: I told you! We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week...
King Arthur: [
agitated] Yes!
Dennis: [
continuing] ...but all the decisions of that officer; have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting...
King Arthur: [a
ngrily interrupting] Yes I see!
Dennis: [
continuing] ...by a civil majority in the case of purely internal affairs...
King Arthur: [
interrupting again furiously] Be quiet!
Dennis: ...but by a two-thirds majority in the case of all...
King Arthur: [
lividly interrupting again] BE QUIET! I ORDER YOU TO BE QUIET!
Female peasant: Order, eh? Who does he think he is? [
snickers]
King Arthur: I AM YOUR KING!
Female peasant: Well I didn't vote for you!
King Arthur: You don't vote for
kings!
Female peasant: Well how did you become king then?
King Arthur: [
looking toward heaven] The lady of the lake... her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water, signifying by divine providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. THAT is why I am your King!
Dennis: Listen, strange women lying in ponds distributing
swords is no basis for a system of government! Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses! Not some farcical aquatic ceremony!
King Arthur: [
infuriated] BE QUIET!
Dennis: You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a
sword at you!
King Arthur: [
livid] SHUT UP! [
begins approaching Dennis]
Dennis: I mean if I went 'round saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a
scimitar at me, they'd put me away!
King Arthur: [
seizing Dennis pulls him up to his feet] SHUT UP, WILL YOU, SHUT... UP!
Dennis: Ah! Now we see the violence inherent in the system!
King Arthur: [
maintaing his grip on Dennis] SHUT UP!
Dennis: [
slipping and falling to his knees] Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
King Arthur: [
releasing Dennis] BLOODY PEASANT! [
other peasants gather around to see the commotion]
Dennis: [
appealing to the other peasants] Oh, what a give away! Did you hear that? Did you hear that? That's what I'm on about! Did you see him repressing me? You saw it, didn't you?