Ever since I first watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail in middle school, I loved it. The absurdist humor was always the biggest draw for me, and for some reason that I can't quite place, knights talking about how a coconut from a tropical climate makes its way to a temperate climate and how a bird could carry it makes me laugh every time. In learning about the actual history and lore behind the story, I realized that this absurd humor serves an important purpose. By defamiliarizing us (the audience) with these tropes and putting a microscope to them, we can see plainly just how weird a group of seven or so guys go around looking for a magic cup is. Overemphasizing the French accent and qualities of the guard who's rude for seemingly no reason points out how absurd the feud between France and Britain is. Lancelot killing a bunch of people at the wedding only to be disappointed when the one crying for help is a guy rather than a "fair maiden" takes a zoomed-out look at any one of these rescue scenes in these types of stories where the protagonist kills guards with reckless abandon, not to be revisited later. The humor takes a look at why we have these preconceived notions and shows us that the things we take for granted in these fantasy stories may just be a little bit ridiculous
I too have always loved the humor this film has and now knowing all that we know from this class, it all makes sense now. Also, how they portray this tale does make you realize how absurd it is for a group of men to be going on a big quest for a magic cup essentially. When we have read about the quest for the Holy Grail, like in Malory's Morte Darthur, the story was so serious. This take on it makes those scenes seem laughable too because of how ridiculous it all looks when you really think about it.
I definitely agree that Monty Python highlights how absurd the events of some works of Arthurian literature can be. Like in Morte D'Arthur it was completely fine that people were murdered because it was "for the glory of God". Like you said, this absurdity is showcased when Lancelot murders the people at the wedding just because he thinks he is saving a damsel in distress.
Isabella made a similar point about the glory of God, and I think this is a really interesting point. Morgan, what I'm hearing in your scare quotes is a skepticism about whose glory these murders were committed for: God or maybe the knight's themselves.
I love the language you use of defamiliarizing here. By taking something familiar and tilting at a slight angle we can, as you put it, really examine it under a microscope. What I'd be really interested to hear is if, in making those tropes ridiculous, do you think that Monty Python makes them unappealing? In other words, does the satire make the fantasy stories a little bit ridiculous and thus make them less enjoyable? Or does it do something else?