Deep Thoughts about Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Send us a message! Include how to reach you if you want a response. We are the sisters who say Ni! Bring us…a shrubbery.On today’s episode of Deep Thoughts, Tracie and Emily dig into a source of both sisters’ understanding of what is funny, Monty Python and the Holy Grail. After 49 years, this film remains super funny, because it subverts our expectations. With minimal plot, despite the purported quest for the titular grail, it’s basically just a vehicle for a slew of the Pythons’ favorite medieval sketches. A Deep Thoughts look at those vignettes reveals interesting questions about power, authority, and knowledge, nuanced (but not exactly positive?) commentary on queerness and masculinity, and a fundamental playfulness with the medium of film that remains delightful this half-century later. We disagree about how sympathetic we’re meant to feel about the leftist peasants’ self-governance, but we are in complete agreement that the Castle Anthrax scene is improved when we assume the oral sex Lancelot thwarts was to be performed by Galahad, not on him. Don’t hurt your brain calculating the airspeed of an unladen swallow! Have a listen to our Deep Thoughts about Monty Python and the Holy Grail!Mentioned in this episode:The article about the zeitgeist: https://www.popmatters.com/monty-python-and-the-holy-grail-40th-anniversary-edition-blood-politics-sil-2495463955.htmlOne gay commentator on queerness in Holy Grail and Spamalot https://epgn.com/2020/12/02/one-joke-too-many/CW: Discussion of transphobia, homophobia, Woody Allen and male fantasies of sex with teenaged girlsOur theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Learn more about Tracie and Emily (including our other projects), join the Guy Girls' family, secure exclusive access to bonus episodes, video versions, and early access to Deep Thoughts by visiting us on Patreon. We are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls.We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, analyzing film tropes with a side of feminism, and examining the pop culture of our Gen X childhood for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, religious allegory, and whatever else we find. We have super-serious day jobs. For the bona fides, visit our individual websites: tracieguydecker.com and emilyguybirken.com. For our work together, visit guygirlsmedia.com We are on socials! Find us on Facebook at fb.com/dtasspodcast and on Insta at instagram.com/guygirlsmedia. You can also email us at guygirlsmedia at gmail dot com. We would love to hear from you!