Talk:Monty Python and the Holy Grail/reference list

Cultural references for trimming.

A number of works, such as video games, novels, newspapers, and even anime pay homage to this movie, an indication of its huge following.

In "Weird Al" Yankovic's song White and Nerdy Weird Al's character claims to have memorised all of the movie: "I've memorised Holy Grail, really well, I can recite it right now and have you ROTFLOL!"
RuneScape: Using a herring (cooked or raw) on almost any tree in this game results in the text, "this is not the mightiest tree in the forest", referring to the Knights' Who No Longer Say Ni demand of: "Find the mightiest tree in the forest and cut it down with—A HERRING!". Pulling the lever in the party room causes a bunch of knights to dance on a table and sing a song reminiscent of the movie's Camelot scene. There is also a members-only quest called "The Holy Grail".
Baldur's Gate: The first installment of the series featured a character named Garrick who would sing a modified version of Sir Robin's song while fighting.
Doom modification: The original 1990s game allowed players to download "sound packs" to change all the audio clips in the game. One of the most popular packs was full of sound-bites from this movie.
Shadow Warrior: In the fourth level of this late 1990s parody- and sarcasm-laden first-person shooter game, there is a secret area set behind a waterfall. When the player enters, he sees ahead what looks like a cave. As he approaches the cave, he sees a helmet reminiscent of the one worn by Bors in the movie, and even closer, a small white rabbit, whereupon the player character utters (in his faux-engrish speech): "That's no ordinary rabbit!" When the character crosses over a low ledge to enter the cave, the rabbit begins attacking and its eyes turn red.
Battle Chess: The animation for knight captures knight is a recreation of Arthur's battle with the Black Knight.
Conquests of Camelot: Typing "ham and jam and spam a lot" in the treasury will cause three knights to appear on the screen dancing the "Spamalot" (Camelot) theme. Then a text window appears mentioning that this Easter egg is dedicated to the memory of Chapman.
Destroy All Humans: While you are in holobob, a guard asks you what your name and your quest are. He then asks one of many random questions. This is from the Bridge of Death scene.
Quest for Glory: In the first game, a gargoyle will ask the user questions inspired by the Bridge of Death scene. The fourth features killer rabbits as a monster type. In Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire, when visiting the wizard Erasmus, you must bypass a cloud guardian which almost exactly parodies the scene from the movie.
Asheron's Call: In this MMORPG, the White Rabbit is a fearsome beast that drops the Orb of the Bunny Booty. Its level is 666.
Eternal Lands: In this MMORPG, the Fluffy White Rabbit is one of the highest level monsters. The motto of one of the guilds, Linux Warriors, is "We are the knights who say ls".
Heroes of Might and Magic III: The game has a number of cheat codes, all of which are references to this movie. All coded are preceded with "NWC", developer New World Computing's initials, followed by the reference. For example, typing in nwcshrubbery (a reference to Arthur's encounter with the Knights Who Say Ni) rewards the player with 100,000 gold and 100 of every resource. The code nwcalreadygotone rewards the player with a full Grail map; nwcsirrobin forfeits the game; and nwccoconuts gives unlimited movement.
Warcraft III: Many "annoyed messages" (which are spoken by the units when clicked several times on them) from the Human race are Monty Python references. For example, peasants sometimes utter "We found a witch, may we burn her?", "You're the king? Well, I didn't vote for you!" or "Help, help, I'm being repressed!" Knights sometimes say "I never say Ni!" and "My favourite colour is blue—no, yellow!". Footmen are also found to utter "It's only a flesh wound!".
Escape from Monkey Island: The line "Your mother was a hamster!" is used in a friendly bout of insult swordfighting. The comeback is "Your father smelt of elderberries!"
Makai Kingdom: Chronicles Of The Sacred Tome: In Level 1 of Chapter Nine, King Zetta encounters some peasants, to whom he says he is "their overlord". One peasant replies (in a British accent), "I didn't know we had an Overlord; I thought we were an autonomous collective." Later on he adds, "Well, I didn't vote for you!".
Wizardry series: One of the early games has a monster called a "Vorpal Bunny". (Vorpal means it can decapitate its opponent.)
Fallout 2: A Bridge of Death parody functions as closely to the original scene as the game engine allows (the player takes thousands of points of damage instead of being flung into a pit). While the player can play the role 'straight' and simply walk past, players are encouraged to answer a question incorrectly. The robes the bridge-keeper wears are amusingly stronger than most armour in the game. Answering with a question will lead to the bridge-keeper dying horribly. Another parody exists, but usually does not function. In it, the player discovers a large group of knights wearing power armor who ask the player if he has found the Holy Hand Grenade. On the second encounter, the player could find the Grenade for these Knights. But because of a programming flaw, the second encounter never shows up. There is, however, a fan-made patch that fix this bug, allowing the player to have the random encounter in which the Holy Hand Grenade (an extremely powerful, one-time-use item) can be found.
Worms series: The Holy Hand Grenade is one of the most powerful hand-launched weapons, unleashing a huge explosion only after a Handel-esque "Hallelujah". It made its first appearance in Worms: The Directors Cut for the Amiga and has since appeared in almost every version of the game to date. Furthermore, unlike all other grenades in the Worms series, the Holy Hand Grenade explodes after exactly 3 seconds. This is a reference to the holy scripture of the grenade, which states, "Three is the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count; neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceedest to three. Five is right out! Then, lobbest thou the holy hand grenade at thy foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it." In Worms 4: Mayhem, when attacked, worms with the knight voice utter 'It's just a flesh wound!'. Also in Worms 4, in the story level, "Joust About it." the subtitle says "Kids, feel free to bang two coconuts together."
The Twisted Tales of Spike McFang: The frozen country Vampra features an enemy called "Python Bunny", which seems to be a harmless white fluffy bunny—with a set of nasty, sharp, pointy teeth.
MythBusters: In "Breakstep Bridge" after Adam is cut while making the bridge, he utters "It's only a flesh wound!" Also on the Wooden Parachute Myth, Adam when flying right above Jamie says, "I fart on you!" like the Mocking Frenchman.
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magic Obscura: At one point in the game, the character is given the choice of tracking down the Stillwater Giant, a monster with the ability to turn into a harmless-looking blue bunny.
Banjo-Tooie: "Old King Coal" is a boss that loses all of its limbs while still continuing its attack. Its attitude about losing limbs is similar to that of the Black Knight, with such quotes as "I've still got another one," when he loses an arm, show how hard-headed he is.
Mortal Kombat 3: One of the fatalities for the character Kitana would have her transform into a small, seemingly harmless white rabbit that attacks the opponent in the same manner as the Killer Rabbit. Likewise in Shaolin Monks, two of Kung Lao's fatalites involve a white rabbit.
True Crime: Streets of L.A.: The game's protagonist, Nick Kang, quotes a number of lines from the film after the player completes certain tasks.
Age of Empires III: When the "Home City Chatter" customization is enabled, a nobleman will remark that his wig "smells of elderberries", and a laborer will shout, "Help! I'm being oppressed!".
Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death: One of the lines used by the medical judge when consulted is, "It's only a flesh wound."
Shining Force: When you search a bookshelf somewhere in the game, it will say that one of the books is entitled "Do witches really float?" Possibly as a reference to Sir Bedevere's theory that witches are made of wood and therefore float.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail was also spoofed as a LEGO movie. This spoof was then itself spoofed with a version done in Macromedia Flash with the style of 8-bit Theatre.
The card game Munchkin (by Steve Jackson Games) has a very weak monster called the "perfectly ordinary bunny rabbit" (itself a reference to the webcomic Sluggy Freelance), which has a chance of actually being "that rabbit from that movie" and a very strong monster.
A game The Bard's Tale (2004) features a creature for summoning, a virtually harmless rat. After upgrading it, it gains the highest damage in the game. It is described as a "most bad-tempered rodent", as was the rabbit in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
The song and flash video The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny features the Black Knight, armless and legless, as one of the combatants.
An online game called Legend of the Green Dragon contains a monster called the "Pair of Swallows", which attacks with "Coconuts". Following the swallows' defeat, the screen displays "I wonder if they were African or European".
In Fable (video game), when attacking guards they sometimes utter the phrase "It's only a flesh wound!", a reference to King Arthur's battle with the Black Knight.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain features a city largely destroyed by a plague. One of the survivors will shout "Bring out your dead" if you talk to him in disguise as a villager.
One of the most popular Disney comic artists, Don Rosa has paid homage to Monty Python and the Holy Grail two times in his stories. These little pieces of dialog can be found from following stories: "The Billionaire of Dismal Downs" (which is also a part of long story line, The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck) and "A Little Something Special".
In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, an insane Argonian at the shrine to Sheograth comments on how she used to be a dog, but she got better.
In Denis Leary's 1993 stand-up special No Cure For Cancer, Leary recalls an incident where his older brother and a friend shoot an arrow into his head and renacts his brother's reaction by shouting "Run away! Run away!"
The Simpsons' episode "Homer Goes to College" pays homage to the famous The Knights Who Say Ni scene.
In Civilization II many of the sound effects are taken from the movie. For example, the attacking noise of horseman is taken from the fight between the Black and Green knights
In Civilization IV, when a player is at war with Louis XIV of France and he refuses to sign a peace treaty, part of his reply includes "Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time."
In the episode of Xiaolin Showdown, "The Demon Seed", when Gigi looks down from the tower to see what the noise is, loops his head around and looks down again, it is a reference to the French knight.
In the CORPG, Guild Wars Nightfall, the Paragon class has a skill named "It's just a flesh wound" in tribute to the Black Knight's comments while sparring with King Arthur.
The character Adelbert Steiner from Final Fantasy IX references the Black Knight with his quote, "Bah, only a flesh wound!"
In the MMORPG, Dark Age of Camelot, on April 1, 2006 the developers replaced the horses on the horse routes for the day with one of the playable races; the "horse" skipped along while clapping two coconuts together as players rode on its back.
In the sports section of one Fall 2006 edition of The Washington Post, four quotes from the movie were used to signify various football players' injury intensity, ranging from "'Tis merely a flesh wound" to "Bring out your dead!"
In the episode of Stargate SG-1 where they go to the planet where Harry Mayborne is king one can see King Arthur's crown and helmet in the background of one of the village scenes.
In an episode of The Boondocks, Rummy yells out to the officer that "he shall not have died in vain" and shortly thereafter yells back that "you shall not have been mortally wounded in vain" after the officer replied "I'm not dead"—a reference to Sir Lancelot's dialogue with his squire, Concord, after the latter was shot with the "message arrow", and "not dead fred," an old man in the body cart who repeatedly said "I'm not dead" untill he was knocked insensate.
In the Histeria! episode "Histeria! Satellite TV", Arthur, Lancelot, and Galahad appear on a parody of Nightline debating their existence. The sketch ends with them fleeing whilst shouting "Run away!", as they often do in the movie.
Mystic (MUD) has an entire area dedicated to different scenes from the film, including the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, the Killer Rabbit, and the Knights Who Say Ni.
Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc: In the level "The Longest Shortcut", One of the things that Globox will say when he tries to open the doors is "Ni! Ni! Ni!"
In The Elder Scrolls III: Bloodmoon, attacked Imperial guards will sometimes yell "Run away! Run away!"
In the game Bard's Tale 3: Thief of Fate, one of the magical songs the bard character can sing is "Sir Robin's Tune", which has the same music as the movie, and allows one always to run from a combat encounter (circumventing the usual random throw to determine whether one can do so).
In the webcomic S.S.D.D., the robot bodyguard to the First Advisor follows behind her and claps coconuts together.
In the webcomic El Goonish Shive, the squirrels in Tedd's backyard tell Grace that they can only be placated with a shrubbery. When told of this, Tedd replies, "What the hell is this, a Monty Python sketch?"
In the videogame the Sims 2, one of the items available to but is the "Nee Gardens Shrubberey" - A referance to the famous Knights of Ni scene.
In the Psygnosis racing game entitled "Rollcage," a taunt in the network play section is "I fart in your general direction," a reference to the French Soldier.

When asked about the capital of Assyria, the chatterbot Smarterchild replies with "It depends when. Assyria had successively four capitals: Ashur (or Qalat Sherqat), Calah (or Nimrud), the short-lived Dur Sharrukin (or Khorsabad), and Nineveh. Any other question, bridgekeeper?" When asked about the average air velocity of an unladen swallow, the bot first asks about whether the question is about an African or European swallow and then proclaims that the velocity is "roughly 11 meters per second, or 24 miles an hour."

For more references to the Holy Hand Grenade, see the relevant article.