In general, Monty Python plays heavily on incongruity for the source of it’s humor. The whole movie sets up a situation and characters that many people are familiar with. King Arthur is an extremely famous figure and everyone has heard stories about medieval knights. Thus they have natural expectations about what will happen in the story. The movie plays on these expectations, setting up something that you think will happen and turning it on it’s head.
Pinpointing the classic sketch from Monty Python and The Holy Grail is difficult at best. One of the most famous is the Black Knight Sketch, which goes along with the incongruity theory of humor extremely well. In the movie, there is a knight defending a bridge and refuses to let anyone cross. When King Arthur tries to pass him, he forces him to fight. As the fight progresses, King Arthur cuts off the Black Knight’s arm, which would normally signal a fight being over, especially considering the Knight is merely defending a bridge. However, the Black Knight ridiculously claims that “tis but a scratch” and “I’ve had worse”, which of course is completely impossible. The incongruity of his ridiculous attitude continues as he loses all his limbs but continues to not only to try to fight but trash-talk King Arthur. It is the ultimate version of not admitting defeat. If, as Critchley suggests, humor is supposed to teach us something, show us broader ideals about humanity, then maybe this scene shows us that there is always a time to give up. It show us the ridiculousness of the philosophy of “never giving up”.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail has many other scenes that build on this similar vein of humor. For example, the three questions scene gives a great depiction of the simple unfairness of life sometime in an example taken far over the top. To pass the wizard, the questers had to answer three questions correctly. Comically, the first two questions, instead of being difficult, were: what is your name? what is your quest? For the first asker, the third question was just as easy: what is your favorite color? The next knight approaches confidently, thinking that his passage will be just as easy. But instead, the third question is a useless piece of trivia so random that almost no one would know it off the top of their head. And for not knowing this piece of information, that knight died, unlucky to have gotten the bad question. Comically, the next person, now scared, responded that he “didn’t know” his favorite color, causing his demise as well. On a side note, the casual way that the knights deal with death and danger throughout the whole movie is a subtle source for amusement, for it also does not match up with how most people would react to the death and danger.
I agree with Critchley that good humor does not merely amuse us, it shows us things about people. I think this can be seen through all types of comedy, from stand-ups to jokes your friends tell around the dinner table. Like Critchley put so well, we make the everyday, ordinary life seem surreal and extraordinary through humor. It allows us to appreciate the little things in life more than perhaps we normally do. But I think one of the most important aspects is it’s communal value. For while you can watch a funny movie and laugh by yourself, it does not compare to the joy that someone gets when watching a movie or sharing a story with friends. Sharing humor multiplies it exponentially, making a humor a very social aspect of our lives.
What I also find interesting about humor and incongruity is that in many cases, such as the Black Knight sketch, one finds it comical partly because they know that it is staged. For example if someone actually got their arm cut off and somehow managed to say "It's only a scratch" it wouldn't really be funny for those around, even if they had seen this movie and really liked it. I believe humor to be a very powerful force, but it is also the case that it can be overpowered by other emotions, sometimes quite easily depending on the situation. In response to the community aspect of humor, I think that it goes both ways. Sometimes when we see others laugh at something that makes us laugh even harder, but sometimes when someone laughs "too much" it kind of ruins the mood. The latter statement leads me to think that we sometimes believe there is an appropriate amount of laughter that should be expressed in certain situations.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of your post you mention Critchley's argument that audiences learn something from humor, and I think an interesting subject is the matter of the religious in Holy Grail. Throughout the film, we see scenes that caricature religion and religious. The entire quest they are on is inspired by God, and the infamous "she's a witch" scene both offer funny sketches of religious people. But what is Monty Python saying about the religious in these humorous scenes? I think the goal of this film is to highlight how ludicrous some religious doctrines and traditions can be, and the dangers of "logic" informed by religion.
ReplyDelete