Expert: April - 1/6/2007

Question
To what extent Monty Python were anti establishment?

Thank you

Answer
Monty Python had as their stock and trade the dialogue-dense, mildly absurdist short-form sketch. To that extent, Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a series of comedic skits and improvisations loosely bound--very loosely--by the contention that this merry sextet of Britons are attempting to tell the Arthur myth without the aid of budget, plot, or accuracy. Each of the members classically educated, the film seems to be a giant flip of the nose at the pretension of the British literary tradition, and, in the act of being such, nearly becomes the best telling of the grail legend available. MPatHG is a satire that instructs with its informed irreverence, a piece that knows the rules before it breaks them and has shown itself over the course of twenty-six years to be almost as immediate and hilarious as it was upon initial release.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a collection of exuberant, ludicrous vignettes that have themselves become as recognizable and venerable as the events they ostensibly depicted.

Having said this?  I almost think Monty Python is losing some of their popularity.  Society is changing and along with that, so is the taste in humor.