“IT’S…”
…Major Spoilers Flying Query! *fanfare* With the latest episode of Critical Hit still haunting our collective consciousness, I thought I might try and turn our thoughts to a more pleasant bit of gaming minutiae. Throughout the many years that I’ve been roleplaying, throughout many different games and gaming systems, there have been a few utterly unbreakable rules:
* Don’t call the game-master a “scuzzbag.”
* Don’t attack your party (unless you’re sure you’ll win.)
* Never give Tiltowait the money.
* Most important of all, never EVER reference Monty Python unless you’re ready for the entire game to devolve into a sea of “NI!” and “I got better!”, derailing any and all questions of game-play into a quagmire of Chapman and company.
The hysterical virulence of a single Monty Python quote puts the plague in ’28 Days Later’ to shame, and one utterance of “DINSDAAALE!” can break up not only the drama, but the game itself (and, in one unfortunate situation in the late ’90s, a marriage.) Still, there’s something wonderful about the absurdity of the Pythons’ work, and sooner or later, even the Rodrigo has been known to throw in the errant “WITH A HERRING!” here and there, and you have to appreciate that a 45-year-old sketch program has such lasting impact on our nerdly vernacular.
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) thinks we should get it all out of our system and forget the horrible events in the Feywild, asking: What’s your favorite bit of Monty Python ridiculousness?*
36 Comments
Always look on the bright side of life! Doot doo, doot do doot do doot!
do!
Always look on the bright side of death.
Just before you draw your terminal breath.
I was going to post… but your obvious disregard for Red Dwarf even after the recent 25 year anniversary sickens me…. “know what I mean?”
If Red Dwarf got respect, it wouldn’t be Red Dwarf. Thus, I’m merely honoring the spirit of the show.
Right, so what you are saying is you think Red Dwarf is good… And into photography… “Know what I mean? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge”
So, is she into sports?
Know what I mean, know what I mean?
Say no more, say no more!
A nod’s as good as a wink to a blind bat
THIS PARROT IS NO MORE
” I’m being oppressed…”
“Not dead yet.” That line always seems to creep it’s way into every RPG I play and not always by me.
“Oh, intercourse the pen-gu-in!”
There are dozens, of course, but this is one my brother and I adopted and rarely hear outside the family.
Albatross!
WHY’D YOU SAY BURMA?
I PANICKED!
“I can’t tell the difference between Whizzo butter-spread and this dead crab,” and the perrenial, “No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!”
Hell’s Grannies is pretty brilliant as well.
Oh and that one where they went to ask Rene Descarte about the meaning behind his work. Grown men in skirts using high voices and speaking terrible French… C’est Bon!
Whizzo Butter comes up around here as a reference, too.
“I fart in your general direction!” Maybe not the funniest part, but growing up with brothers it was the most used and accurate line.
Hands down…the virgins needing spanked. To this day I long to find that castle. And no I would most certainly not need rescued!
Ministry of silly walks
Mi kids favorite!
All I see here is spam, spam, spam and spam
“And for the rest of you, there’s sports.” I bust this one out many fall weekends.
What’s that on the telly?
My brothers and I break out in to the Spam bit whenever we get together. I can no longer remember what originally started it, but it has become a ritual with us.
But my favorite bit is “Nudge nudge”.
Other than a myriad of Holy Grail lines, the one that gets used most in my house is variations on “Sheep are very dim. And once they get an idea in their heads, there’s no shifting it,” from the Flying Sheep sketch on Flying Circus. We call the dog a “flying sheep” a lot, as well as anyone who persistently does something dumb or self-defeating.
Ahhh, Kids In The Halls, we hardly new ye. “I crusha your head!”
“What is your quest?” gets quite a bit of use when I gather round the role-playing table with my friends.
“No no, no. It’s spelled ‘Raymond Luxury Yacht’, but it’s pronounced ‘Throat-Wobbler Mangrove.'”
“That’s not even a proper nose. It’s polystyrene!”
Somehow this grand flow of Pythonic goodness reminded me of another old staple: “But it’s my only line!”
I can’t remember the name of the bit, but I love the sketch in which Eric Idle’s character tells his poet father (Graham Chapman) that he wants to be a coal miner.
“THERE’S NA’ WRONG WI’ GALA LUNCHEONS!”
Also, “Tungsten carbide drills?!” gets a disproportionate amount of play.
That’s an awesome ‘bit’!
A moose once bit my sister. (it is buried in the text the beginning credits)
Monty Python’s Sam Peckinpah’s “Salad Days”
M: An argument isn’t just contradiction.
A: It can be.
M: No it can’t. An argument is a connected series of statements intended to establish a proposition.
A: No it isn’t.
M: Yes it is! It’s not just contradiction.
A: Look, if I argue with you, I must take up a contrary position.
M: Yes, but that’s not just saying ‘No it isn’t.’
A: Yes it is!
M: No it isn’t!
The Twit of the Year competition.