Advertisement

Monty Python Holy Grail sketch shares its punchline with 15th Century manuscript, researchers find

Graham Chapman and John Cleese in Monty Python & The Holy Grail. - EMI/REX/Shutterstock
Graham Chapman and John Cleese in Monty Python & The Holy Grail. - EMI/REX/Shutterstock

When devising material for comedy classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the six members of the Python troupe likely assumed that their ‘Black Knight’ sketch was something completely different.

But a new manuscript reveals the surrealist troupe’s routine - which features John Cleese’s defiant character describing the removal of his limbs by King Arthur as “but a scratch” - was predated by 15th Century jesters.

British Library curators have unearthed a 600-year-old version of the same punchline in the margins of a newly digitised manuscript in what they have described as a “wonderful instance of medieval cartoon violence”.

The illustrated Sherborne Missal, thought to have been created at the start of the 1400s in Dorset, featured a battle that unfolded in its margins as well as the texts for the Easter Sunday Mass.

The conflict took place between two ‘wodewoses’, mythical wildmen who represented the savage side of humanity, and had the same ending as the 1975 Python sketch.

Watch: Five of the best ever prosthetic movie makeups

“The two wodewoses are riding on the page’s decorative frame as though it’s a horse,” Ellie Jackson, curator of illuminated manuscripts at the British Library, told BBC Radio 4.

“You can see that the battle has been raging for a while — one wodewose’s sword has broken. He’s had his leg chopped off and he’s wielding his severed limb in lieu of his broken sword.

“The other wodewose has been decapitated and is now using his head as a replacement shield.

The wodewoses in the medieval manuscript - News Scans
The wodewoses in the medieval manuscript - News Scans

“We realised that the joke is essentially the same as the Monty Python Black Knight joke - the combatants refuse to give up. ‘Tis but a scratch!”

It comes as the Sherborne Missal is digitised by the British Library, which is its custodian, in its entirety for the first time.

The manuscript is described by the Library as a “titan” which clocks in at 694 pages, and includes illustrations of various bird species in addition to the Python-esque punchlines.

The Black Knight sketch continues to rank among the most celebrated comedy pieces, and the Missal shows that the Pythons upheld a centuries-long tradition of comedians looking on the bright side of life.

Watch: Why Britons will get an extra bank holiday in 2022