The 40th Anniversary of Monty Python and the Holy Grail: Still Funny After All These Years

Forty years ago this week in London, Monty Python expanded their television silliness to the big screen with their first "proper" feature length motion picture. (They had earlier released a film version of some of their TV sketches).

Shot on a shoe string budget, "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" opened a month later in the U.S. and stunned Hollywood by taking $5 million in its opening week.

Here are a few of my favorite scenes.

A take off on the Crusades of the Middle Ages, the movie made King Arthur and his associates into bumbling idiots as they battled the likes of smarmy Frenchmen, killer rabbits, Knights who say "Ni!" and even randy princesses on their way to capture the Holy Grail.

The film was funded by friends of the group, which included George Harrison and the rock bands Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin, all of whom granted total creative freedom to the boys. Despite that luxury, the guys still faced pressure to edit the film from the studio.

One scene they had to fight for was the infamous Black Knight scene with the famous line "It's just a flesh wound", uttered by the knight after all of his limbs had been severed.

On April 24, the remaining cast members will reunite for the Tribeca Film Festival to recount the making of the film, which launched the comedy troupe to make three additional movies, including 'The Life of Brian', and 'The Meaning of Life', none of which reached the box office success of 'Grail'.

Here are a few of my favorite scenes from the movie, which I still think holds up 40 years on, and recently passed the modern comic test when I recently showed it to my 24 year old daughter and her friends and they loved it.

First up, we have the King who isn't King.

When King Arthur encounters a group of serfs and peasants farming, they question his power, which is a wonderful play on medieval and modern politics.

Next we have Python silliness at its finest as French soldiers taunt King Arthur and his Crusaders from their castle.

And last but not least, the superstitions of the times are held out to parody as some locals ponder the punishment for a witch.