This supposedly attracts the movie's heroine, played by Gwyneth Paltrow. Poor John Hannah, a fine English actor, plays a man whose only identifying characteristic is bursting out with "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" while at dinner with friends. If you've seen the 1998 romantic comedy Sliding Doors (and I'm not encouraging you to do so), you understand what I'm talking about. As a result, when overused, they are really fucking annoying. Unfortunately, quotations differ from standard jargon in that, by and large, they contain no additional information they reference a cultural identity and nothing else. ![]() The people who quote Monty Python are using a kind of jargon, a private language that separates them from those not of their tribe, much like the jargon used by car mechanics, bureaucratic politicians, or computer programmers. (In fact, it's amazing just how funny this movie remains it drags a bit toward the end, but a good 80 percent of it is still crisply comic.) But people quoting Monty Python are not funny-nor, really, are they trying to be, at least not in the same sense that Michael Palin and John Cleese are. Why, exactly, do people persist in repeating Monty Python skits? Yes, the material is funny. Now, the rerelease of Monty Python and the Holy Grail-featuring a stereo soundtrack and around 23 seconds of previously unseen footage-promises to bring more into the fold of this alarmingly widespread cult. ![]() This subculture is continually renewed as geeky teenagers (who weren't even born when The Meaning of Life, the Python troupe's last movie proper, came out) immerse themselves in absurd British wordplay and sneering, sniveling, or affectless characters. Some people quote Steve Martin some people quote The Simpsons but Monty Python quoters are a world unto themselves.
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