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Monty Python and the Holy Grail
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<p><i>Monty Python and the Holy Grail</i> is a 1975 British <a href="/facts/Comedy_film/uKRYTRP3">comedy film</a> based on the <a href="/facts/Arthurian_legend/Sar4kAWG">Arthurian legend</a>, written and performed by the <a href="/facts/Monty_Python/tNPcRLty">Monty Python</a> comedy group (<a href="/facts/Graham_Chapman/bchpDSuv">Graham Chapman</a>, <a href="/facts/John_Cleese/ULkFcKVC">John Cleese</a>, <a href="/facts/Terry_Gilliam/oHY9a7FS">Terry Gilliam</a>, <a href="/facts/Eric_Idle/8zfXrh4j">Eric Idle</a>, <a href="/facts/Terry_Jones/WzUj6Gyu">Terry Jones</a>, and <a href="/facts/Michael_Palin/fWgDKcc0">Michael Palin</a>) and directed by Gilliam and Jones in their feature directorial debuts. It was conceived during the hiatus between the third and fourth series of their <a href="/facts/BBC_Television/cJ56QwKM">BBC Television</a> series <i><a href="/facts/Monty_Python%27s_Flying_Circus/9HlYg0er">Monty Python's Flying Circus</a></i>. </p><p>While the group's first film, <i><a href="/facts/And_Now_for_Something_Completely_Different/WCoYnT8W">And Now for Something Completely Different</a></i>, was a compilation of <a href="/facts/Sketch_comedy/o2lkGS6z">sketches</a> from the first two television series, <i>Holy Grail</i> is an original story that parodies the legend of <a href="/facts/King_Arthur/JDyRQ8gx">King Arthur</a>'s quest for the <a href="/facts/Holy_Grail/c08z6kXS">Holy Grail</a>. Thirty years later, Idle used the film as the basis for the 2005 <a href="/facts/Tony_Award/Md77rBE0">Tony Award</a>-winning musical <i><a href="/facts/Spamalot/eKBWnFuX">Spamalot</a></i>. </p><p><i>Monty Python and the Holy Grail</i> grossed more than any other British film screened in the US in 1975, and has since been considered one of the <a href="/facts/List_of_films_voted_the_best/pGV2gfUG">greatest comedy films of all time</a>. In the US, it was selected in 2011 as the second-best comedy of all time in the <a href="/facts/American_Broadcasting_Company/WGxg4vRX">ABC</a> special <i>Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time</i> behind <i><a href="/facts/Airplane!/R10R4YvA">Airplane!</a></i>. In the UK, readers of <i><a href="/facts/Total_Film/UBCttJJ6">Total Film</a></i> magazine in 2000 ranked it the fifth-greatest comedy film of all time; a similar poll of <a href="/facts/Channel_4/qosXcrpc">Channel 4</a> viewers in 2006 placed it sixth. </p>