"RUN AWAY!!!" Celebrating 50 Years of MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (1975)

I just attended Fathom Events' 50th anniversary screening of MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL (1975), the film I have seen countless times since discovering it at age ten. I went With dear old friend Matt Snow, whom I met nearly a half century ago, and one of the many things our adolescent sensibilities bonded over was our love of all things Monty Python. Some things you never outgrow.

Me representing as Tim the Enchanter, and Matt, wielding the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.

If I had to guesstimate, it was an audience of perhaps thirty people, many of whom were under-16s who had been brought by parents.I wonder how they processed the film, and Python in general, because Python's bizarre style has been well-absorbed into the global language of comedy over the past 55 years, so does their flavor have the same kind of seismic impact on today's youth as it did on my generation? I kinda doubt it, and it saddens me to think that works such as this may now reside in the "you had to be there" category. Nonetheless, MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL remains my personal pick as the funniest film ever made. Definitely not for all tastes, but its utter absurdity has always resonated with me.

Representing with a female Sir Bedevere cosplayer, Note her bag: a duck. If you know the movie, you get it.

RECOGNIZE!!!

When I returned from Tuesday afternoon's screening of SINNERS, I crossed 5th Avenue and was about to enter the Associated supermarket, when I saw a scruffy, hipster-looking dude who was perhaps in his early thirties, sporting the above t-shirt. I waved at him and exclaimed "Yeah! Fuckin' GG!!!", at which he stopped and smiled, and he then noted his appreciation of my Hardcore Devo tee. We chatted briefly at the corner of 5th Avenue and Union Street, sharing anecdotes about each of us having met GG Allin and his Hitler-mustached brother Merle, and when we both had to leave, we smiled and bade each other a friendly farewell. It was a lovely moment, and proof that music brings people together. Even the music of a guy with (non-) hits such as "Kill the Children, Save the Food" (GG's answer to USA for Africa), "I Wanna Piss On You," "I Wanna Rape You," and that timeless family favorite, "Expose Yourself to Kids," in his catalog.