Witch weighing, African swallows, a bloodthirsty bunny, God himself… We’re talking of course about Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Sure, the movie is epically silly, but behind the humor lay countless cultural and historical references. According to BYU film studies professor Darl Larsen, in crafting their 1975 cult-classic film the Pythons drew from Arthurian legend, the Medieval period, and the hard times of 1970s Great Britain. Larsen joins us Thursday for something completely different.
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Darl Larsen is a professor in the Media Arts department at the Center for Animation at Brigham Young University, where he teaches film, animation, screenwriting, and pop culture studies. He’s the author of the books Monty Python, Shakespeare and English Renaissance Drama; Monty Python’s Flying Circus: An Uttlerly Complete, Thoroughly Unillustrated, Absolutely Unauthorized Guide to Possibly All the References; and A Book About the Film Monty Python and the Holy Grail: All the References, from African Swallows to Zoot [Amazon|Indiebound]
