Monty Python and the Holy Grail; directed by Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones, written by Graham Chapman and John Cleese is a movie that does an adequate job at parodying middle age literature and middle age events. The 1970’s film uses many different approaches to poke fun at history, such as irony, absurdity, and hyperboles. The movie is a comedic imitation of the bleak events of the Middle Ages. The story focuses on the adventures of King Arthur when he is incriminated in the murder of a historian, in a present-day murder investigation. When the fictional King of the Britons leads his clan of round-table knights on a quest for the Holy Grail, they face a broad variety of foe. The jest cinematic exaggerated events like witch framing, black plague, and peasant to king discourse. In the witch framing scene, a young female is being accused of being a witch. During that time period, if you were accused of being a witch, they would drown you in a river.
If you lived, they believed that you used your powers to survive and then were burned at the stake. Ultimately, if you were accused, you were going to be put to death one way or another. Sir Bedivere said that you burn witches and you burn wood she must be made of wood. If this is true, she will float.
Both wood and ducks float, if she weighs the same as a duck she is made of wood therefore a witch. Monty Python is parodying the way witches were accused of witchcraft from the middle ages. The author uses this absurd, long explanation to show how unpractical the accusation truly is. The satire is created by a goup of men accusing a woman to Sir Bedivere, who constructs this myth about witches.
