Wonderful! My wife and I just showed this movie to our kids last month, and they loved it.
I'd always assumed "Your mother was a hamster and your father stank of elderberries" was just a meaningless bit of Monty Python absurdity.
When my wife explained to the kids that meant your mom is a slut and your dad is a drunk I was flabbergasted. I had never reevaluated that iconic insult from my initial ignorant teenage assumptions.
In Geneva, Switzerland there are various buildings named after John Knox, the early Scot Protestant who lived for a while in Geneva after being exiled. When Knox is mentioned in America his name is normally pronounced "Nox" like Fort Knox is. But in Switzerland the K isn't silent, as I learned when visiting. It's weird when you think about it why English decided that K's at the start of words should be silent.
You must have not had a dad that would constantly ask for you to pass the butter kanife. As a kid, I just assumed bad dad joke about silent letters, but then I saw Holy Grail, and realized he was making a movie reference.
Yeah, I didn't get the masturbation pun for that one until like three years ago; it always seemed like a pretty innocuous title until someone laughed when I mentioned it.
You’re misunderstand me.
I’m blown away at how much I have clearly missed about a movie I like. I’m not sure how I’ve managed to come across as I have - apologies.
As a teen I got in trouble once because I said that as a not at all serious insult to someone. I also didn't know it meant anything. The trouble was he *did* know what it meant but did *not* know it was a movie quote. So he went to the teacher and complained, and such is life.
Huh! Amazing. In my high-school we insulted each other's mothers every day. Going to the teacher about it would have been inconceivable. Was it common practice at your school, an anti-bullying initiative or something? Was this in the US?
Hmm. I don't find that theory convincing. That sort of humor does not really fit in with their body of work, but random absurdity definitely does.
Hamsters aren't really known for promiscuity. Fecundity perhaps, but then the insult is "your mother had a lot of kids"? Doesn't meet the MP standards.
Elderberry wine smells no more like elderberries than wine smells like grapes, so getting from "...your father smelt of elderberries" to "he was a drunk" is quite a stretch. Why not "it means he ate too much elderberry strudel" if we're going for alternate explanations?
But isn't it a deeper commentary into English culture with Gin since the elderberry is what is used to make Gin from just alcohol? They didn't make a joke about grapes=>wine, or peat moss=>scotch.
I'd always assumed "Your mother was a hamster and your father stank of elderberries" was just a meaningless bit of Monty Python absurdity.
When my wife explained to the kids that meant your mom is a slut and your dad is a drunk I was flabbergasted. I had never reevaluated that iconic insult from my initial ignorant teenage assumptions.