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Kung Pow vs Monty Python and the Holy Grail

posted 9 years ago by MonoEnojado
3 replies | jump to latest

How come a movie like Kung Pow gets a rating of 6,2 and a movie like Monty Python and the Holy Grail is in top 100? I mean, think about it. Both movies have a really stupid sense of humor, but for some reason people like to say "the Holy Grail" is clever and "Kung Pow" is simply dumb.

In one movie a man has a living tongue and in the other men walk around pretending to be riding horses. In one movie one man rubs another man's breast to death while in the other a man loses all of his extremities and wants to keep fighting. In one movie a man fights against a cow and in the other men fight against a giant bunny. I bet if you told this to someone who has seen neither of them they wouldn't know which one is one.

So how come one is regarded as one of the greatest comedies of all times and the other one only gets a moderate cult status?

What annoys me the most is that a lot of people that downrate this movie actually laugh their asses watching it. It's like they were ashamed of it.

I will die defending this movie. Yes: it's absolutely stupid, but that's all intentional and it achieves being one of the funniest movies of all times, which is enough for me.

[–] jimwormmaster 9 years ago

Eh, I like both. I'm more a fan of Holy Grail mostly cause I'm a huge Monty Python fan in general, but I thoroughly enjoy movies like Kung Pow and Kung Fu Hustle. Just depends on what one's in the mood for, I suppose.

[–] jonmcewen 8 years ago

Ooooh! I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were
an autonomous collective ...

DENNIS
You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship,
A self-perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes ...

OLD WOMAN
There you are, bringing class into it again ...

DENNIS
That's what it's all about ... If only -

ARTHUR
Please, please good people. I am in haste. What knight lives in
that castle?

OLD WOMAN
No one live there.

ARTHUR
Well, who is your lord?

OLD WOMAN
We don't have a lord.

ARTHUR
What?
DENNIS
I told you, We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune, we take
it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week.

Sorry for the cut and paste. I think you'd struggle to describe Monty Python and the Holy Grail as a dumb comedy. It's the epitomy of British upper class intellectual comedy.

[–] taran-rod 8 years ago

Because Monty Python rules and they were using an unique formula in their ways to make them. I mean, each Python always play god knows how many different characters in each movies. This way they all explore different types of funny and exaggerated characters. Plus, every Pythons wrote their scripts. I know it is technically the case with Kung Pow as well (the lead actor is also the writer and the director).

The thing with Kung Pow, is that opposed to what Monty Pythons do, the movie doesn't use a personal style. It is a parody that reminds us Mel Brooks' parodies. When Mel started to do it a few decades ago, it was something new and it was highly praised.

So it seems to me normal that people will give the cult status to Holy Grail while saying that Kung Pow is somehow stupid. Monty Pythons totally created a new way to make comedies. Plus, their humour is smart and they criticise a lot of social problems while using a pushed to the limits type of humour. They talked about something and wanted to reach the audience and make them think. I guess that a lot of people don't get the critics and just see the funny aspect of the thing, and it is totally fine too. And the level of rewatchibility is impressively high. Every time i rewatch a movie coming from them I understand jokes I didn't understand the time before and some laughs are added. In the meanwhile, I understood Kung Pow from the first watch and even though I enjoyed it, I don't think I'll watch it again anytime soon.

So yeah, to conclude everything, the Holy Grail will be perceived as a classic of comedy forever while Kung Pow will just make the list of successful parodies without being alone or the best in the category.