Editing 16: Monty Python -- Enough

{{comic
| number    = 16
| date      = October 4, 2005
| title     = Monty Python -- Enough
| before    = <big><big><span class="plainlinks">[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=Support%20Surreal%20Humor Original title</span>]: '''Support Surreal Humor'''</big></big>
| image     = monty python.jpg
| titletext = I went to a dinner where there was a full 10 minutes of Holy Grail quotes exchanged, with no context, in lieu of conversation. It depressed me badly.<br><br><span class="plainlinks">[https://web.archive.org/web/20070927001941/http://xkcd-drawings.livejournal.com/?skip=40#:~:text=Support%20Surreal%20Humor Original caption</span>]: Just sayin'. It's been 30 years now.
}}

==Explanation==
This was the fifteenth comic originally posted to [[LiveJournal]]. The previous one was [[15: Just Alerting You]], and the next one was [[17: What If]].

This comic refers to the classic British sketch comedy group {{w|Monty Python}}, active primarily during the 1970s and early 1980s but also {{w|Monty Python Live (Mostly)|partly reunified in 2014}}, whose humor style was frequently based on surreal jokes that subverted sense and logic. Their sketches are so popular that, as noted in the comic, many fans can repeat the dialog word-for-word, and often do. This comic points out the inherent irony of repeating a surrealist sketch, as surrealist humor primarily depends on presenting something the audience does not expect. By repeating the sketch verbatim among those who have already seen it, the listeners know and expect the punchlines and jokes. This is akin to a common ironic concept of a teenager who wants to rebel against conformity by doing all the things their friends are also doing.
 
The sketch in question here is the "{{w|Knights who say Ni}}" sketch from the film ''{{w|Monty Python and the Holy Grail}}'', about a group of knights who protect certain sacred words, including the word "Ni" (pronounced like the word "knee," but shortened and with more staccato). The comic suggests that readers continue in the surreal traditions of Monty Python, and provides an example: The character in panels 3-6 interrupts his retelling of the sketch with what appears to be a traumatic recalling of the time he saw someone run a woman over with their car and kill her, before returning to the sketch. The surreal humor is that the character dismisses the significant and serious comment he has just made by returning to the sketch as if nothing happened.
 
The title text and the original caption refer to how fans of Monty Python can go for lengthy periods of time simply quoting the sketches, as one person quotes a sketch, another recognizes it and says another quote without context, assuming everyone will recognize it. Perhaps a more contemporary version of this might be ''{{w|The Simpsons}}'' or ''{{w|Family Guy}}'' quote frenzies.

==Transcript==
:[The comic is drawn on blue-ruled graph paper.]
:[Cueball with raised hands talks to two other Cueball-like characters and one Megan]
:Cueball: We are the Knights who say... Ni!!
:Two Cueballs and Megan: hahaha

:[There is only text in the second panel]
:Does anyone else find it funny that decades later, people are still quoting --word-for-word-- a group loved for their mastery of shock, the unexpected, and defiance of convention?

:[Two Cueballs guys looking at a third hairy guy.]
:Hairy guy: We are the Knights who... oh, God, I'm so sorry

:[Close up off hairy guy's face.]
:Hairy guy: So sorry, the car just came too fast and

:[Words crumpled inside the panel, there's barely enough space for the hairy guy to the right and below the text. The last two words need to be to the right of him.]
:Hairy guy: 
::She was right there and
::I saw her and then it
::was a blur and so much
::I ran to 
::help didn't 
::know what 
::she wasn't 
::moving I'm 
::so sorry 
:
::... 
:::so 
:::sorry

:[Same two guys looking again at the hairy guy.]
:Hairy guy: Anyway, yeah, Knights who say "Ni."

:[Last panel is also almost only text written centered, in marquee format. Below is a drawing that could look like a flat infinity sign with two small lines at the center.]
:H<u>on</u>or
:Monty Python:
:promote surreal humor.

==Trivia==
This was the first comic to be [[:Category:Tuesday comics|released on a Tuesday]]. It was released only 2 minutes before midnight at 11:58 PM.

{{comic discussion}}

[[Category:Posted on LiveJournal| 15]]
[[Category:First day on xkcd.com]]
[[Category:Checkered paper]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
[[Category:Multiple Cueballs]]
[[Category:Fiction]]
[[Category:Comics with lowercase text]]