Quiz: how can you identify the one guy in the room...

...who has never before seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail?

Answer:  after seeing this, he is the one guy in the room who is not on the floor in an uncontrollable fit of hysterical laughter.

Repeat that:  fits of laughter so uncontrollable as to cause a poor victim to personally wet himself.  (Me, I soiled my armor I was laughing so hard.  And a moment later I done it again...)

Awesome.


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The...ah..."modern trailer" (snicker) may have a functional use, as well.  It's another excellent example of the impact of creative editing--in fact could be used as the sole basis for a short course or workshop.  For a while now I have leaned on the "Gummi Venus de Milo" sequence in The Simpsons episode Homer Badman as a humorous illustration that lots of people can identify with.  Gunnies in particular can identify with the before-and-after of the full interview with suspect Homer vs. the edit that appears on the boob tube later.  It seems likely that the show's creators might not appreciate the generalization of this perfect-presentation-of-the-skillful-edit to illustrate the demonization of gunnies (a barrel into which they have repeatedly reached), but there are lots of people who grew up seeing just this sort of thing applied relentlessly to gunnies all the time, and the example holds up well.

This Holy Grail trailer might be the flip side of the same idea...and is arguably an even more accurate representation of how things work.  Think about it:  a slickly-produced, creatively-edited, straight-faced ad for an underlying product whose primary value is the sheer depth of its own absurdity...

The delicious difference then, as you watch the next impassioned Bloomie/Chucky/DiFi/Horwitz/Brady production (in support of whatever their next ridiculous idea is), is simply this:  unlike the Holy Grail trailer, they offer their edits--and their absurdities--un-ironically.