Description of satire in the movie Aspect of Medieval Life Being Satirized

Type of Satire

“Bring out your dead” Bubonic plague Parody/Spoof

“He must be the King. He hasn't got shit all over him.”

The riches of the king Mockery

Dark age figure in Crusade era garb Crusades Parody/Spoof

peasants wallowing in the mud Unfortunate plight of peasants in the Dark Ages

Parody/Spoof

Group of monks chanting in Latin while passing through peasant village devastated by disease

Indifference of elites to the plight of the common villagers

Parody/Spoof

Monks smack a board on their forehead in rhythm to the chant

Reference to the practice of harming oneself as a display of piety used by some orders of medieval monks; comes off as an insult in displaying the stubbornness of the Catholic Church.

Parody/Spoof

King Arthur comes into contact with a peasant couple who have some ideas about government that are not to his taste. He first inquires about the identity of their lord, to which they respond that they have no lord and that they are an autonomous collective. Arthur, clearly annoyed, announces his position as their King to elicit their respect. "Well I didn't vote for you!" is the response of the peasant woman.  The King then backs up his claim to their obedience with the story of his gaining of Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake, and his divine right to rule.   The peasant man, named Dennis, answers back that "supreme executive power derives from the mandate of masses".

The responses of the peasants come straight from immensely influential figures such as Locke, Montesquieu, and Rousseau.   The struggle between the ideal of an absolute monarch and the Social Contact climax when Arthur throttles the poor serf.   The ideas of the late 18th century and its enlightened thinkers are used in a medieval setting to brilliant comedic effect.

Bathos

Sir Galahad finds himself the guest of temptation at Castle Anthrax. Surrounded

Sir Galahad’s reputation in Arthurian

Parody/Spoof

by beautiful young women eager to seduce him, Galahad displays the model of chastity in his defiance. Upon stumbling into the bathing chamber however, he begins to rethink his position. Just as he gives in, Lancelot bursts through the door and "rescues" Galahad from a very good time.

legends was renowned for his purity and service to God

Lancelot receives a message from what he believes to be a distressed young damsel and sets off for another rescue.   However, upon rushing Swamp Castle he discovers that the damsel was merely the effeminate son of the castle's lord who had cold feet on his wedding day.   Yet before Lancelot discovered this, he had stormed in, killing innocent bystanders and wedding guests to reach the tallest tower, where he had envisioned a maiden distraught.

Chivalry clouds Lancelot’s judgment

Parody/Spoof

King Arthur cuts off the limbs of a black knight in the forest that will not let him pass. Even with out any legs, the knight still continues to badmouth Arthur in hopes that he will fight him.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Allusion/ Parody/ Spoof

When the knights are united they encounter a castle held by a French lord on English soil. The defenders of the castle, in a caricature of French manners, taunt Arthur and his knights with insults to their honor.

The knights’ wounded pride prompts them to attack against impossible odds only to be driven back when the saucy French begin to lob livestock over the parapets as artillery. Arthur and his knights are continually foiled by their adherence to the principles of chivalry.

Parody/Spoof

King Arthur and his knights exclaim "run away, run away," fleeing from unpleasant predicaments such as the bombardment of random farm animals on them by the

In Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in which Sir Gawain is prodded by a page of the Lord of

Allusion/Spoof/Parody

French castle and the massacre of many of their men by a vicious rabbit.

Robin runs away from a three-headed monster as his minstrel sings of "brave Sir Robin.

the Manor to leave the Green Chapel and not honor the return blow from the Green Knight. Displaying courage, however, Gawain insists that he stick to their agreement instead of taking the cowardly way out of the conflict.

In Monty Python and the Holy Grail, however, King Arthur, his knights, and Robin are spoofed as cowards.

Jonathan Chen / 2nd period / Kresta / English IV