With its multiple instances of nudity, murder, and incest (among other things), Game of Thrones is not a series that is known for its abundant hilarity. (I mean, except for when Tyrion puts the verbal smackdown on people.) So it might be surprising to some that a Season 4 episode paid homage to one of the most hilarious comedy movies of all times: Monty Python and the Holy Grail. And it would be impossible to figure it out on your own.
The scene in question was in Season 4’s third episode, “Breaker of Chains,” at the point in which Daenerys and her army have reached the city of Meereen, and she is accosted from afar by the Champion of Meereen. Remember this guy, who quite disrespectfully peed in her general direction?
According to Daily Mail, it turns out everything he was yelling at her in Low Valyrian was a list of insults that John Cleese’s French Taunter yelled at Graham Chapman’s King Arthur and his knights. Classic quotes such as “Your mother was a hamster,” and “Go boil your bottoms, son of a silly person,” were the things being hollered, rather than any literal demands for Daenerys to choose a challenger to take him on. Though, technically, he did wave his private parts, just not at anyone’s aunties. Check out the Holy Grail scene below.
Linguist David J. Peterson created both the High and Low Valyrian languages, as well as Dothraki, and only he, the writer and the producer were clued in on the knowledge that the scene was a nod to the classic comedy.
The highly anticipated Season 5 debut of Game of Thrones finally kicks off on HBO on Sunday, April 12, at which point we can all start looking for these characters weighing witches or discussing the number of times a swallow beats its wings to maintain air-speed velocity. And if Jon Snow decides to open up a Cheese Shop, we’re all for it.
