Editing Black Knight (Monty Python) (section)

==Behind the scenes==
According to the DVD audio commentary by [[John Cleese|Cleese]], [[Michael Palin]], and [[Eric Idle]], the sequence originated in a story told to Cleese when he was attending an English class during his school days. Two Roman wrestlers were engaged in a particularly intense match and had been fighting for so long that the two combatants were doing little more than leaning into one another. It was only when one wrestler finally tapped out and pulled away from his opponent that he and the crowd realised the other man was, in fact, dead and had effectively won the match posthumously. The moral of the tale, according to Cleese's teacher, was "if you never give up, you can't possibly lose" – a statement that, Cleese reflected, always struck him as being "philosophically unsound".<ref>{{cite web |title=John Cleese on the Black Knight and Douglas Adams' High Heels |url=https://www.wired.com/2014/11/geeks-guide-john-cleese/ |website=Wired.com |accessdate=22 August 2020 |date=8 November 2014}}</ref> The story would have been a deformed (or misremembered) description of the death of the Greek wrestler [[Arrhichion|Arrhichion of Phigalia]].{{citation needed|date=September 2020}}

Cleese said that the scene would seem heartless and sadistic except for the fact that the Black Knight shows no pain and just keeps on fighting, or trying to, however badly he is wounded. Also, as the scene progresses and Arthur becomes increasingly annoyed, his dialogue lapses from medieval ("You are indeed brave, Sir Knight, but the fight is mine.") to modern ("Look, you stupid bastard, you've got no arms left!"), and finally to just plain sarcastic ("What are you gonna do, bleed on me?"), while the Black Knight remains just as defiant ("I'm invincible!" he yells with only one leg left, to which Arthur simply replies "You're a loony.").

This scene is one of the best-known of the entire film. A famous line of the scene, "'Tis but a scratch", is similar to a line the character [[Mercutio]] speaks in [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', wherein he demurs, saying "Ay, ay, a scratch, a scratch", referring to his mortal wound, and the former has since become an expression used to comment on someone who ignores a fatal flaw or problem. The phrase "'Tis but a flesh wound", following a character entering "with coconut shells tied to his feet", notably appeared in an early episode of ''[[The Goon Show]]'' titled "The Giant Bombardon", broadcast in 1954; the [[Monty Python]] group has acknowledged being influenced by the Goons.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thegoonshow.net/scripts_show.asp?title=svge04_the_giant_bombardon|title=The Goon Show Site - Script - the Giant Bombardon (Vintage Goons Series, Episode 4)|access-date=16 October 2009|archive-date=6 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506003458/http://www.thegoonshow.net/scripts_show.asp?title=svge04_the_giant_bombardon|url-status=usurped }}</ref> A humorous reference to a potentially mortal injury being a "flesh wound" also appeared in the 1940 [[screwball comedy]] ''[[His Girl Friday]]'', in response to a maid being reported shot by a sheriff's deputy.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/HisGirlFriday-1940|title=Internet Archive: His Girl Friday - 1940}}</ref>

===Performance difficulty===
The Knight was, in fact, played by two actors: John Cleese is in the Knight's armour until he is down to one leg. The Knight is then played by a real one-legged man, a local by the name of Richard Burton,<ref>{{IMDb name|1907034|Richard Burton (IX)}}</ref> a blacksmith who lived near the film shoot (not to be confused with [[Richard Burton]], the Welsh actor of the same name), because, according to the DVD commentary, Cleese could not balance well on one leg. After the Knight's remaining leg is cut off, the quadruple-amputee that remains is again Cleese.

In the musical ''[[Spamalot]]'', the scene with the Black Knight was the most difficult to play on stage, according to Eric Idle. [[Penn & Teller]] created the illusion for the musical.<ref>Interview with Eric Idle in [[HUMO]] 3691, May 2011</ref>