Monty Python Wiki
Register
Advertisement
Montypythonfrench

- I fart in your general direction!- -The French Taunter insulting King Arthur and his knights

The French Taunter was a character from the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, portrayed by John Cleese. He was a witty, mustached French soldier who taunted and insulted King Arthur and his knights twice when they met, along with his fellow soldiers, as they hated Englishmen.

First, when Arthur and his knights were at the beginning of their quest for the Holy Grail, they stopped at the castle controlled by the Frenchmen. The French Taunter and his fellow soldiers looked out of their castle, seeing Arthur and his knights. Arthur told the French Taunter that if his lord would give them food and shelter for the night, he could join them in their quest. However, seeing that the knights were English, the Frenchman said that his lord already had a holy grail, so he would not go searching for one, and that they were French, not English, and declared Arthur a silly king. As Arthur said that he would become impatient, the taunter continued to throw insults at the king, such as: "Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries" and "I fart in your general direction," to the laughter of the Frenchmen and the anger of the knights, who prepared to attack the castle, until the Frenchmen started to throw cows and other animals at them, causing them to retreat as the taunter and the soldiers laughed in amusement. The knights then built a trojan rabbit, which the Frenchmen pulled into their castle, but the trick turned out bad when the knights forgot to hide inside the rabbit before leaving it in front of the castle, and the rabbit was thrown out of the castle at them.

Later, Arthur and his last remaining knight, Sir Bedevere, reached the castle of Aarrgh, where the grail was hidden, but it turned out that it was controlled by the same Frenchmen. Arthur, excited about the grail, shouted that they must enter the castle, but the French Taunter again insulted them and he and his fellow soldiers threw excrement at them. Arthur and Bedevere were forced to retreat again, as the taunter and the soldiers shouted taunts at them. Arthur and Bedevere returned to the castle with a huge army but were stopped by modern-day police who arrested Arthur and Bedevere for the murder of a famous historian (while they actually didn't do it), with the wife of the latter mistaking them for being the killers of her husband.

Advertisement