Knights who say Ni

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The Knights Who Say Ni are a band of knights from the comedy film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, feared for the manner in which they utter the word "ni" (pronounced [ni], like knee but clipped short). As it was said in the movie, "Those who hear them seldom live to tell the tale!"

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Michael Palin as one of the "Knights Who Say Ni"

The Knights are led by a man who is approximately 12 feet tall with disproportionately short arms and tree branches inserted into his helmet (played by Michael Palin standing on a ladder). The other Knights are of normal human dimensions and act as a chorus, only repeating words and phrases which the head Knight has spoken.

"Ni" is only the most notable of the sacred words which they are assigned to protect; the others being "Peng" and "Ni-wom". All are infamous for the palpable horror and fear they bring about, whether delivered by the Knights or not.

The Knights demand that King Arthur bring them a shrubbery in order to pass through a patch of woodland which they guard. Later, they become the Knights of an odd string of syllables. The saying is spelled the following way according to the "script" subtitles available on the collector's edition DVD:

Ekke, Ekke, Ekke, Ekke, Ptang, Zoo boing! [Goodem-zoo-owli-zhiv].

Because of the challenging pronunciation, King Arthur simply refers to them as "The Knights Who 'Till Recently Said Ni". Originally, the name was to be changed to "the Knights Who Go Ni... Whom... Ping."

Later, the Knights demanded that King Arthur would get them another shrubbery, arrange the two shrubberies so that they get a two-level effect ("...with a little path running down the middle."), and then proceed to "...cut down the mightiest tree in the forest with... a herring!" Arthur refuses, claiming that such a feat can't be done, to which the Knights reply "Oh, Please?"

The Knights have a weakness in that a number of words, when spoken to them, cause them pain and agony. The only one of these words that is revealed in the film is the word "it". This apparently contradicts the earlier conversation, in which "it" is said, yet the Knights do not appear to be affected.

There was a further scene that was scripted, but either cut or never filmed. In it, the Knights recovered from having "it" said, and when they hear someone else coming, they decide that they'll demand another shrubbery, this time calling themselves the "Knights of Nicky-Nicky".

This scene is among the most popular scenes in the movie. The Knights who say Ni have thus, like a lot of Monty Python scenes and sketches, been quoted and referred to in many instances.

1 Spamalot
2 Origin
3 Trivia
4 References

[edit] Spamalot

The Knights appear in Spamalot, the Broadway musical adaptation of the film, with their first scene virtually unchanged. The Knight's new name changes almost nightly, improvised by the actor playing the lead Knight (originally Hank Azaria), but allways starting with "Ekky Ekky Ekky Ph'tang Ph'tang ole Biscut Barrell..." which itself references several famous sketches from Monty Python's Flying Circus, including Election Night Special. The other major change in the scene is that the renamed Knights not only demand another shrubbery, but also that King Arthur put on a musical and take it to Broadway - not an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, either. King Arther does attempt to fulfill this quest in the second act until the Lady of the Lake tells him that he is already in a musical -- see fourth wall.

[edit] Origin

Since the start of movie contains some evident joking about scandinavian language and Sweden, scandinavians can claim that the word "ni" has been derived from the Swedish language (where it means "you" in the plural or courteous form), but during the DVD commentary, Michael Palin says that their use of the word was derived from The Goon Show. Other parallels to The Goon Show can also be drawn between the strangled voice of the Knights and the voice of Bluebottle.

[edit] Trivia

In The Simpsons episode "Homer Goes to College" three fellow students tell Homer Simpson that they know "the words to every Monty Python routine,"^[1] then illustrate this by saying all at once: "We are the Knights who say... Ni! Ni! Ni! Ni!" After saying this they chuckle in delight. Homer, who has no idea what they're talking about, then thinks for a moment and concludes chucklingly: "Heh heh... Ni."

The knight in the RTS video game Warcraft III says: "I never say Ni!"

On Stargate SG-1 when Mitchell is being told of Sir Gawain he asks "Isn't he one of the knights who said Ni"?

In the musical Spamalot, after they change their name (The Knights who say ecky ecky...) the phrase "I'm Rick James, Bitch" is added to the end of their new name. The phrase is borrowed from a popular skit by comedian Dave Chapelle.

In another performance of the musical Spamalot the name change is a long progression of cat meows and hacking sounds accompanied with sounds of planes and finally topped off with the knight saying "Cats on a Plane." This refers to the movie that opened the week before this performance - Snakes On A Plane.

In still another performance of Spamalot, the name change is followed by the first verse of The Brady Bunch ("Here's a story of a lovely lady..."). After the first verse, the Knight comments, "There's a second verse about a man named Brady, but..." to which he is met by a dubious stare from King Arthur.

In yet one more performance of Spamalot, the name change ends with a deep-voiced drawl into the oft-used Brokeback Mountain reference line "Why can't I quit you?"

In another performance of Spamalot, in Saint Louis, of November 2006, the name change ended with, "I'm Claire McCaskill and I approve this name change,", to reference the senatorial election in Missouri between Senator Jim Talent and Claire McCaskill.

In the webcomic 21deadmonkeys made by mmr21, member of the Boxcar Comics collective, The Knights are used as a punchline in the episode "And i know that i'm not coming out on top", where the character of Hoss ends a sentence with "it" and then, when seeing the Knights, asks himself : "Did I say 'is' ?"