Education Suggestions - Tramping Must Knows! (2016)

Aurthor: Captain Matt

Have you run out of things to watch and read? Trying to understand those obscure references your fellow trampers keep alluding to? In need of some serious silliness?

Here’s a list of recommended reading/ watching to get you up to speed with a few traditional AUTC favourites, which seem to have stuck with the club for decades. With each suggestion I’ll leave you with a quote or two to whet your appetite:

Lord of the Rings – J.R.R Tolkie

Go on, read the books, you know you want to! Failing that, watch the movies and see them travel from Matamata all the way down through most of the South Island to end up back in Tongariro National Park, less than a 3hr drive away.

Monty Python the 1st: Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Arguably one of the most quotable movies of all time, someone’s bound to make a passing reference to this when you come across killer bunnies, swallows, or rude French knights.

French Knight: “Your Mother was a Hamster, and your Father smelt of Elderberries!”

A knight who says ‘Ni’: “You must now cut down the tallest tree in the forest... With... A HER

RING!!!!!”

Tim: Stop! WHAT is your name?

King Arthur: It is Arthur, King of the Britons!

Tim: WHAT is your quest?

King Arthur: To seek the Holy Grail!

Tim: WHAT is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

You’ve quite a few options with this one, as it’s a book series (7 books long at last count), a radio series and multiple movies. The story follows the misadventures of the last surviving Earthling, Arthur Dent, after the Earth is destroyed by a Vogon constructor fleet in order to make way for a hyperspace bypass.

“But the plans were on display…”

“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”

“That’s the display department.”

“With a flashlight.”

“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”

“So had the stairs.”

“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”

“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”

Monty Python the 2nd: Monty Python’s Life of Brian

“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.”

Monty Python the 2nd: Monty Python’s Life of Brian

“So funny, it was banned in Norway”, according to the Python team when marketing in Sweden. Indeed, many countries banned this film initially due to the themes of religious satire, but they gradually saw sense when they realised most of the jokes were pure silliness. It follows the life of ‘Brian’, a relatively normal man who made the mistake of being born on the same day and next door to Jesus, only to spend his life being mistaken as him.

Brian’s mum: “He’s not the messiah, he’s a very naughty boy.”

Pontius Pilate: “What’s so funny about Biggus Dickus?”

The Princess Bride – William Goldman (book or film)

Another of the most quotable movies of all time, this story features, among many other things, the politest swordfight in history, rodents of unusual size and fearsome battles of wits.

Inigo Montoya: “Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya! You killed my father! Prepare to die!”

Vizzini: “He didn’t fall?! Inconceivable!”

Inigo Montoya: “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Miracle Max and Valerie: “Have fun stormin’ da castle.”

Monty Python the 3rd: Monty Python’s Flying Circus

As well as a thoroughly amusing set of movies, the Python team compiled hundreds of skits into this TV show, many of which AUTC members can quote in their entirety. Favourites include:

The Dead Parrot Sketch: “‘E’s not pinin’! ‘E’s passed on! This parrot is no more! He has ceased to be!

‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! ‘E’s a stiff! Bereft of life, ‘e rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed ‘im to the perch ‘e’d be pushing up the daisies! ‘Is metabolic processes are now ‘istory! ‘E’s off the twig! ‘E’s kicked the bucket, ‘e’s shuffled off ‘is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisibile!! THIS IS AN EX-PARROT!!”

The Lumberjack Song: “He cuts down trees, he skips and jumps; He likes to press wild flowers. He puts on women’s clothing and hangs around in bars???”

The Four Yorkshiremen Sketch: Eric Idle: “Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o’clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, (pause for laughter), eat a lump of cold poison, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad would kill us, and dance about on our graves singing ‘Hallelujah.’”

Michael Palin: “But you try and tell the young people today that... and they won’t believe ya’.”

Blackadder – Richard Curtis and Rowan Atkinson

This hilarious TV show covered four very different time periods, following the life and times of various Edmund Blackadders through the ages.

Blackadder: “I have come up with a plan so cunning you could stick a tail on it and call it a weasel.”

Re: Baldrick’s cooking:

Captain Blackadder: “Rat au Van, Baldrick?”

Private Baldrick: “Yes Sir, it’s Rat that’s been-”

Captain Blackadder, Private Baldrick: “Run over by a van.”

Private Baldrick: “Yes Baldrick.”