Rabbit of Caerbannog


The Killer Rabbit of Caerbannog is a fictional character in the Monty Python film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The scene in Holy Grail was written by Graham Chapman and John Cleese. The rabbit is the antagonist in a major set piece battle, and makes a similar appearance in Spamalot, a musical inspired by the movie. The iconic status of this scene was important in establishing the viability of the musical.

In the film

The Cave of Caerbannog is the home of the Legendary Black Beast of Arrrghhh. This is guarded by a monster which is initially unknown. King Arthur and his knights are led to the cave by Tim the Enchanter and find that they must face its guardian beast. Tim verbally paints a picture of a monster so terrible as to have killed everyone who has tried to enter the cave, and warns them, "death awaits you all – with nasty, big, pointy teeth!". As the knights approach the cave and the rabbit, their "horses" become nervous, forcing the knights to dismount. Sir Robin soils his armour upon merely seeing it, before everyone except Tim sizes it up as merely an innocuous white rabbit. Despite the cave's entrance being surrounded by the bones of "four-fifty men" fallen, Arthur and his knights no longer take it seriously. Ignoring Tim's warnings, King Arthur orders Bors to chop the rabbit's head off. Bors draws his sword and confidently approaches it. The rabbit suddenly leaps at least eight feet directly at Sir Bors' neck and bites clean through it in a single motion, decapitating him to the sound of a can opener. Despite their initial shock, Sir Robin soiling his armor again, and Tim's loud scoffing, the knights attack in force, but the rabbit injures several of the knights and kills Gawain and Ector with ease. The knights themselves have no hope of killing or injuring the rabbit. Arthur panics and shouts for the knights to retreat. Sir Robin asks if running away "more" would confuse it. Knowing they cannot risk attacking again, they try to find another way to defeat the beast. The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch is ultimately used to kill the rabbit and allow the quest to proceed.

Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch

The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch is a visual satire of the Sovereign's Orb of the United Kingdom, and may refer to the mythical Holy Spear of Antioch. The Holy Hand Grenade is described as one of the "sacred relics" carried by Brother Maynard. Despite its ornate appearance and long-winded instructions, it functions much the same as any other hand grenade. At King Arthur's prompting, instructions for its use are read aloud from the fictitious Book of Armaments, Chapter 2, verses 9–21, parodying the King James Bible and the Athanasian Creed:
Arthur then pulls the pin, holds up the Holy Hand Grenade and cries out "One! Two! Five!" Sir Galahad corrects him: "Three, sir!". Arthur then yells "Three!" and hurls the grenade towards the rabbit. The grenade soars through the air – accompanied by a short bit of angelic choral a cappella – bounces, and explodes. The killer rabbit is defeated, and the hapless knights errant continue on their quest. The noise also attracts policemen who were investigating the murder of a historian by a mounted knight earlier in the film.

Production

The rabbit scene was shot outside the Tomnadashan mine, a cave 4 miles from the Perthshire village of Killin. For the 25th anniversary DVD, Michael Palin and Terry Jones returned to be interviewed in front of the cave but they could not remember the location.
The rabbit was portrayed in the movie by both a real rabbit and a puppet.
The name "Caerbannog", though fictitious, does reference real world Welsh naming traditions. In this case, the prefix "Caer-" implies the presence of a castle, as with Caerdydd and Caerfyrddin.

Antecedents

The tale of the rabbit has a parallel in the early story of the Roman de Renart in which a foe takes hubristic pride in his defeat of a ferocious hare:
The idea for the rabbit in the movie was taken from the façade of the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. This illustrates the weakness of cowardice by showing a knight fleeing from a rabbit.

Merchandise

The rabbit has been reproduced in the form of merchandise associated with the movie or musical. Such items include plush toys, slippers and staplers. The plush killer rabbit was rated the second geekiest plush toy of all time by Matt Blum of the GeekDad blog on Wired.com, coming second to the plush Cthulhu.

Reception

The rabbit was declared the top movie bunny by David Cheal in The Daily Telegraph. It also ranked high in an Easter 2008 poll to establish Britain's best movie rabbit, coming third to Roger Rabbit and Frank from Donnie Darko.

Cultural impact

The rabbit is now used as a metaphor for something which seems ostensibly harmless but is, in fact, deadly. Such hidden but real risks may even arise from similarly cuddly animals. The humour of the scene comes from this inversion of the usual framework by which safety and danger are judged. Four years after the release of the movie, Killer Rabbit was the term used widely by the press to describe the swamp rabbit that "attacked" then U.S. President Jimmy Carter while he was fishing on a farm pond.
In Apple Inc.'s iOS system, Siri may say that the "Rabbit of Caerbannog" is its favorite animal when asked.
Creatures & Treasures, a sourcebook for Iron Crown Enterprises' Rolemaster tabletop role-playing game, includes a "Killer Rabbit" monster entry. The creature's outlook is given as "Hostile", with a note that it "bounds for the throat, never for another part of the body." Another note in the description instructs the gamemaster to "treat 'exploding' attacks as 'slaying' ", a clear reference to the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch.
In the video game Minecraft, there is a command that players can run that will spawn in the killer rabbit, or, as it is called in the game, "The Killer Bunny".
In the video game Worms , there is a Holy Hand Grenade aka "Hallelujah Bomb" that players can use. A reference to the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch
In the cellphone game Fate/Grand Order, it's revealed that Tristan jokes about Born's death, saying he died after being killed by a "dreaded vorpal bunny", and that it was held by Gawain, beaten by Lancelot, and kicked by Mordred.
In the MMORPG Old School RuneScape, an NPC simply named "Rabbit" exists in the elven land of Prifddinas. The Rabbit's Design is clearly based on the Rabbit of Caerbannog and despite having a combat level of 2 it has 5000 hitpoints and can hit a player for up to 40 damage. This adds on to the numerous Monty Python easter eggs that exist within the game.
The Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch was seen in the 2018 movie Ready Player One used by the main character Wade Watts.
In the videogame, if you use the perk in-game "Wild Wasteland" in Camp Searchlight, you can found the "Holy Frag Grenades" a plural and obvious reference to the holy grenade, even with instructions writing on a box beside these grenades reads "Pull pin and count to 5 3"
In the videogame Dungeons of Dredmor, the Holy Hand Grenade is the second most powerful ranged area attack item in the game. The icon is identical to the grenade from the movie, and the flavor text on the item screen quotes Brother Maynard in the movie reading "O Lord, bless this thy hand grenade". The grenade does a huge amount of "righteous" type damage when thrown in a wave spreading out from the landing point in all directions for at least 5 squares so be careful where you are standing before using it! Multiple HHGs may be found or sometimes purchased at a throwing weapon vending machine in the late game.
In the video game Dragon's Crown, a Killer Rabbit is fought as one of the stage bosses and as in the film is capable of killing the player in a single bite attack. Additional references include bombs being strewn around its lair as usable weapons, weak knights who will assist the player if the battle takes too long, and a wizard resembling John Cleese's character of Tim the Enchanter who warns the player of the danger ahead.
video game for the original Sony Playstation uses a weapon named literally the Holy Hand Grenade when you travel back in time to the Middle Ages in the game which does massive damage as well as bounces around homing in on enemies when thrown.
When a Tesla Model 3 is named "the rabbit of Caerbannog" a link to the Monty Python YouTube channel in the Tesla Theatre will appear.