As most of us are aware of by now, Texas Senator Ted Cruz recently sat for a combative interview with performance artist Tucker Carlson. In an exchange that no doubt sparked countless uses of the ClickHole-inspired “Worst Person You Know Just Made a Great Point” meme, Carlson got Cruz to admit that he doesn’t know the population of Iran, despite hawkishly suggesting that the U.S. government should bomb the country and spearhead a regime change.
After being publicly embarrassed by the guy who once complained that cartoon M&Ms don’t give him boners anymore, Cruz fought back by posting an image from Monty Python and the Holy Grail on his social media account. Specifically, it’s from the scene where the Bridgekeeper, played by Terry Gilliam, asks King Arthur to name “the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow.”
Putting aside the fact that he basically just copied the same joke made by other right wing accounts…
…Cruz’s implication seems to be that Carlson’s questions were as random and irrelevant as Gilliam’s. Again, the question was about knowing the population of the country he wants to attack. One could argue that the number of human beings being targeted by Cruz’s pro-war stance is the most relevant question.
This incident is just the latest example of what has been a larger trend for Cruz — not the warmongering, we’re talking about how he keeps fumbling Monty Python memes.
Not unlike Elon Musk, Cruz is seemingly a huge fan of the iconic comedy troupe. In 2021, he tried to slam Kamala Harris by claiming that her border policy is to “run away” like Arthur and his Knights did from killer bunny rabbit at the “Cave of Caerbannog.” But his post immediately blew up in his face when countless users pointed out that he’s the expert on running away, as evidenced by the time he fled to Cancun during his state’s “historic and deadly spell of cold weather” (which he later tried to blame on his kids).
He similarly used a clip of the cowardly Brave Sir Robin running away to mock his then-GOP rival Donald Trump. Although, even Robin wasn’t so spineless that he would give a political endorsement to someone who called his wife ugly and accused his father of conspiring to kill JFK.
Cruz has also used Holy Grail references to describe a woman he couldn’t stop ogling at a baseball game on his podcast. And he once praised Gilliam for resisting “PC orthodoxy” after the director complained that he’s “tired of white men being blamed for everything wrong with the world” and blasted the #MeToo movement as a “witch hunt.”
Incidentally, Cruz’s admiration for Monty Python doesn’t seem to be a two-way street.
