Monty Python’s “Help! I’m Being Repressed” Meme Explained

The comedy of Monty Python has inspired many funny memes and “Help! I’m Being Repressed” is one of the funniest – here’s the meme’s origin and usage explained. Comedy troupe Monty Python’s heyday may have been back in the 1970s, but they remain as popular as ever. It helps, of course, that their special brand of surreal comedy fits perfectly with the absurd humor often found in meme culture. In fact, Monty Python has proved to be a meme goldmine in recent years.

“The Spanish Inquisition” was a skit featured in the show Monty Python’s Flying Circus that sees somebody bombarded by intense questioning get defensive and exclaim they didn’t expect a Spanish Inquisition-style interrogation. Soon after Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam burst in and proclaim “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!” which inspired a meme of the same name that’s become internet shorthand for pointing out an unexpected grilling. A scene from one of their funniest films Monty Python’s Life Of Brian in which protagonist Brian tries to convince a crowd of devout disciples he isn’t Jesus, only to be met with a chorus of “He is the messiah,” spawned a meme used to denote how worshiped an individual is, often without merit.

Monty Python And The Holy Grail is one of the most meme-able of the comedy troupes’ works. This 1975 classic parodies the legend of King Arthur and his quest to find the Holy Grail and was partly financed by bands Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, interestingly enough. It’s full of their trademark humor and has been ranked as one of the greatest comedy movies of all time by the likes of Total Film, Empire Magazine and Time Out. One early scene in Monty Python And The Holy Grail also inspired the hilarious “Help! I’m Being Repressed!” meme.

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The Monty Python And The Holy Grail scene in question sees Graham Chapman’s King Arthur converse with a particularly socially conscious peasant named Dennis (Palin) who takes issue with Arthur’s haughty attitude and the “outdated imperialist dogma” that made him king in the first place. After a bit of back-and-forth about the merits of monarchy and the feudal system, an annoyed King Arthur manhandles Dennis to which the peasant exclaims “Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I’m being repressed!”

The Monty Python “Help! I’m Being Repressed!” meme is usually used to poke fun at somebody who perceives themselves as being oppressed. One notable use of the meme occurred when a Twitter user chastised William Shatner for not standing against supposed heterophobia and cisphobia, which earned a rightfully sarcastic response from Shatner and prompted another Twitter user to bust out a GIF of the Monty Python And The Holy Grail scene. It was also used a lot during the COVID-19 pandemic to ridicule those who see lockdowns as an infringement upon their freedom, such as Redditor u/SotaPopKid’s recent use of the “Help! I’m Being Repressed!” meme.