The Knights who say Ni are a band of knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

s from the comedy

Comedy

Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...

 film

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

 Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a 1974 British comedy film written and performed by the comedy group Monty Python , and directed by Gilliam and Jones...

, feared for the manner in which they utter the word "ni" (icon, like knee but clipped short). They are the keepers of the sacred words: Ni, Peng and Neee-Wom.

Details

The Knights are led by a man who is approximately 12 feet tall with disproportionately short arms and reindeer antlers inserted into his helmet (played by Michael Palin

Michael Palin

Michael Edward Palin, CBE FRGS is an English comedian, actor, writer and television presenter best known for being one of the members of the comedy group Monty Python and for his travel documentaries....

 standing on a ladder; the original screenplay suggested that he be played by "Mike standing on John's

John Cleese

John Marwood Cleese is an English actor, comedian, writer, and film producer. He achieved success at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and as a scriptwriter and performer on The Frost Report...

 shoulders"). The other Knights are of normal human proportions and act as a chorus, only repeating words and phrases that 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 "Neee-wom." All of these words are infamous for the palpable horror and fear (and suggested pain) they bring about, whether delivered by the knights or not. According to King Arthur, "Those who hear them seldom live to tell the tale!" Later, the leader of the Knights who say Ni changes them to the Knights who say an odd string of syllables (although the knights apart from the head knight continue to say 'Ni'). The saying is spelt the following way according to the "script" subtitles available on the collector's edition DVD: "Ekke Ekke Ekke Ekke Ptangya Ziiinnggggggg Ni!" Because of the challenging pronunciation, King Arthur simply refers to them as "The Knights Who 'Til Recently Said Ni." Originally, the name was to be changed to, "The Knights Who Go Ni... Whom... Ping."

The Knights happen to have a weakness in that a number of words, when spoken to them, has the same effect on them as their saying, "Ni" has on others. The only one of these words that is revealed in the film is "it," which is picked up on when Arthur, upon being asked to cut down the mightiest tree in the forest with a herring

Herring

Herring is an oily fish of the genus Clupea, found in the shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and the North Atlantic oceans, including the Baltic Sea. Three species of Clupea are recognized. The main taxa, the Atlantic herring and the Pacific herring may each be divided into subspecies...

, declares that "it can't be done." Ultimately, King Arthur and Sir Robin (who shows up with his own knights) both say "it" several times in conversation (unaware that "it" was the word that was causing the Knights pain).

Spamalot

The Knights appear in Spamalot

Spamalot

Monty Python's Spamalot is a musical comedy "lovingly ripped off from" the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Like the film, it is a highly irreverent parody of the Arthurian Legend, but it differs from the film in many ways, especially in its parodies of Broadway theatre...

, the 2004 Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 musical "lovingly ripped off" from the film, with their first scene virtually unchanged. The Knights' new name changes almost nightly, improvised by the actor playing the lead Knight (originally Hank Azaria

Hank Azaria

Henry Albert "Hank" Azaria is an American film, television and stage actor, director, voice actor, and comedian. He is noted for being one of the principal voice actors on the animated television series The Simpsons , on which he performs the voices of Moe Szyslak, Apu Nahasapeemapetilon, Chief...

), but always starting with "Ecky Ecky Ecky F'tang F'tang Olé Biscuitbarrel..." which itself references several famous sketches from Monty Python's Flying Circus

Monty Python's Flying Circus

Monty Python’s Flying Circus is a BBC TV sketch comedy series. The shows were composed of surreality, risqué or innuendo-laden humour, sight gags and observational sketches without punchlines...

, including Election Night Special

Election Night Special

"Election Night Special" is a Monty Python sketch parodying the coverage of United Kingdom general elections, specifically the 1970 general election, on the BBC by including hectic actions by the media and a range of ridiculous candidates....

. On 11 November 2006, The night former Vice President Dick Cheney

Dick Cheney

Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....

 accidentally shot a man in the face while hunting, it was changed to "...good shot Mr. Vice President" followed by the knight miming shooting Patsy and having him remain "dead" for the remainder of the scene. With the 2008 impeachment of Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich

Rod Blagojevich

Rod R. Blagojevich is an American politician who served as the 40th Governor of Illinois from 2003 to 2009. A Democrat, Blagojevich was a State Representative before being elected to the United States House of Representatives representing parts of Chicago...

 in the news, the Knights were able to change around their script in the Chicago performance of Spamalot to mention Blagojevich's selling of a senate seat. In one performance, after the traditional shouting of "Ecky Ecky Ecky F'tang F'tang Olé Biscuitbarrel," the Lead Knight loudly screamed GOAL! for a very long time, before telling the audience the current FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup, often simply the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association , the sport's global governing body...

 score. During Tim Curry

Tim Curry

Timothy James "Tim" Curry is a British actor, singer, composer and voice actor, known for his work in a diverse range of theatre, film and television productions. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California....

's stint as King Arthur, the knight once finished with "Come up to the lab and see what's on the slab

The Rocky Horror Show

The Rocky Horror Show is a long-running British horror comedy stage musical, which opened in London on 19 June 1973. It was written by Richard O'Brien, produced and directed by Jim Sharman. It came eighth in a BBC Radio 2 listener poll of the "Nation's Number One Essential Musicals"...

." In Cleveland the knights say a common line from the song Cleveland Rocks

Cleveland Rocks

"Cleveland Rocks" is a rock song by Ian Hunter from his 1979 album You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic. The song is seen as a de facto anthem in Cleveland, Ohio. The song was played every Friday at 6:00 PM on Cleveland radio station WMMS beginning in 1979 and is used as a victory song for the...

 saying: "All the little chicks with the crimson lips singing Cleveland Rocks Cleveland Rocks." In performances in Fort Worth the lead knight has ended the name by singing the opening lines of "Deep in the Heart of Texas

Deep in the Heart of Texas

"Deep in the Heart of Texas" is an American popular song elaborating on the merits of the state of Texas.The 1941 song features lyrics by June Hershey and music by Don Swander. The song was recorded by Perry Como with Ted Weems and His Orchestra on December 9 of that year for Decca Records in Los...

". At Penn State University, it was ended with, "We are!" with the other knights yelling, "Penn State!" In one performance in New Orleans, "Who Dat!" was added to the end of the "Ecky Ecky..." chant. In a performance in Columubus, Ohio, after a particularly large win for The Ohio State University, the Knights added "Tressel Won!" after the chant. In the South Korean production, the head Knight says "Ni" in place of "T" as a parody of a popular commercial jingle for the SK Telecom company. In a performace at the United States Military Academy

United States Military Academy

The United States Military Academy at West Point is a four-year coeducational federal service academy located at West Point, New York. The academy sits on scenic high ground overlooking the Hudson River, north of New York City...

, the Knight finished with "Navy Sucks!" much to the enjoyment of the Cadets.

King Arthur refers to them as "The artists formerly known as the Knights who say Ni", a reference to Prince

Prince (musician)

Prince Rogers Nelson , often known simply as Prince, is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Prince has produced ten platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label; writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of...

. The other major change in the scene is that the renamed Knights no longer demand another shrubbery

Shrubbery

A shrubbery is a wide border to a garden where shrubs are thickly planted; or a similar larger area with a path winding through it. A shrubbery was a feature of 19th-century gardens in the English manner, with its origins in the gardenesque style of the early part of the century...

, but this time that King Arthur put on a musical and take it to Broadway (on the slight condition that it doesn't have anything to do with Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Baron Lloyd-Webber is an English composer of musical theatre.Lloyd Webber has achieved great popular success in musical theatre. Several of his musicals have run for more than a decade both in the West End and on Broadway. He has composed 13 musicals, a song cycle, a set of...

). King Arthur does attempt to fulfil this quest in the second act until the Lady of the Lake tells him that he is already in a musical

Fourth wall

The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...

.

Origin

In the DVD commentary for the film, Michael Palin says that their use of the word was derived from The Goon Show

The Goon Show

The Goon Show was a British radio comedy programme, originally produced and broadcast by the BBC Home Service from 1951 to 1960, with occasional repeats on the BBC Light Programme...

. Other parallels to The Goon Show can also be drawn between the strangled voice of the Knights and the voice of Bluebottle

Bluebottle (character)

Bluebottle is a comedy character from the Goon Show, a 1950s British comedy radio show. The character was created and performed by Peter Sellers....

.

Television and Video

In the Stargate SG-1

Stargate SG-1

Stargate SG-1 is a Canadian-American adventure and military science fiction television series and part of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer's Stargate franchise. The show, created by Brad Wright and Jonathan Glassner, is based on the 1994 feature film Stargate by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich...

episode "Morpheus", Dr. Daniel Jackson -- the team's archeologist and history expert -- mentions the legendary Arthurian knight "Sir Gawain", to which team leader Col. Cameron Mitchell

Cameron Mitchell (Stargate)

Cameron "Cam" Mitchell is a fictional character in the Canadian-American military science fiction television series Stargate SG-1, a science fiction show about a military team exploring the galaxy via a network of alien transportation devices...

responds, "Wasn't he one of the Knights who say 'Ni'?"