The Knights Who Say Ni first appeared in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the 1975 British comedy film written by and starring the Monty Python troupe. In the film, King Arthur meets the knights in a forest, where they repeatedly shout Ni and demand a shrubbery before letting him pass. The strange word and the absurd demand became one of the film's most quoted jokes, repeated in sketches, fan videos and internet memes for decades. Its short, instantly recognizable sound makes it an easy shorthand for confusion, ritual and nonsense.