The Spanish Inquisition (Monty Python) - in Popular Culture

In Popular Culture

• In Issue #3 (January 1976, shortly after Monty Python began being broadcast in the U.S.) of the comic book title Batman Family the story "Isle of a Thousand Thrills" borrowed the scenario of a land where anything anybody thinks of is quickly brought to life. In response to visitors' anxious questions before the nature of their situation is understood, Batgirl replies, "Calm down, everyone! We haven't had time to wonder about all those questions! I didn't expect some kind of Spanish Inquisition...". Immediately six Inquisitors appear, one of whom cries, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition...because our chief weapon is surprise!"
• The Doogie Howser episode (Season 2, Episode 19, aired 1991-02-13) is titled "Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition".
• In the Not The Nine O'Clock News sketch on the new film The Life of Christ (itself a reference to Python's 1979 Life of Brian), the Bishop (Rowan Atkinson) who is being harangued for this parody of Pythonism professes himself surprised at the furor, saying: "Well, I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition."
• In the 1998 film Sliding Doors, the skit plays a central role: James (John Hannah) exhorts Helen (Gwyneth Paltrow) to "remember what the Monty Python boys say..." - referring to the phrase "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition". Later, James and Helen and friends laugh over the skit in a pub.
• In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode entitled Him (Season 7, Episode 6, aired November 5, 2002), Dawn Summers (Michelle Trachtenberg) is called into the principal's office to answer some questions about a boy who fell down the stairs under suspicious circumstances. Afterwards, Dawn's heartthrob, RJ, said, "That sucks, facin' the whole inquisition thing." Dawn replied, "Yeah, 'No one expects the Spanish Inquisition'. God, it's like I have a disease or something."
• In 2004 when the Abbey National bank was to be sold to the Banco Santander Central Hispano, a newspaper headline announced: "Nobody expects the Spanish acquisition!"
• In Neal Stephenson's 2004 novel The Confusion, a group of characters are detained and subjected to torture by Spanish religious authorities in 1600's Mexico, prompting one of them to exclaim, "I didn't expect the Spanish Inquisition!"
• The Boston Globe reported on October 5, 2009, that the newly announced Nobel Prize winner, Dr. Carol W. Greider of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, was asked if she had expected to win the honor. She replied: "It's like the Monty Python sketch, 'Nobody expected the Spanish Inquisition!'"
• In the video game Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, when being asked if the Malkavian character knows the punishment for breaking the Masquerade, the player is given the option to reply "the comfy chair".
• In the simulation game Tropico 3, when the player issues the edict "Inquisition", the description declares that "Nobody expects the Tropican inquisition!"
• In the video game Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War the main character sometimes on the move order say "Nobody expects the imperial Inquisition". Referring on the Inquisitors of the warhammer world.
• In the video game Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II – Retribution, the character Inquisitor Andrastia has "my chief weapons are surprise and fear" as one of her lines. At some point on the plot, another character elaborates: "We have lost the element of surprise and they do not fear us. Perhaps they will appreciate our devotion to the Emperor and ruthless efficiency."
• In the video game Civilization V: Gods & Kings, there are two Steam achievements: "Nobody expects..." with the description "As Spain, use an Inquisitor to remove another Religion", and the more explicit "Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition" whose description is "Beat the game on any difficultly setting as Isabella".