“HAIL TO THE KING[S], BABY”: ARTHUR VS ARMY OF DARKNESS

Given the current penchant for “medieval misappropriation” among white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and political pundits, medievalists are clearly justified in directing their critical attention toward debunking the overly popular neomedieval misrepresentations portrayed in so much serious modern Arthuriana. Yet, it is worth remembering that comedy also played an essential role in medieval Arthurian storytelling, and that neomedieval comic representations of King Arthur (and his silly English kuh-nigguts) remain worthy of critical attention as well, perhaps especially so during times of modern “darkness.” Two major strains of neomedieval Arthurian comedy remain perennially present in modern media: those following Mark Twain’s time-traveling Connecticut Yankee (wherein a cocky modern hero replaces an ineffective King Arthur as the new “boss”) and those echoing Monty Python’s satiric Holy Grail (wherein King Arthur is a self-important, dim-witted authority figure worthy of ridicule). These two comic strains find an unexpected hybrid representation in Sam Raimi’s horror-adventure-comedy, Army of Darkness, which presents fans with a cocky, dim-witted, and modern replacement for Arthur: Ashley J. Williams, the modern buffoon king we deserve . . . if not the one we want. As an escapist fantasy, a critique of modern hyper-masculine heroism, and a self-conscious distortion of medieval film tropes, Army of Darkness exemplifies how comic neomedieval Arthuriana can offer audiences solace during times of hardship, critique modern cultural concerns within a distant medieval construction, and remind viewers that the “real Middle Ages” was not a uniformly dour, shit-laden time of pestilence, violence, and ethnocentrism but—like our own time period—an age capable of self-reflection, criticism, and comedy.