One of the best easter eggs in HBO’s Game of Thrones was a pretty clever reference to Monty Python in an otherwise intense Season 4 episode.
Source: How Game of Thrones Quietly Brought Monty Python to Westeros
fta:
But the sequence quietly contained one of Game of Throne’s cleverest easter eggs because Missandei’s translation was inaccurate. Making Game of Thrones, an HBO-sanctioned outlet, held interviews with members of the cast and crew — including linguist David Peterson. Peterson helped define many of the show’s languages, including Dothraki, High Valyrian and Low Valyrian. According to Peterson, when the time came to write the Meereenese rider’s insults, executive producer D.B. Weiss — the co-writer of the episode — asked Peterson to insert a Monty Python reference. As a result, the Low Valyrian insults were actually a direct translation of the French Taunter’s verbal jabs from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Thanks to Weiss and Peterson, the French Taunter’s insults — including “your mother is a hamster and your father smells of elderberries” — made their way into Game of Thrones.
