The Pythons themselves prefered Life of Brian. I've always been partial to The Meaning of Life. But if you ask the fans what their favorite Python film is, this one is the answer you'll get. In my experience, the comedy bits in this film are more quoted than any others in the Python repertoire. Even the Dead Parrot sketch can't compete with--
"European swallow or African swallow?"
"She turned me into a newt!"
"'Tis but a scratch!" & "It's just a flesh wound."
"He's not quite dead!" & "He's getting better!"
"You must chop down the mightiest tree in the forest... WITH... a herring!"
and the all time favorite,
"We demand... a shrubbery!"
So on to the openning shot. This of course follows the opening credits with the moose and llama jokes. A title card tells us the time period and location before we begin.
We see a foggy moore and hear the sound of hoofbeats in the distance.
We start to zoom in a bit, and then we see, coming over the moore, the joke revealed: there is no horse. King Arthur is pretending to ride a horse while his faithful servant Patsy bangs two half-jars of coconut together.
Dramatically, King Arthur and Patsy bring the imaginary horse to a stop.
The tone has been set.