Help! Help! I'm Being Repressed

About

Help! Help! I'm Being Repressed is a memorable quote uttered by the peasant Dennis (played by Michael Palin) to King Arthur (played by Graham Chapman) from the 1975 British comedy film Monty Python and The Holy Grail. The quote is used alongside a still from the scene as a reaction image or GIF to an above caption or screenshot, typically to show when someone or something is being oppressed or subjugated by another party. The reaction is most often used sarcastically to poke fun at the person claiming to be “repressed.” It can also be used without the image as a standalone catchphrase and sometimes as an object labeling or photoshopped meme.

Origin

The original clip that the meme is pulled from is seen during The Holy Grail, released on April 3rd, 1975, specifically the scene where King Arthur is traveling the land in search of knights to join his round table. During this scene (featured below) King Arthur and Patsy come upon a group of peasants working outside a nearby castle. While attempting to learn whose castle it is, King Arthur and Dennis (the peasant) get into an argument. Having had enough of the peasant’s tongue, King Arthur walks up to him and grabs him, telling him to shut up. While being “attacked,” Dennis says, “Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I'm being repressed!”

Spread

Before it was used in a more traditional meme format, various images and GIFs of the scene can be found online several times dating back to at least 2009. One such example using the reaction as a meme comes from August 25th, 2014, when Imgur^[1] user hiwho uploaded a GIF of the scene as a reaction image to the title, “MRW I'm being repressed.” The upload (shown below) received over 455,000 views.

On March 17th, 2019, Redditor^[2] SlothySurprise posted a meme to the r/MemeEconomy subreddit (seen below), receiving more than 7,500 upvotes and 435 comments.

Numerous Twitter^[3] users can also be seen using the reaction GIF on the platform as a reply to poke fun at people for claiming they’re oppressed, one of which comes from user WorkProbably on May 17th, 2019 (shown below).

pic.twitter.com/ftvHvrOwVT

— Michelle (@WorkProbably) May 17, 2019

The meme also appears on Tumblr in a multitude of ways. The Tumblr^[4] page Memes & Laughs uploaded a version to their feed on June 11th, 2019, receiving 760 notes (seen below).

On Facebook,^[5] the account The Other 98% posted another example on April 19th, 2020, referencing the coronavirus lockdown protesters. This meme (shown below) was liked over 14,000 times, shared 9,600 times and commented on another 1,100 times.

A similar meme was posted on April 28th, 2020, by Redditor^[6] SotaPopKid to the r/dankmemes sub. The post (seen below) received over 42,000 upvotes and 800 comments.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References