About

What Is the Airspeed Velocity of an Unladen Swallow? is a quote from the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The question is often referred to online as a way of calling a topic or question overly trivial or technical.
Origin

In the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the discussion of the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow takes place twice in the film.[1] In the first scene, King Arthur asks a castle guard if he may be let in, since he has been riding all day to get there. The guard points out that he has not been riding, as his horse consists purely of the sound of two coconuts being clicked together, and a discussion of where the coconuts could have been obtained follows. During this discussion, King Arthur suggests that they could have been brought to England via a migrating swallow, and the castle guards continue to discuss the probability of this suggestion at length, becoming more and more technical in their debate. King Arthur becomes annoyed and rides away. Later in the film, Arthur is trying to bypass a troll who asks him "What is the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?" Arthur, informed by the earlier debate, asks "What do you mean? African or European swallow?" Since the troll cannot answer this question, he is defeated.