Instead, he proposed a compromise that provided the best of both worlds (at least in a Two Ronnies sketch kind of way): get a bloke in tights and a wig to do the honours instead.
That honour instead goes to thedarrenhudson, who finished as a runner-up in both competitions, but whose combined score of 72 correct picks (out of a possible 113) was enough to move him one clear of Notaseed.
That honour, instead, went to John Wycliffe, a 14th-century theologian, scholar and clerical troublemaker who translated the Bible into English in the 1380s, and argued for much of his life against the power and wealth of the pope – a somewhat edgy pastime that led to his bones being dug up and burned after his death, before being chucked into a river in Leicestershire.
Locked up in his country, the Chinese democracy activist is one of several winners to have been barred from claiming the prize in person, but this was the first award since Carl von Ossietzky's where it was not possible for a relation to do the honours instead, a shaming comparison for Beijing, since he was up against Nazi Germany.
Which naturally sets the stage for one of the "serious" entries to take top honours instead, with Russia's Dima Bilan (who finished second to Finland in 2006) and his Timbaland-produced ballad Believing, Ukraine's cracking Kylie soundalike Shady Lady, and Sweden's Charlotte Perrelli - a previous contest winner in 1999 - all in the frame.
That honour, instead, fell to the wolf.
The honours, instead, went to Germany - and the buzz of celebration as supporters gathered around the beach bars and in the side roads off Copacabana late on Sunday was the sound of acclaim for a job well done.
Arthur himself is prepared to accept the challenge when it appears no other knight will dare, but Sir Gawain, youngest of Arthur's knights and his nephew, begs for the honour instead.
We should maybe honour him instead as the man who tried to invent the British jitney.
The most telling moment in the movie arrives when Murphy, press-ganged into singing one more horrendously bland ballad at an awards ceremony honouring Foxx, instead tears off his clothes and instructs the band to play something coarse, raw, funky and black.
