POLL: Favorite Monty Python Member

palin's diaries are great, and he's always seemed so nice.

Palin was the most versatile performer as well, and quietly the backbone of the group.

Though Cleese was the most obviously charismatic and probably the most natural comedian.

more obviously charismatic than chapman? i don't know about that.

I'm voting Jones, because no-one else will...

Eric Idle: 0 votes

I'm stuck between Cleese and Gilliam myself.

Torn between chapman and palin, I may have to decide it on who had the best legs as a pepperpot. Gilliam stands a class apart, i love his animations and the show wouldn't have been anything without them but still can't name him best.

Chapman all day.

if not for palin, i'd definitely have gone for jones. i think he'll get votes.

How the fuck am I supposed to decide between any of them (except Idle, natch), it's bloody impossible.

I don't understand all the love for Chapman, and non-love for Idle. Idle made me laugh far more than Chapman.

I'm torn between Palin and Cleese.

GC all the way

Why, though? Genuinely curious.

I guess because chapman wrote more of it than anyone else and he did the angry vitriolic and shouty characters so well, and for Brian.

Chapman was the most genuinely surreal and insane one

He's the angst-ridden depressive who wrote most of the stuff and died young. Python's Ian Curtis.

nate:

Idle's record of incredibly dickish behavior is hard to get past for some of us. Also, I don't think he was really that funny relative to the others.

chapman by a mile; huzzah, you tragic queer

"Douglas Adams remembered seeing Chapman in his local pub, casually whacking his penis against the bar to attract the attention of the bar staff"

thanks wikipedia!

I though people wouldn't vote for Chapman, because in comedy it's often the straight (no pun intended) guy who's underrated. I guess I was wrong, but I'm gonna vote for him too anyway.

Python had no one "straight man," and Chapman was particularly good at it himself.

Graham Chapman was enormously attractive when he had short hair (no bowl cut). Pain was pretty attractive, too. They're both at the top of my list but I voted Palin.

Pain was pretty attractive, too.

I didn't think of you as a masochist.

yeah, palin's had books and travel since python, chapman didn't even bother his arse with a fish called wanda

Wasn't Chapman basically one foot in the grave at that point?

I thought he was like in Holy Grail days, them having to do dozens of retakes bcz he was too drunk to go on...

Yeah, his Holy Grail days were disastrous by all accounts -- the success of his performance lies in all the good editing of his part. In contrast he had cleaned up/sobered up for Life of Brian, and whereas Arthur was a one-note stiff (funny as hell, obviously), Brian was a perfect portrait of a befuddled guy surrounded by crazy people.

i voted cleese because he's the first one that comes to mind when i think monty python. but i don't actually have a favorite. my favorite python sketches are pretty well dispersed among them.

Chapman played Brian in Life of Brian, ergo he wins my vote.

voted gilliam cause i dont think hell get a lot of love

Palin is my favorite Python member, but Chapman is my fave Python during the Python years.

I voted Chapman

Gilliam has had the most interesting post-Python career, but it's kinda hard to compare him to the others, because his work was and is on a sorta different level.

Someone should write a book called Monty Python: The Python Years.

Jones. Interesting guy. Anyone else remember his late night chat show?

Chapman

Michael Palin makes me laugh the most, partly because he always looks like he's about to lose his shit.

I voted for Jones. Hard to pick. If I was unaware of Idle being such a prick, I would have voted for him. They were all extremely funny during the Circus though.

Eric Idle = Mike Love of Monty Python, except Idle was at least nearly as talented.

Idle deserves at least a little love for Nudge Nudge Wink Wink.

No Carol Cleveland, no cred.

Where is Fred Tomlinson Singers band?

Tuomas!
http://kungfurodeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/0312369352L.jpg

Sorry, that was for Aimless. Who's not here right now anyroadup.

I came here to say Chapman and I'm quite suprised at how many other ppl have, so now I'm torn between him and Gilliam. I always liked Idle too but more cause he was pretty good lookin' in the 70s.

This is going to be one of those polls where everyone says Chapman or Palin and then the silent majority votes Cleese to a 20-vote margin of victory.

I went for Gilliam since he's clearly had the best post-Python career out of any of them.

Fawlty Towers was brilliant and I suppose a case could be made for Fish Called Wanda (I didn't think it was that great) but everything else Cleese has done since has been pretty meh.

Chapman - talented but undisciplined writer and decent performer but never seemed to want to build on his early success.

Palin - sad that he's now turned into the exact figure he ripped the piss out of in that "cycling holiday" episode of Python which is still my favourite.

Jones - seems happier as a Prof of Medieval History and newspaper column polemicist these days.

Idle - petition to take his name out of the poll and replace with Neil Innes? Python's Mike Love indeed - unseemly legal battles, right-wing tendencies, generally lowering the tone of the brand.

The funniest guy is the one with the biggest set of personality issues, no surprise.

At least Mike Love wasn't meant to be funny.

Gumbies!

what happens at the end of time bandits?

kid's parents explode, no-one gives a shit

do people really think eric idle wasn't funny on python?

no, not at all: he was brilliant. it's just, as discussed above, his twattishness has rather sullied his reputation. so if i'm going to have to make a difficult choice, he's the easiest one to chuck.

even in python, i'd find him less versatile than the others.

what happens at the end of time bandits?

kid's parents explode, no-one gives a shit

-- ledge, Friday, 25 April 2008 10:23 (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Also! The fireman is Agamemmnon, The kid's photographs taken on his adventures in time are real, and best of all, the arena in which the battle between good and evil is played out is briefly seen on the kid's bedroom floor (a stacked up chessboard, toy soldiers, cowboys and tanks)

I've cast my vote for Cleese on the strength of his physical comedy. (I've read Cleese came to hate the "Ministry of Silly Walks" sketch after constantly being asked to do bits of it for fans; but as a fan, I do think he was brilliant in it.)

The best thing about his Hitler routine in Fawlty Towers is that he puts his index finger to his lip to indicate a moustache even though he already has a moustache.

Speaking of Cleese doing Hitler, this sketch is pure brilliance.

Time Bandits is Gilliam's Other Good Movie.

I think Brazil and 12 Monkeys are Gilliam's two best. And I might have voted for him in this poll if I were taking the post-Python careers into consideration.

eric idle because he was a rutle

Gilliam has not made any great films, the first hour of Brazil coming closest.

rong

Head: Chapman
Heart: Palin

So I voted Palin.

brazil and fear and loathing (and didn't he co-direct holy grail? or one of the movies?) are very good, if not quite great exactly.

i get kind of impatient with the animations too, though the ones that bother to tell a story -- the prince with the spot, etc. -- are pretty funny.

That one was rather odd for the censorship it got at the time - they changed "and later he died of cancer" to "and later he died of GANGRENE" in this really obvious overdub, which I suspect they made obvious on purpose. Were the BBC behind that?

http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/prod_lrg_images/235/40697235.jpg

Seems that even the haters have blocked out Idle's Splitting Heirs film, with Rick Moranis, Catherine Zeta Jones and the not at all ripped off from Wanda nude sene:

http://cheerup.brian.free.fr/Miscellaneous%20Pictures/MiscSplittingHeirs14.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

because of the bump...

Chapman

Chapman.

I didn't know Eric Idle was a dick, but I've not really been paying attention.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

ILX OTM

poor wee terry jones.

<i>I didn't know Eric Idle was a dick, but I've not really been paying attention.</i>

Everybody in the entertainment industry is a dick, don't worry about it. Not worth keeping track of.

Oops

http://www.drmcdougall.com/images/store/ebook_cso_front_200.jpg

Michael Palin? What is this, vote for the nicest Python member?

oh, he's not THAT nice.

http://www.mustardweb.org/mustardpics/issue1&2/brazil_babyface.jpg

I was a Gilliam voter. I can't believe that people upthread were saying that the end of Time Bandits was 'meh'. I'll add my name to the 'was completely freaked out by it as a kid' crew.

That one was rather odd for the censorship it got at the time - they changed "and later he died of cancer" to "and later he died of GANGRENE" in this really obvious overdub, which I suspect they made obvious on purpose. Were the BBC behind that?

I never knew about this, but have strong memories of the GANGRENE overdub. I thought those overdubs/random splices were quite common in Python, and they were actually some of my favourite things... never stopped to think it might be forced through censorship, I just thought they were purposefully surreal.

i think it was both- once forced/pressurised to make any change they made sure it was as obvious as possible.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/full/100112207.jpg

sorry. http://twitpic.com/1nlr2n

http://s3.amazonaws.com/twitpic/photos/full/100112207.jpg?AWSAccessKeyId=0ZRYP5X5F6FSMBCCSE82&Expires=1273819770&Signature=POa%2FohdTvT8AEjEHcTVLZqLV6Jw%3D

really hilarious Alan Bennett-written comedy from the '80s, A Private Function, w/ Plain & Maggie Smith, out on US DVD next month. Set in postwar-rationing England.

^Palin obv, Michael

Man, we had that as a freebie with some newspaper, ages ago.

a private function is really good. glad to see it's making it to dvd.

All Gilliam defenders wrong, animations are very overrated once you're over the gimmick and the vast majority of his actual appearances are unfunny mugging rubbish.

Think if run again Palin would probably give up a lot of votes to Jones but I have nothing to base this on

Idle has penned a "sortabiography"

https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/monty-pythons-eric-idle-recalls-days-of-old-when-knights-said-ni/2018/09/20/da615a9c-b5ff-11e8-94eb-3bd52dfe917b_story.html

https://i.imgur.com/SYlG7eE.jpg

I saw Idle with his wife during a play intermission in NY and couldn't summon nerve to sit next to them and ask "Is she a goer, eh?"

― Dr Morbius, Thursday, April 24, 2008 10:43 AM

btw it was Steve Martin and Robin Williams in Waiting for Godot. I learned in the recent Williams bio that they were good friends, it seems.

Terry Jones done sorely wrong by this poll/FPTP. His vowels alone could move mountains.

idle was my favorite when i was little, i think. never thought much of jones or gilliam; chapman was fine but whatevs

can't really speak to most of the post-python stuff, but i recently caught most of jones' 'erik the viking' on tv and dear god it's among the very worst things i've ever seen

cleese
chapman
palin
idle
jones

gilliam

the top five are pretty much interchangeable for me. it's hard for me to deny cleese's genius.

His vowels alone could move mountains.

https://www.worldatlas.com/webimage/countrys/europe/outline/wales.gif

Yes I know but how many unadulterated Welsh baritones does one get to hear on TV in America

If we're talking performances, Cleese and Palin strike me as the most irreplaceable. But I basically agree with voodoo.

If we're talking writing, I'm fuzzy on who wrote most of the material.

Gilliam wrote nearly all his own material solo, otherwise the first three series are divided between the teams of Chapman/Cleese, Jones/Palin, and Idle/Ego. (Idle says it was harder to get his stuff up, because the others always had a guaranteed laugh at the reads because of their partner.)

The fourth series is more Jones/Palin (eg the bicycling episode that's like a proto-Ripping Yarns) than anyone, with Idle obviously second, Innes invited in, and Chapman trying to find a new partner in Douglas Adams & al.

I wouldn't have voted for Eric anyway, but here we go

https://i.imgur.com/Kp5yhKL.jpg

dude didn't have any problem with a guy in power seizing intellectual property from the hands of the creators to exploit to his own ends in the past

https://neilinnes.media/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/neil-fp-2.jpg