Monty Python: Michael Palin’s 10 Best Characters, Ranked

Michael Palin – or Sir Michael Palin, as he’s known in an official capacity – is one of the funniest people in the world. Whether he was playing a mild-mannered character avoiding confrontation or a maniac filled with white-hot rage, Palin never failed to illicit hysterical laughs from Monty Python’s audience.

He appeared in many of Python’s most iconic sketches, both in the TV series and in the movies. He’s got a CBE, he’s been knighted, he was made a BAFTA fellow – the world at large seems to agree that Michael Palin is awesome. So, here are Palin’s 10 best characters from the Python back catalogue.

10 Sir Galahad The Pure

The most memorable scene involving Sir Galahad the Pure in Monty Python and the Holy Grail sees him lured into a castle by 150 sexually adventurous young women, who tempt the purity that he’s supposedly famous for.

In the movie’s third act, Galahad is flung into the Gorge of Eternal Peril by the old man from Scene 24, who is also the bridge-keeper at the Bridge of Death, after getting stumped by a relatively easy trivia question.

9 Gervaise Brook-Hampster

Gervaise Brook-Hampster was the winner of the titular competition in the “Upper Class Twit of the Year” sketch. He was played by Michael Palin in both versions of the sketch: the one seen in Monty Python’s Flying Circus and the one seen in the mixtape movie And Now for Something Completely Different.

Brook-Hampster’s father uses him as a garbage can and, according to the movie version of the sketch, he’s in the wine business.

8 Bicycle Repair Man

Appearing in just the third episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, “Bicycle Repair Man” was one of the many sketches that Palin wrote with Python cohort Terry Jones.

In a world where everyone is Superman, Palin’s character has a secret alter ego as “Bicycle Repair Man,” a superhero with the incredible ability to fix bicycles with his bare hands.

7 The Leader Of The Knights Who Say “Ni!”

There are a ton of memorable characters in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but few of them are more memorable than “The Knights Who Say ‘Ni!’” It’s a totally ludicrous premise, and Michael Palin leans into that as the knights’ leader.

In their second appearance, the knights change their name to “The Knights Who Say ‘Ekke Ekke Ekke Ekke Ptang Zoo Boing!’”

6 Pet Store Owner

The iconic “Dead Parrot” sketch grew out of an old bit that Michael Palin and John Cleese used to do about a mechanic insisting that his customer’s car is fine, despite its obvious problems. This was changed to a pet store in which a disgruntled customer believes the Norwegian Blue parrot he bought is dead, and the owner insists that it’s alive.

Cleese is hysterically deadpan as the customer, which Palin contrasts hysterically with a decidedly un-deadpan performance as the pet store owner.

5 The Aspiring Lumberjack

Astoundingly, according to Michael Palin, “The Lumberjack Song” was hashed out in about 15 minutes at the end of a long day of writing, as the troupe was struggling to think of a way to follow up the preceding barbershop sketch.

They quickly wrote a song about the barber’s true desire to be a lumberjack, and it has gone on to become one of Monty Python’s defining works. Maybe we don’t all dream of being lumberjacks specifically, but we can all relate to his ambition.

4 Catholic Yorkshire Father

In perhaps the most beloved sketch from The Meaning of Life (which, admittedly, is short on beloved sketches), Michael Palin plays a Catholic Yorkshire father who returns home to his dozens of children to inform them that he’s had to sell them off for medical testing.

As the children suggest various methods of birth control, the father reluctantly shuts them all down, as they’re prohibited by the Catholic Church. This leads to the iconic musical number, “Every Sperm is Sacred.”

3 The “It’s” Man

At the beginning of (almost) every episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, the “It’s” man would charge toward the camera from very far away, and when he finally got close to the camera, he’d simply say, “It’s…” and the show would cut to the opening titles.

In the first episode, for example, the “It’s” man comes out of the ocean and staggers onto the beach. Palin performed the stunt himself and almost drowned during a rehearsal.

2 Pontius Pilate

The extras playing Roman soldiers in Life of Brian were actually told not to laugh when Michael Palin (in character as Pontius Pilate) was daring them to laugh at him, so the laughs in the scene are genuine.

This allowed Palin to play a comedy character whose defining joke is that he doesn’t get the joke against the laughs of an authentic audience. It’s dense comedy, pulled off beautifully.

1 Cardinal Ximénez

“Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!” Whenever the Spanish Inquisition interrupts a sketch in Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Michael Palin leads the charge as Cardinal Ximénez. Whether he’s bursting into somebody’s home or torturing prisoners in a dungeon, Ximénez finds himself totally unprepared.

He can never string together a complete sentence, endlessly going back on himself to make corrections to his own speech. Palin plays this challenging dialogue beautifully.

About The Author

Ben Sherlock
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Ben Sherlock is a writer, comedian, independent filmmaker, and Burt Reynolds enthusiast. He writes lists for Screen Rant and features and reviews for Game Rant. He’s currently in pre-production on his first feature (and has been for a while, because filmmaking is expensive). You can catch him performing standup at odd pubs around the UK that will give him stage time. Previously, he wrote for Taste of Cinema, Comic Book Resources, and BabbleTop.

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