Very versatile and at ease in any part you throw at him. Look at him as a greasy beach resort MC in the Donkey Rides sketch, for instance, or as a suave game show host in Blackmail, or as Loretta and Pilate in Life of Brian, or as Luigi Vercotti. Also very, very likeable.
I voted for Palin on the strength of his performances in Jabberwocky, A Fish Named Wanda, Brazil, and The Missionary.
More range than the others.
Between that and the Chaplinesque “Undressing in Public” sketch, Jones has my vote for best silent actor.
My exact thoughts. Cleese has been good in every thing he does. Chapman did Yellowbeard. Advantage Cleese.
As an actor, Terry Gilliam is a great director.
That was my reasoning as well. Cleese is very, very good at a specific type of character, but seldom plays outside that sort of roll. Palin is a good actor, who can take on a variety of different characters equally well.
I voted Jones, simply because I looked at the results first, and saw Palin had many more votes. I see Jones and Palin more as the versatile workmen, inhabiting diverse roles. Cleese, Chapman and to a lesser extent Idle, mostly played versions of themselves.
I don’t think Palin was a good sleazy mafia type – he was cartoonish. As the guy in Wanda, he was also pretty over-the-top.
Idle was also really over-the-top in his roles in the show and movies. Gilliam was shockingly bad as an actor, even if he only had one line to deliver. Jones wasn’t great. Chapman came closest to being an actor, other than…
Cleese was really the only actor in the group, IMO.
I was torn. I agree that Chapman (for the short duration of his career) seemed the best Actor with the widest range. I loved Palin in many other roles, and his range is certainly wider than Cleese, but Cleese was the most consistent about bringing the laughs to me (in large part because he was good at and largely stuck to his niche).
And I like Yellowbeard dammit, I have it on BluRay. Not that it’s a great movie, far from it, but it’s fun darn it! So I gave the nod to Chapman. I like all of them, don’t get me wrong, and I love Idle for his skill with Musical bits (I also own the CD Monty Python Sings!), but his skills as an actor seemed somewhat less than the three I mentioned by name.
And I think I managed to leave out my questions about Cleese as a person in terms of evaluating his skills. Though I may have been overgenerous in trying to be fair.
NO matter who is on top, it was an amazing, if relatively brief grouping of many talented individuals all of whom brought a great deal of talent to their performances.
He gets my vote as well, for the reasons you put better than I could have.
His performance in Holy Grail is (especially) remarkable considering he was blind drunk throughout the shoot.
Who is the FUNNIEST member of Monty Python?
- Graham Chapman
- John Cleese
- Terry Gilliam
- Eric Idle
- Terry Jones
- Michael Palin
- None of the Above
0
voters
The poll is interesting. Funniest within the show or naturally funny as a person? In college I saw Graham Chapman give a talk at my school. He was quite funny as I recall. Not stand up comedy funny but a decent story teller. I saw John Cleese talk after a showing of Grail a few years ago. He was funny but definitely deep into his cranky old man phase. I give the advantage to Chapman who never got the chance to get cranky.
I chose Idle for the funniest. His timing is superb. I saw him perform with Cleese about 10 years ago and it was no contest. Granted, Cleese obviously wasn’t at his best and I think he was just there to cover his alimony payments.
I still LOL at Fawlty Towers, so Cleese for sure. He was also excellent in Wanda.
If you want to restrict it to just when they were in Monty Python, I would have a hard time choosing between Cleese and Palin. Their Cheese Shop, Argument Clinic, and Dead Parrot sketches are certainly the most famous, Palin in Spanish Inquisition, Cleese and Palin in the Funny Walks. Maybe I would give Palin a slight edge for humor during the show, because he played more different roles.
What else even comes close? Nudge nudge? Got annoying before the sketch was over. Flying lessons is a good one.
For funniest, I chose Gilliam. The animations in Python are absolutely fantastic!
Jones for the range and gravitas (if that’s the right word). Chapman had as much or even more range, but he always seemed to be aware that he was being silly at some level. Jones had the ability to be serious both as the straight man, and as the protagonist in a clearly ridiculous position, which makes the absurdity even more funny.
THE Funniest? I honestly can’t decide between Palin, Cleese, Idle.
^^^ What he said.
While I agree that it went on just a smidge too long, “Nudge nudge” is why I voted for Idle in both polls. Say. No. More!