Your top 10 John Cleese characters

Cafe Society
1

In keeping with mysterious whisperings currently about Monty Python in threads not in this forum, I figured why not get this going. Can be from either the tv show (including Fawlty!) or movies.

Arthur Equator
Ken Clean-Air System
Silly Walker
Dreadry Fat Boring Old Git
Tim
Anne Elk
ashamed mouse fetishist (i-viewed)
Basil
Mungo the cook
self defense against fruit sargeant

(a couple quick-but-oh-so-sweets in there)
(and dang could think of scores of others - must. resist. from. honorable. mentions.)

2

Owner of the Ex-Parrot.

3

How could you omit two of the classic customers:

Mr Praline - purchaser of the Norwegian Blue

Mr Mousebender - fancy a piece of cheese?

(ninja’d by Parallel Lines because I hunted up the names!)

4

I grant @Northern_Piper credit for researching the names, I was too concerned with the OBVIOUS omission to bother. Had to be correct on the internet you know!

5

Argument consultant:

6

Robin Hood in Time Bandits.

Sir Lancelot/Tim the Enchanter/The Black Knight in Holy Grail.

The Centuwion in Life of Brian.

7

Basil Fawlty has to top the list of characters.

8

Top Python skit ever.

9

Meh. Na. Not even close to my top 10. Great, sure, but just not quite that extra kick I’m looking for.

10

According to Wikipedia, Mr. Praline is a recurring character in mutliple sketches. He’s the police officer inquiring about the strange confections from Whizzo’s Chocolates (whence the name Praline), the customer trying to return the dead parrot, and the man trying to get a licence for his pet fish (whence his first name is Eric).

11

The Hungarian at the tobacconist’s.

12

The minor official desperately trying to run an orderly stoning execution

Archie Leech

The man explaining to Michael Palin’s character why he would not be a good lion tamer

Reg the terrorist cell leader with a bad back

Frustrated cheese shop customer

Salad days man who lived in a tiny, tumble down house with great 'oles in the roof

The Pope complaining about Michaelangelo’s rendition of the Last Supper

The teacher demonstrating sexual technique for his class

Man sitting on a park bench listening to Peter Cook talk boring, flatulent nonsense

Job interviewer inexplicably ringing a bell in Graham Chapman’s face

The Roman centurion giving Brian a free Latin lesson

13

“My hovercraft ees full of eels!”

This is the first Monty Python skit I remember seeing; I was totally hooked.

Stranger

14

I love all his characters. He’s always been my favorite Python. But the standouts for me are:

Basil Fawlty

The Black Knight

Nigel-Incubator Jones in the MPFC Twit Contest

15

Not IMHO, Basil is so unlikable I cant watch the show.

Archie leach for a Fish Called wanda.

Dr. Simon Finch-Royce- Cheers

and of course his anti-smoking ads.

And the main character and judge in “Meetings, Bloody Meetings”

16

I liked his commercials for (I think) American Express.

Even today, I sometimes use the terms “posh shops, ritzy restaurants, and hoity-toity hotels.”

17

Great characters do not have to be likeable.

To each their own though.

18

A twit would write “Nigel Incubator-Jones.”

19

No one has mentioned Sheriff Langston from Silverado yet. Cleese enters to break up a fight, and his first line is “what’s all this, then?”

I also liked him as the French waiter serving Mr. Creosote in Meaning of Life.

20

The phlebotomist at the blood bank:

“No, you may not give urine instead of blood.”