Michael Palin Explains Why the Monty Python Members Aren’t Friends Anymore

While the surviving members of Monty Python are no longer a working comedy team, they have been producing a ton of “why does everyone in Monty Python hate each other?” content this year. Eric Idle and John Cleese have been publicly feuding on social media, Cleese has been needling Michael Palin during interviews and the ghost of Graham Chapman has allegedly been haunting Cleese, possibly in a Christmas Carol sort of deal. 

Most recently, Palin has been busy promoting the latest installment of his published diaries, and naturally, the press has been asking him about the current state of the Pythons’ emotional well-being. His response wasn’t exactly encouraging.

“I’ve given up trying to hold together that original family,” Palin told Andrew Marr of LBC. He went on to explain that the Pythons tended to get along best when they were producing material, but not so much afterwards. “The thing was, the Pythons worked well when we were writing comedy,” Palin stated. “That was an amazing two or three years where we wrote together, everybody was contributing, we made each other laugh a lot. It felt (like) an extremely, wonderfully happy ship to be on. And a good job to be doing.”

But once the group started splintering off and working on their own projects — Cleese made Fawlty Towers, Palin and Terry Jones created Ripping Yarns and Eric Idle had Rutland Weekend Television — the dynamic shifted. And the Pythons weren’t necessarily super supportive of one another. “I feel still that the Pythons aren’t all that interested in what we’re all doing individually,” Palin confessed.

To be fair, Palin doesn’t seem to share this creative indifference. In his “Python Years” diaries, he writes about watching, and enjoying, Fawlty Towers for the very first time, following Cleese’s departure from Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

“You don’t feel this is, as it were, an emotionally nurturing group of people on whom you rest in any way?” asked Marr. “No, I don’t anymore. Whether I ever did, I don’t know,” Palin responded. “I like their approval, I would like to continue to be on friendly terms with them all, which I don’t think I’m not. But we see each other less. Some of us are far more defensive about what we’re doing.”

Palin also noted that, despite these personal hiccups, Monty Python isn’t something he wants to move beyond, pointing out that “Python is still very popular,” and the sketches continue to resonate with younger generations. “It’s not something which you can say, ‘Well, that’s past me, it’s gone.’ It hasn’t gone at all, the material. And what Python stood for,” Palin declared. 

He’s right, Monty Python is still as funny as ever — hopefully younger comedy fans aren’t hearing about them for the first time thanks to articles about elderly Twitter beefs. 

You (yes, you) should follow JM on Twitter (if it still exists by the time you’re reading this).