Michael Palin Explains Why Annoying John Cleese Made Monty Python Better

There have been a lot of stories over the past year about the various feuds between the surviving members of Monty Python. And while that may be kind of a bummer for fans to hear, Sir Michael Palin recently pointed out that one source of interpersonal friction was a key part of what made much of their comedy so great.

In a new interview with The New York Times, Palin discussed his career as a travel documentary host, as well as his published diaries, which chronicled the early years of Monty Python. When the Times suggested that Eric Idle was “upset” by the diary’s release, Palin explained that none of these public beefs would last long if the Pythons were in closer proximity to one another. “The great thing about Python was, when we were all together, any disputes we had were dealt with fairly briskly,” Palin clarified. ”I don’t get to talk to Eric as much as I’d like to. It’d be nice if we could all sit down and just be as we were when we were writing the comedy shows.”

Palin was also asked about his relationship with John Cleese, specifically because his characterization in the diary seems to reflect their “onscreen chemistry” in sketches. “It does, in an interesting way,” Palin admitted. “A lot of the things that we did that people enjoyed were scenes where I would annoy John. ‘This is a cheese shop?’ ‘Yes sir, finest in the district.’ It’s a quite nice relationship, but it’s a bit like that in real life.”

It’s true, some of the absolute best Monty Python sketches found Palin irritating the hell out of Cleese. In addition to the “Cheese Shop” routine, obviously there’s the “Dead Parrot” sketch, in which Palin’s stubborn refusal to admit that a pet bird has expired incenses Cleese’s overly-verbose customer. 

Although, in other sketches, like “Argument Clinic” and “Fish License,” the dynamic switches, and it’s Cleese who’s playing the irrational pest role (even though he’s playing the same character from “Dead Parrot,” Mr. Praline). Those sketches were also able to mine laughs from an unspoken tension between the two performers.

And, as we’ve mentioned before, a number of their joint talk show interviews were also playfully hostile — so much so that Palin actually slapped Cleese in the face on more than one occasion.

Palin told The New York Times that this simmering agitation can be traced back to the group’s respective university educations. “John is a Cambridge man, and he occasionally found the Oxford Pythons (Palin and Terry Jones)] a little bit woolly-minded,” Palin revealed, adding that, “John and I could play up the difference between us, if you like. John can be cruel and I can be a bit soppy, and the mix of the two works really well.”

So, for all we know, the “Dead Parrot” sketch would have been a total failure if not for Cleese’s academic snobbery.