History Creator / MichaelPalin

However, he has become best known post-Python for a series of epic travelogue series filmed for TheBBC. These have taken Palin to dozens of countries on all seven continents, prompted a series of best-selling companion books based on his on-the-spot notes, and led to the so-called "[[ColbertBump Palin Effect]]", whereby places he's visited report a massive increase in tourism. They were also responsible for his 2009 appointment to a three-year term as President of the UK's prestigious Royal Geographic Society and a gold medal from Royal Canadian Geographical Society for “achievements in geography.”

However, he has become best known post-Python for a series of epic travelogue series filmed for TheBBC. These have taken Palin to dozens of countries on all seven continents, prompted a series of best-selling companion books based on his on-the-spot notes, and led to the so-called "[[ColbertBump Palin Effect]]", whereby places he's visited report a massive increase in tourism. They were also responsible for his 2009 appointment to a three-year term as President of the UK's prestigious Royal Geographic Society.

* {{Adorkable}}: He was the worst of the Pythons at keeping a straight face, so you can't help but smile with him.

* DeadpanSnarker: Quite often in his travelogue voiceovers and even a few times live Palin will express a certain dry wit when things start to go wrong

* {{Corpsing}}: He was probably the worst of the Pythons at keeping a straight face.

** ''Around the World in Eighty Days'' He spends most of the trip falling further and further behind the schedule as written by Jules Verne, but is able to make it all up by crossing the Pacific Ocean in a freight ship that moves twice as fast as the paddleboat Verne wrote about.

** On the other hand, Palin notes that air travel has made passenger trains and boats obsolete in many parts of the world, meaning that in some places, he has fewer travel options than Fogg did. For his ride across the Pacific, Palin has to hitch a ride on a freight ship, because there are no cross-Pacific passenger ships any more.

* RailEnthusiast: Palin is one, without shame. His first travelogue program was titled "Confessions of a Trainspotter" and he now has a Virgin high-speed trainset named after him.

* DeadpanSnarker: Quite often in his voiceovers and even a few times live Palin will express a certain dry wit when things start to go wrong

** In ''Pole to Pole'' Palin visits the Kenyan village and school where he filmed the African scenes from ''The Missionary''. He gives the school his blow-up globe that featured so prominently in ''Around the World in Eighty Days''(and, his diaries imply, enough of a monetary donation to repair the schoolhouse roof).

** In ''Pole to Pole'' Palin visits the Kenyan village and school where he filmed the African scenes from ''The Missionary''. He gives the school his blow-up globe that featured so prominently in ''Around the World in Eighty Days''.

* Corpsing: He was probably the worst of the Pythons at keeping a straight face.
* CoveredInMud: Palin in a mud bath in ''Pole to Pole''.

** In Himalaya, he visits a Hindu monastery and is treated to a performance of a play where most of the monks play milkmaids. He notes two of them having trouble putting on their outfits must not be frequent transvestites.

** In Morocco, Michael tries in vain to avoid getting any sheep's head in his kebabs. Later on, he is somewhat bemused by the amount of camel he ends up eating

* MonkeysLionsAndAnnoyedSpaniards: Gibraltar, where Palin starts and finishes ''Sahara''.

* WhyWereBummedCommunismFell: In ''New Europe'', Palin's Moldovan tour guide admits that some Moldovans, especially the older generation, miss the old days of the Soviet Union.

* ''Michael Palin's New Europe'' (2007), in which he (in rather disconnected journeys), travels around Eastern and Central Europe. Sometimes verged on being an AuthorTract (albeit a well written, entertaining one) for Palin's pro-EuropeanUnion views.

* AuthorAppeal: If his journey allows him to take a train, Michael will take the train

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The initiation ceremony Michael goes through when he crosses the International Date Line

** In Himalaya, he visits a Hindu monastery and is treated to a performance of a play where most of the monks play milkmaids. He notes two of them hacing trouble putting on their outfits must not be frequent transvestites

** On the other other hand, that freighter Palin hitched a ride on was quite a bit faster than Fogg's passenger ship and allowed him to make up all his lost time.

* ''Michael Palin's New Europe'' (2007), Palin's most recent series, in which he (in rather disconnected journeys), travels around Eastern and Central Europe. Sometimes verged on being an AuthorTract (albeit a well written, entertaining one) for Palin's pro-EuropeanUnion views.

His latest announced venture, due to air in 2012, is a tour of Brazil. He has also dabbled in Eric Idle's Python stage projects, taking a few cameo roles in ''Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy),''.

* TheCameo: In ''Around the World in Eighty Days'', Python alumni Terry Jones and Creator/TerryGilliam show up to send Palin off and greet him on his return. Palin himself has a knack for finding parts in foreign film productions. In ''80 Days'' Palin makes a cameo in an Egyptian movie. In ''Pole to Pole'' he plays "Frogman's Hand" in a Russian documentary about crayfish. In ''Full Circle'', he makes [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=261ugmDCcBU a cameo in an Australian soap opera]].

** A slightly less jarring example happen in the same series, as episode six ends with him having completed the initiation run at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, and episode 7 opens with him landing at the Cape of Good Hope in Chile, several thousand miles away

He has also written voluminous personal diaries (published in two volumes of about 650 pages each, covering 1969-1979 & 1980-1989 respectively), various children's stories and the two novels, ''Hemingway's Chair'' and ''The Truth''.

He has also written voluminous personal diaries (published in two volumes of about 650 pages each, covering 1969-1979 & 1980-1989 respectively), various children's stories and the adult novel ''Hemingway's Chair''.

His latest announced venture, due to air in 2012, is a tour of Brazil. He has also dabbled in Eric Idle's Python stage projects, taking a few cameo roles in ''Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy),'' and is working on a second novel.