History Creator / MichaelPalin

Completely unrelated to former Alaskan governor, one-time Republican Vice Presidential nominee and TinaFey impersonator SarahPalin (whom Creator/JohnCleese now considers to be funnier than Michael) or her husband Todd Palin. Also not to be confused with author Michael Pollan, despite similarly pronounced names.

* NiceGuy: The other Pythons consider him the most easy-going and mild-mannered of their number. Of course, this makes the times when he gets angry and vicious (such as in ''Brazil'' or ''A Fish Called Wanda'') even more jarring. Or, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx6w6cCWHHc when you compare him to Judas]], although in that instance it was more a case of TranquilFury meets DeadpanSnarker meets BewareTheNiceOnes.

* UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire: Periodically Palin runs across and comments on remnants of Britain's imperial past. In ''Pole to Pole'' he mentions that the railroad he rides through The Sudan was made by Lord Kitchener to facilitate the conquest of that country. In ''80 Days'' he stops in Hong Kong and talks with British ex-pats worried about the looming handover to China (which took place in 1997). In ''Himalaya'' he rides the Khyber Pass Railway, built by the British when they were trying to subdue Afghanistan, and he talks about how the lone survivor of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1842_retreat_from_Kabul the Elphinstone Massacre]] escaped over the pass to tell the tale.

* UsefulNotes/ColdWar / UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar / TheNeutralZone: Palin's visit to Korea's DMZ and the truce village of Panmunjeom in ''Full Circle''. He leaves feeling depressed.

* UsefulNotes/{{Gibraltar}}: Where Palin starts and finishes ''Sahara''.

* UsefulNotes/InternationalDateLine: In ''Around the World in 80 Days'' he crosses it aboard a freighter, and there is a silly ceremony to mark the occasion.

* HistoryMarchesOn: [[DiscussedTrope Discussed]] by Palin, who notes while sailing down the Yangtze River in ''80 Days'' that all the villages and waterfronts he's seeing will disappear when the big dam project is completed. 1.3 million people were eventually relocated when the Three Gorges Dam left their homes and towns underwater.

** Later in ''New Europe'', the episode where Palin visits Poland is entitled [[IncrediblyLamePun "From Pole to Pole"]].

* IncrediblyLamePun: Palin does a different one relating to the word "high" for each of the "Next On" sections of each episode of "Himalaya"

* TheBritishEmpire: Periodically Palin runs across and comments on remnants of Britain's imperial past. In ''Pole to Pole'' he mentions that the railroad he rides through The Sudan was made by Lord Kitchener to facilitate the conquest of that country. In ''80 Days'' he stops in Hong Kong and talks with British ex-pats worried about the looming handover to China (which took place in 1997). In ''Himalaya'' he rides the Khyber Pass Railway, built by the British when they were trying to subdue Afghanistan, and he talks about how the lone survivor of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1842_retreat_from_Kabul the Elphinstone Massacre]] escaped over the pass to tell the tale.

In 1993, the Michael Palin Center for Stammering Children was dedicated in his honor, partly because of his role as a stuttering criminal in Film/AFishCalledWanda, and partly because of his firsthand experience with the issue: his father had a stammer.

Also, is definitely ''not'' Eric Idle. No matter what either of them claim.

In 2013 he was made a {{BAFTA}} Fellow (essentially, a lifetime achievement award) for his distinguished contributions to multiple media.

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 the Royal Canadian Geographical Society for “achievements in geography.”

* OopNorth: Born and raised in Sheffield.

He has also written voluminous personal diaries (published in two volumes of about 650 pages each, covering 1969-1979 & 1980-1989 respectively; a third volume is to be published in 2014), various children's stories and two novels, ''Hemingway's Chair'' and ''The Truth''.

* HilariousInHindsight: Palin was the star in a ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' full length episode "The Cycling Tour," which parodies presciently the same travelogues he would be famous for decades later.

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 the Royal Canadian Geographical Society for “achievements in geography.” In 2013 he was made a {{BAFTA}} Fellow (essentially, a lifetime achievement award) for his distinguished contributions to multiple media.

Palin 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),''.

----
-->''Oh, I didn't wanna do this... [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife I don't wanna list up cliches in TV that ruins many people's lives!]] I wanted to be... '''[[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus A LUMBERJACK!!]]''' Leaping from tree to tree as they float down in the mighty rivers of British Columbia...''

* TheBritishEmpire: Periodically Palin runs across and comments on remnants of Britain's imperial past. In ''Pole to Pole'' he mentions that the railroad he rides through The Sudan was made by Lord Kitchener to facilitate the conquest of that country. In ''80 Days'' he stops in Hong Kong and talks with British ex-pats worried about the looming handover to China (which took place in 1997).

* SceneryPorn: Especially in ''Himalaya''.

'''Michael Palin''' CBE (born 1943) is an English comedian, character actor and author, most famous for being one of the members of Creator/MontyPython.

'''Michael Palin''' (born 1943) is an English comedian, character actor and author, most famous for being one of the members of Creator/MontyPython.

* RailEnthusiast: Palin is one, without shame. He appeared in Monty Python's Flying Circus as the writer of a murder mystery play whose plot was [[JustForPun derailed]] by the characters arguing about railway timetables, and also as a 'camel spotter'. His first travelogue program was titled "Confessions of a Trainspotter" (in which he traveled from London to Kyle of Lochalsh, the end of the line in northern Scotland, and purchased the old station sign to put up in his garden) and he now has a Virgin high-speed trainset named after him, in a series named after famous explorers.

->''"Whenever I'm mistaken for Michael Palin, I always say 'Yes, I am Michael Palin, now fuck off you ugly old bastard!' Because I want to help destroy his reputation for niceness."''
-->-- '''Eric Idle''', ''Creator/MontyPython: [[TVDocumentary Almost the Truth (Lawyer's Cut)]]''

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 the Royal Canadian Geographical Society for “achievements in geography.”

* ColdWar / TheKoreanWar / TheNeutralZone: Palin's visit to Korea's DMZ and the truce village of Panmunjeom in ''Full Circle''. He leaves feeling depressed.

-->''Oh, sod it! I never wanted to do this... [[TVTropesWillRuinYourLife I don't wanna list up cliches in TV that ruins many people's lives!]] I wanted to be... '''[[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus A LUMBERJACK!!]]''' Leaping from tree to tree as they float down in the mighty rivers of British Columbia...''

----

* NiceGuy: The other Pythons consider him the most easy-going and mild-mannered of their number. Of course, this makes the times when he gets angry and vicious (such as in ''Brazil'' or ''A Fish Called Wanda'') even more jarring. Or, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx6w6cCWHHc when you compare him to Judas]], although in that instance it was more a case of TranquilFury meets DeadpanSnarker meets BewaretheNiceOnes.

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 two novels, ''Hemingway's Chair'' and ''The Truth''.

* InternationalDateLine: In ''Around the World in 80 Days'' he crosses it aboard a freighter, and there is a silly ceremony to mark the occasion.

* NiceGuy: The other Pythons consider him the most easy-going and mild-mannered of their number. Of course, this makes the times when he gets angry and vicious (such as in ''Brazil'' or ''A Fish Called Wanda'') even more jarring. Or, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx6w6cCWHHc when you compare him to Judas]], although in that instance it was more a case of TranquilFury meets DeadpanSnarker.

* HilariousInHindsight: Palin was the star in a ''MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' full length episode "The Cycling Tour," which parodies presciently the same travelogues he would be famous for decades later.

* NiceGuy: The other Pythons consider him the most easy-going and mild-mannered of their number. Of course, this makes the times when he gets angry and vicious (such as in ''Brazil'' or ''A Fish Called Wanda'') even more jarring. Or, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx6w6cCWHHc when you compare him to Judas]], although in that case it was more a case of TranquilFury meets DeadpanSnarker.