History Creator / MichaelPalin

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[[caption-width-right:250:[-Now now, don't cry. I mean, you two have so many things in common... like wearing women's clothing, hanging around in bars... [[DoubleTake wait a minute...]]-] ]]

* ForeignQueasine: Michael gets a bit freaked out when he and Basil go to a restaurant in Guangzhou which serves snake. Partially this is because he's never had snake before, but largely because ''they kill the snakes in front of him.''

* NationalGeographicNudity: Not seen personally by Palin in ''Himalaya'' (or in any of his other travelogues), but when visiting the Naga people of the India/Burma border area, he picks up a book called "The Naked Nagas". Sure enough, the frontispiece is a topless native woman.

** Email and the Internet would have made some of Palin's travel problems, like his difficulties finding a way from Suez to India, a lot easier.
** 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 freighter, because there are no cross-Pacific passenger ships any more.
** 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. And he was able to go through China by train, which Fogg couldn't do.

* RageBreakingPoint: One of his roles in ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' was a dung-eating peasant. After about seven takes of rolling around in the cold mud, he finally snapped "a jolly good blow-up". This prompted Creator/GrahamChapman and Creator/JohnCleese to break out in applause, because they'd never seen him angry before.

* {{Anticlimax}}

* 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 [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=261ugmDCcBU a cameo in Australian soap opera]] ''Series/HomeAndAway''. In ''New Europe'' he's drafted into a Polish theater performance.

** And in ''Pole to Pole'', though it doesn't stand out as much since he did succeed in getting to the South Pole, he wins his race against time to get to the one ship in the whole year that will take him to Antarctica, only for it to be completely booked.

His career after Python has included writing and starring in his own films, ''The Missionary'' and ''American Friends'', as well as frequent collaborations with fellow Python alumni: Creator/TerryJones (as creators of the hilarious TV subversion of traditional British adventure stories for boys, ''Series/RippingYarns''), Creator/JohnCleese (as costar of the hugely successful film ''Film/AFishCalledWanda'' and its semisequel ''Film/FierceCreatures'') and Creator/TerryGilliam (as co-writer and -star of ''Film/TimeBandits'' and in a starring role in Gilliam's solo magnum opus ''Film/{{Brazil}}''). Most recently, he has dabbled in Creator/EricIdle's Python stage projects, taking a few cameo roles in ''Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy)''. In 2017 he starred as Vyacheslav Molotov in ''Film/TheDeathOfStalin''.

However, he has become best known post-Python for a series of epic travelogue series filmed for Creator/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 the very first Louie Kamookak Medal from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society for “achievements in geography.”

* ''Sahara'' (2002)
* ''Himalaya'' (2004)
* ''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-[[UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion EU]] views.
* ''Brazil'' (2012), no, not [[Film/{{Brazil}} that movie he was in]], but a four-part series in which Palin travels around the fifth-biggest country in the world--then seemingly at the peak of economic prosperity and sociopolitical optimism.

In 1993, the Michael Palin Centre 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.

He has also written voluminous personal diaries (published in three volumes of about 650 pages each, covering 1969-1979, 1980-1989 and 1989-1998 respectively), various children's stories and three novels, ''Hemingway's Chair'', ''The Truth'', and ''Erebus: The Story of a Ship''.

* ''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-UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion views.

[[UsefulNotes/KnightFever Sir]] Michael Edward Palin KCMG CBE FRGS (born May 5, 1943 in Ranmoor, England) is an English comedian, character actor and author, most famous for being one of the members of Creator/MontyPython.

[[UsefulNotes/KnightFever Sir]] Michael Edward Palin KCMG CBE FRGS (born 5 May 1943 in Ranmoor, England) is an English comedian, character actor and author, most famous for being one of the members of Creator/MontyPython.

-->''I never wanted to be a Troper. I don't want to keep ruining lives by editing the site! [[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus I wanted to be...]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfRdur8GLBM A LUMBERJACK!]]''

->Woah, what a lengthy page for one person! Slow down a bit, I didn't expect a Spanish Inquisition!
-->'''(ScareChord) ''[[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!]]'''''

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[[UsefulNotes/KnightFever Sir]] Michael Edward Palin KCMG CBE FRGS (born 5 May 1943) is an English comedian, character actor and author, most famous for being one of the members of Creator/MontyPython.

** During an interview program about ''Life Of Brian'' in which a Bishop and a conservative commentator repeatedly bashed the film [[ComplainingAboutShowsYouDontWatch while admitting they hadn't actually seen it]], John Cleese remained his usual [[StraightMan calm]] DeadpanSnarker, while Michael was clearly getting more and more irritated as the program went on, [[ColdFury despite his efforts to remain in control of himself]].

* RageBreakingPoint: One of his roles in ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' was a dung-eating peasant. After about seven takes of rolling around in the mind, he finally snapped "a jolly good blow-up". This promtped Creator/GrahamChapman and Creator/JohnCleese to break out in applause, because they'd never seen him angry before.
* RailEnthusiast: Palin is one, without shame. He appeared in ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' 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). He has had a Virgin high-speed trainset named after him, in a series named after famous explorers (221 130) ''and'' his name is also on a Greater Anglia Super Sprinter railcar (153 335).

In 2013 he was made a UsefulNotes/{{BAFTA}} Fellow (essentially, a lifetime achievement award) for his distinguished contributions to multiple media. He was knighted in 2018.

He has also written voluminous personal diaries (published in three volumes of about 650 pages each, covering 1969-1979, 1980-1989 and 1989-1998 respectively), various children's stories and two novels, ''Hemingway's Chair'' and ''The Truth''.

However, he has become best known post-Python for a series of epic travelogue series filmed for Creator/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.”

* BookEnds: By design in several of his travelogues -- leaving from and returning to the Reform Club in ''80 Days'', doing the same with Little Diomede Island in ''Full Circle'', leaving and returning to Gibraltar in ''Sahara'', and going from one pole to the other pole in... well, [[CaptainObvious guess.]]

* Tearjerker: In ''Pole to Pole'', Palin visits the Shiwa Ngandu estate in Zambia, run by a British couple whose family ran the land for decades. They were attacked and killed six months after Palin's visit.

His career after Python has included writing and starring in his own films, ''The Missionary'' and ''American Friends'', as well as frequent collaborations with fellow Python alumni: Terry Jones (as creators of the hilarious TV subversion of traditional British adventure stories for boys, ''Series/RippingYarns''), Creator/JohnCleese (as costar of the hugely successful film ''Film/AFishCalledWanda'' and its semisequel ''Film/FierceCreatures'') and Creator/TerryGilliam (as co-writer and -star of ''Film/TimeBandits'' and in a starring role in Gilliam's solo magnum opus ''Film/{{Brazil}}''). Most recently, he has dabbled in Eric Idle's Python stage projects, taking a few cameo roles in ''Not the Messiah (He's a Very Naughty Boy)''. In 2017 he starred as Vyacheslav Molotov in ''Film/TheDeathOfStalin''.

* NiceGuy: Anyone's who's ever worked with him will endlessly sing his praises for both having great ideas and for being willing to collaborate with others. In fact, Monty Python only exists because Creator/JohnCleese enjoyed working with Palin so much that he insisted that Palin and his collaborators join him and Graham Chapman on their new project for the BBC.

* 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). He has had a Virgin high-speed trainset named after him, in a series named after famous explorers (221 130) ''and'' his name is also on a Greater Anglia Super Sprinter railcar (153 335).

[[UsefulNotes/KnightFever Sir]] Michael Edward Palin CBE FRGS (born 5 May 1943) is an English comedian, character actor and author, most famous for being one of the members of Creator/MontyPython.

Sir Michael Edward Palin CBE FRGS (born 5 May 1943) is an English comedian, character actor and author, most famous for being one of the members of Creator/MontyPython.

He was knighted in 2018.

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