Easily and erroneously assumed to have been a Python?

[Jake Thingray]

When I was a kid, and before I knew all the Pythons' names apart from Cleese, having only seen a late-night repeat of And Now For Something Completely Different, I thought John Wells was one such, seeing him on panel games and the like, when he wasn't doing his Denis Thatcher impression, vaguely knew he was an Oxbridge type. Other kids at school, having seen The Secret Policeman's Ball, assumed Peter Cook and even Rowan Atkinson were team members. In a pub once, a chum said he'd seen a Python at a rugby match once, turned out it had been Spike Milligan; at a pub quiz once, when the question was which Python had died the day before the 20th anniversary, heard a mutter from one table of "Tim Brooke-Taylor?" -- I wouldn't mind, but this was in Oxford.

[Billy]

Ian Davidson immediately comes to mind for me, made many Flying Circus appearances to the point where I just assumed he was one of them.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Ian Davidson immediately comes to mind for me, made many Flying Circus appearances to the point where I just assumed he was one of them.

70s humour/  Nah, mate, you're thinking of Graham Chapman!!!/ 70s humour

[mjwilson]

When I was a kid, and before I knew all the Pythons' names apart from Cleese, having only seen a late-night repeat of And Now For Something Completely Different, I thought John Wells was one such, seeing him on panel games and the like, when he wasn't doing his Denis Thatcher impression, vaguely knew he was an Oxbridge type. Other kids at school, having seen The Secret Policeman's Ball, assumed Peter Cook and even Rowan Atkinson were team members. In a pub once, a chum said he'd seen a Python at a rugby match once, turned out it had been Spike Milligan; at a pub quiz once, when the question was which Python had died the day before the 20th anniversary, heard a mutter from one table of "Tim Brooke-Taylor?" -- I wouldn't mind, but this was in Oxford.

Tim was at Cambridge to be fair.

[dissolute ocelot]

When I was about 7, I thought Viscount Montgomery of Alamein was something to do with Monty Python.

[Buelligan]

That may have been his double.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Tim was at Cambridge to be fair.

Also helped to write that " Four Yorkshiremen" sketch that is often erroneously attributed to Python.

[DrGreggles]

Also helped to write that " Four Yorkshiremen" sketch that is often erroneously attributed to Python.

It's 95% Tim's sketch, according to Cleese.

[Menu]

I've got a similar one to this. As kids we used to think that the guest in Fawlty Towers who didn't get his alarm call was Michael Palin. He says, "We didn't get our alarm call" in exactly the same way that Palin would have done. It's uncanny.

[Retinend]

For a long time I assumed Chapman WASN'T a member - because I had only seen Holy Grail and Life of Brian and to my childish mind he was "the actor" and they were "comedians" and those were mutually exclusive categories. This came out in an amusing argument I had with my parents (who had grown up with Python); me maintaining this stance based solely on this logic. I was about 12 years old or something.

The pitfalls of "a priori" thinking...

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

My first experience of Python was watching the 1974 BBC 2 Broadcast " Monty Python" series, after Cleese had said " bollocks to this, It's all getting a bit weird now, I'm off to work with Les Dawson and write " Fawlty Towers" with Yoko... I mean, * Connie*", and left the show.
So, a year later when some award winning show from the earlier series was repeated, with Cleese doing his silly walk, I thought he was a guest star on the show or something, and was famous for being a daft cunt in his own right. It was only when the first series got a repeat run later in the year that I realised my error ( me and my school chums were all excited about it, as we were all big Monty Python fans. I was actually a bit disappointed by it, expecting the full- on Cleese- repelling weirdness and surrealism that had pervaded that sans Cleese series).

[Rizla]

In Chapman's autobiography he talks about the time he came out on some talk show or other (Parky?), following which a lady wrote to the bbc saying how disgusted she was that one of the Monty pythons admitted to homosexuality on telly - Eric Idle wrote back to her thanking her, and informed her that they'd found out which one it was and had him killed. The next series of MP was done without Cleese.

EDIT It was George Melly's chatshow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8dT_6OjCOo

[George White]

When I was a kid, and before I knew all the Pythons' names apart from Cleese, having only seen a late-night repeat of And Now For Something Completely Different, I thought John Wells was one such, seeing him on panel games and the like, when he wasn't doing his Denis Thatcher impression, vaguely knew he was an Oxbridge type. Other kids at school, having seen The Secret Policeman's Ball, assumed Peter Cook and even Rowan Atkinson were team members. In a pub once, a chum said he'd seen a Python at a rugby match once, turned out it had been Spike Milligan; at a pub quiz once, when the question was which Python had died the day before the 20th anniversary, heard a mutter from one table of "Tim Brooke-Taylor?" -- I wouldn't mind, but this was in Oxford.

Was that an Ireland rugby match in Wales?
If so, my uncle saw Spike there too.

[Sexton Brackets Drugbust]

He says, "We didn't get our alarm call" in exactly the same way that Palin would have done. It's uncanny.

I think it's his wiggling eyebrows that evoke a Palin performance. Always a strong eyebrow performer, Palin.

[George White]

I think it's his wiggling eyebrows that evoke a Palin performance. Always a strong eyebrow performer, Palin.

David Simeon - who's very Palinesque in End of Part One.

[Replies From View]

For a long time I assumed Chapman WASN'T a member - because I had only seen Holy Grail and Life of Brian and to my childish mind he was "the actor" and they were "comedians" and those were mutually exclusive categories. This came out in an amusing argument I had with my parents (who had grown up with Python); me maintaining this stance based solely on this logic. I was about 12 years old or something.

The pitfalls of "a priori" thinking...

Similarly, it took me a long time to acknowledge Terry Gilliam, whom I had always taken to be an unnamed gurning extra of some kind who was prominent in many sketches but nothing to do with the writing process, the animations or anything.

[Jockice]

As a teenager I thought that Gilliam was 'the gay one.'

[Retinend]

It is the gayest-sounding name.

[Jockice]

Gilliam it was really nothing.

[Ray Travez]

As a young lad, I thought that Monty Python was one of the pythons, the show being named eponymously after him. I wasn't sure which one he was, but he clearly existed as he was credited with writing some of the sketches.

[Pranet]

Gilliam it was really nothing.

At some point I'm going to steal that.

[Norton Canes]

Took me ages to work out why there was something not quite Python about the Death sketch in The Meaning of Life. Simon Jones fits in so well.

[derek stitt]

TOMMY GODFREY IS A SEX OBJECT

[Thursday]

As a young lad, I thought that Monty Python was one of the pythons, the show being named eponymously after him. I wasn't sure which one he was, but he clearly existed as he was credited with writing some of the sketches.

I think for a little while, I thought that was John Cleese. He seemed like the main one to me.