But, by God, he was funny.
I came to Monty Python relatively late. The original TV series were first shown when I was still pretty young, so I only really became aware of it thanks to later repeats. However, once I knew about it, I loved it. Still do.
So today is a sad day, hearing about the passing of another one of the comedy greats that brought such anarchic, irreverant, inventive and sometimes surreal humour to our TV and cinema screens – the incredibly talented and very funny Terry Jones.
As with the Beatles, I think everyone had their favourite Python and, when I was younger, I always favoured John Cleese or Graham Chapman (or, sometimes, Terry Gilliam). But as I grew older and learned more, I came to realise that the whole was greater than the sum of the parts and that Monty Python just wouldn’t have worked without any of them. They were all key in making Monty Python the side-splitting phenomenon that it could be. And I learned that Terry Jones – the slighly unassuming one that I often overlooked in the midst of Cleese, Chapman and Idle’s manic characters – was not only just as talented and funny as the rest, but was also an integral part of what made Python so damned good.
So bon voyage to Brian’s Mum, Mr Creosote, the patient recipient of Eric Idle’s “Nudge, nudge!” and countless other characters. Thanks for so many laughs.