Monty Python: Terry Jones’ 10 Best Characters, Ranked

Monty Python’s Terry Jones’ talents are not forgotten. These 10 characters prove to be his best during his Python days.

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The world of comedy suffered a huge loss earlier this year when Terry Jones passed away. Jones’ comic performances throughout the Monty Python oeuvre more than prove that he was one of the most gifted comedians who ever lived.

Jones’ talents were not confined to comedy, as he proved himself to be a brilliant author in the years following his stint as a Python. But you wouldn’t have thought he needed another vocation, because he nailed comedy in a way that most comedians can only dream of. So, here are Terry Jones’ 10 best characters from the Python back catalog.

10 Prince Herbert

Prince Herbert is pushed into an arranged marriage with a woman who has “huge…tracts of land” by his father, the King of Swamp Castle, but he doesn’t want to marry her.

It’s a hilarious subversion of the trope of a princess being forced into a marriage she doesn’t want by her father in medieval stories.

9 Arthur Ewing

In the “Musical Mice” sketch, Terry Jones plays a musician named Arthur Ewing whose backing band is made up of mice with musical talents.

However, before he begins playing, he starts hitting the mice with a mallet and has to be dragged off-stage. It’s shockingly absurd, and Jones plays it brilliantly.

8 Italian Teacher

In the “Italian Teacher” sketch, Terry Jones plays an Italian teacher who finds himself with a class full of Italian people who, being from Italy, are far more fluent in Italian than he is.

Jones plays the teacher as a very typical Englishman to hammer home the point that he’s hopelessly unprepared to teach Italian students.

7 Sir Bedevere The Wise

In addition to King Arthur, Sir Bedevere the Wise is the only knight that survives to see the end of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, which was Terry Jones’ directorial debut (co-directing with fellow Python Terry Gilliam).

It’s Bedevere’s bright idea to infiltrate the French soldiers’ castle inside a Trojan Rabbit, a plan that, unsurprisingly, backfires horribly as the wooden rabbit is catapulted back at them.

6 Arthur “Two Sheds” Jackson

Arthur Jackson is a classical composer with the nickname “Two Sheds.” He’s interviewed on an arts and culture show, but the interviewer is more interested in the origin of his nickname than his music.

As it turns out, he’s only known as “Two Sheds” because he was once thinking about buying a second shed – it’s not very exciting.

5 Spam Waitress

The Pythons’ “Spam” sketch is insanely repetitive, since every joke in the sketch is just the name of a meal containing a lot of tinned spam. But Terry Jones’ comic delivery as the waitress in the spam restaurant makes it work.

He delivers ridiculous dish names like “Spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon, and spam” and “Spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, baked beans, spam, spam, spam, and spam” with as much deadpan commitment as he delivers a normal dish name like “Egg, sausage, and bacon.”

4 Mr. Creosote

In one of the most memorable sketches from The Meaning of Life, which is regarded to be the Pythons’ worst film, but contains plenty of pitch-black comic gems such as this one, Terry Jones plays a morbidly obese regular customer at a fancy restaurant. The restaurant’s staff members start shaking in their boots when they hear that Mr. Creosote is nearby, simply because of how much food he can shovel into his face.

At the end of the sketch, he’s talked into piling a razor-thin after-dinner mint on top of all the food he’s eaten. He reluctantly accepts the mint and promptly explodes.

3 The Nude Organist

The best Python gags are the ones that require no explanation. The sheer absurdity is apparent instantly, like in the “Fish-Slapping Dance” sketch, and the laughs come thick and fast. The naked organist is a prime example of this kind of humor.

The character was played by Terry Gilliam in his initial appearance in the first season of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, but the Python troupe’s other Terry took over the role and made him iconic as he became a part of the opening titles in the third season.

2 Reverend E.P. Nesbitt

In a parody of far-fetched action-packed TV series like The Equalizer, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Peter Gunn (the latter of which lends its theme music by Henry Mancini to the spoof), “The Bishop” tells the story of an ass-kicking clergyman who foils church bombings.

The badass lead of the fictional TV drama, Reverend E.P. Nesbitt, is played by Terry Jones. His gruff, ice-cold demeanor juxtaposes hysterically with his silly name and familiar vestments.

1 Mandy Cohen

Without a doubt, Terry Jones’ most hilarious character from the Monty Python oeuvre is Mandy Cohen, the titular mistaken messiah’s mother in Life of Brian. Jones delivers the funniest and most iconic line in the whole movie: “He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!”

Just as mild-mannered Brian Cohen is mistaken for Jesus, his mother Mandy is mistaken for the Virgin Mary. From making small talk with a Roman soldier demanding sexual favors to chastising Brian for inspiring a religious following, Mandy is unceasingly hysterical.

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