Wit & Attitude Quote by Michael Palin

There’s a sly double-take baked into Palin’s line: he plays innocent about a phenomenon he helped manufacture. “Hard to believe” isn’t disbelief so much as a comedian’s humblebrag in disguise, the kind that lets him applaud an enduring legacy while keeping his own importance safely undercut. It’s classic Palin - genial, self-deprecating, and just sharp enough to remind you that longevity in pop culture is usually an accident, not a plan.

The key is the word “still.” It frames Python fandom as a stubborn, almost irrational attachment, like people obsessing over an old sketch show the way they might cling to a childhood band. That’s the subtextual wink: Monty Python’s humor was always about puncturing pomposity, and here Palin punctures the very idea of cultural permanence. Twenty-five years is long enough for a comedy sensibility to curdle into nostalgia or get filed away as “important” - which Python famously resists. Calling the devotion “crazy” flatters the fans while also teasing them for treating something so anarchic with near-religious reverence.

Context matters, too: Palin’s career has expanded far beyond Python into travel writing and broadcasting, a second act built on curiosity and decency. From that vantage, the obsession with early work can feel both touching and mildly absurd. The quote works because it acknowledges the cult without feeding it; it keeps the brand alive by refusing to act like a brand manager. That refusal is the most Python thing about it.