Eric Idle Spent ‘SNL’s 25th Anniversary Roasting ‘SNL’

Early next year, Saturday Night Live will air a three-hour primetime special to celebrate its 50th anniversary, featuring celebrity guests and those surviving former SNL cast members who haven’t made Lorne Michaels’ enemies list — yet.

But this is hardly the first time that SNL has thrown a big party for itself. One of the biggest celebrations happened back in 1999. The Saturday Night Live 25th Anniversary Special featured Bill Murray belting out Bruce Springsteen tunes, a touching tribute to Phil Hartman and the most awkward Jerry Seinfeld appearance this side of the Unfrosted press tour.

One famous face who didn’t show up to the big bash was Eric Idle, which is odd because the Monty Python star was a key fixture in the early days of SNL. He hosted the show four times in the ‘70s, once while pretending to be gravely ill. 

Why did Idle never join the Five-Timers Club in the 40-plus years since then? Who knows? Idle was seemingly good chums with Michaels (who also produced Idle’s The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash), so much so that he married his current wife, Tania Kosevich, in Michaels’ New York apartment. “It was very nice of Lorne to offer his apartment,” Idle wrote in 2012. “I guess I had been doing Saturday Night Live a lot.”

But in ‘99, just three days after the 25th anniversary special, Idle appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien and tore SNL a new one. When Conan asked why he didn’t run into the him at the special, Idle responded, “I was invited but I didn’t go, actually, because I was busy,” adding, “and also they can go on a bit.”

When Conan informed him that it was a three-hour show, Idle quipped, “And 12 minutes would have been enough I think.” He then attempted to compliment the show, remarking that “it is a great academy, without Saturday Night Live, there would be nobody in show business. Almost everybody great has come through that show.” But he couldn’t help but add a caveat: “On the other hand, they’ve never heard of the word ‘rewrite.’ Or ‘cutting.’”

It’s unclear whether or not Idle knew that O’Brien was a former Saturday Night Live writer at this point in their relationship.

And Idle wasn’t done quite yet, he also told Conan a joke: “What’s the difference between life and a Saturday Night Live sketch? Life doesn’t go on forever.” 

When he had finally gotten everything out of his system he suggested that he “will not be hosting the show again. Until the 2070s.”

When the subject turned to a potential Monty Python reunion, Idle flatly claimed that it would never happen, noting that he and the other Pythons “agreed to absolutely disagree on everything for the rest of our lives.”

While he was wrong about the reunion, the last part has proven to be pretty accurate.