Eric Idle Says the Monty Python Feud Is ‘Only About Money’
The ongoing feud between Eric Idle and John Cleese has gotten a lot of attention this year. It’s basically the Drake-Kendrick beef, but for comedy lovers who can’t sleep through the night without getting up to pee at least once.
Monty Python fans who have been disappointed by their comedy heroes’ incessant online squabbling aren’t alone. Idle appeared on the most recent episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, and the former Late Night host revealed that, he too, has been bummed at the troupe’s recent acrimony.
Conan is obviously a huge Python fan, so it’s perhaps no surprise that, during his chat with Idle, he brought up the spat. Prefacing his line of inquiry by noting “we don't have to talk about this,” he admitted that as someone who’s been “influenced and awed by Python, I think of it as sort of (like) Santa Claus. Like a child, I just want to believe that everyone’s getting along,” adding that “you and Cleese famously, lately, have had your disagreements and that have come out in public.”
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And O’Brien seems to have taken those disagreements personally. “I’ll think, Oh, I don’t want mommy and daddy to fight. But that’s childlike of me because you’re human beings that disagree. And you’ve known each other a long time.”
Idle stressed to Conan that he and the other Pythons “don’t disagree about comedy,” and the current dispute “is only about money. This is only about business.”
He also downplayed the situation, telling the host that “there’s no reason (for it) I mean, a fool and his money are easily parted, you know, six of us much more quickly. I think there’s no right or wrong way to deal with business. And if somebody has one view of it and somebody doesn’t and somebody has another, those can lead to very bad arguments.”
Idle’s current tone sure feels like a far cry from how he has expressed his feelings on social media. He’s routinely blasted the other Pythons’ decision to elect Terry Gilliam’s daughter, Holly, as their manager, which happened in spite of his objections.
And, as we’ve mentioned, even before the most recent digital dustup, Cleese and Idle exchanged shots over Cleese’s Spamalot royalties. Sure, it’s all to do with “business,” but it seems to have overtaken every aspect of their personal relationship at this point.
Idle revealed that he hasn’t seen Cleese in nine years, and it’s been a full decade since he’s met up with Michael Palin. “We’re just old,” Idle explained. “We never disagreed on the very important things: on what was funny.”
As for his decision to keep touring, Idle also presented that aspect of his life somewhat differently in his talk with Conan. While he admitted that finances are “difficult” because “residuals are becoming a thing of the past” he proclaimed, “I quite like going out there and making people laugh — see if I can still make ‘em laugh. Because I think that’s the sort of little joy that we get. We’re all comedy junkies. Laugh junkies.”
Again, this is a stark contrast from the Idle we know from social media, who previously complained that he’s forced to keep working (“not easy at my age”) because Monty Python’s finances are a “disaster.”
Maybe it’s just that Twitter tends to amplify negative feelings, while the warm, pale Irish aura of Conan O’Brien has the exact opposite effect.
