Eric Idle Explains the Only Two Reasons Why People Watch Monty Python Anymore
It’s 2025 which, despite the lack of flying cars, robot butlers and miraculous poop-cleaning seashells, is very much the future — at least compared to the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s. Even though so much time has passed since the days when the internet was just a twinkle in the eye of Al Gore, people are still very much enjoying the comedy of Monty Python, who first hit the comedy scene way back in 1969 with the debut of Monty Python’s Flying Circus on the BBC.
The Pythons are seemingly just as popular in the 21st century as they were in the 20th, as evidenced by their run of sold-out shows at London’s massive O2 Arena in 2014…
…and their streaming success, first on YouTube, then Netflix and now Shout! TV. Which, when you think about it, is highly unusual. I mean, it’s not like many other decades-old BBC shows are hot streaming commodities these days. You won’t see Netflix breaking the bank to obtain old episodes of, say, the nightmare factory known as The Magic Roundabout.
On a recent episode of the podcast Great Chats with Francesca Rudkin, Eric Idle was asked about Monty Python’s continued popularity, and he offered up a surprisingly modest explanation.
Host Francesca Rudkin pointed out that the Pythons have had quite the longevity, so much so that she can watch the troupe with her teenagers, and everybody enjoyed it because “that comedy still works.” Idle noted that this development was “intriguing,” but he added that it was “not supposed to be” because it’s just so darn old. For example, Monty Python and the Holy Grail will be “50 years old next year.”
When Idle and the Pythons were younger, they didn’t typically enjoy movies from that far back in the past, with the exception of some classic comedies that in no way felt contemporary. “We watched Harolyd Lloyd and Laurel and Hardy and things like that,” Idle recalled, “but they seemed in a different era, ‘cause they were in black and white.”
And the Pythons came close to suffering a similar fate. “I think one of our luckiest things was that when we first did the TV show (was that) we were only three months from being in black and white.”
Monty Python’s Flying Circus was “one of the first comedy shows made in color,” according to the late Terry Jones, who similarly claimed that “if it had been scheduled a month or two earlier it would have been in black and white." Idle has previously said that, had the show been shot in black and white, it would have “looked like the Stone Age.”
“So we were both digital, which was great ‘cause you can survive, and we were in color,” Idle told Rudkin. “And those are the only two reasons I can (think of to) explain the longevity of (Monty Python). Because we’re still in the digital era.”
Of course, Monty Python’s Flying Circus wasn’t initially recorded on a digital format, it was shot on two-inch videotape, which is why it came dangerously close to being wiped from existence by the BBC. Presumably what Idle is referring to is the fact that the BBC created new digital masters for the entire series back in the “early 1990s.”
It also should be noted that a big reason why they’re still popular is that their humor is mostly absurd, not topical, which prevents a lot of their sketches from becoming terribly dated— although teenagers may need an explanation for what a “milkman” was.
