Eric Idle has blasted his Monty Python co-stars for being "miserable and horrible and b****y" about royalty payments
The 82-year-old comic wrote stage show Spamalot, which is based on his 1975 movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, and he thinks the rest of the comedy troupe - whose survivng members are John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, and Michael Palin - should be more "grateful" for the money they receive from the production
14 July 2025
Asked if the other Pythons receive royalty payments, he told The Guardian newspaper: "They got more f****** money than they've ever been grateful for. They got f****** millions and they're miserable and horrible and b****y about it.
"I spent 20 years working for Python and then two years on the O2 show. They were there for two weeks.
"I'm not really motivated by money, to be honest. Anyway, the producers get all the f****** money and divide it up according to the contract.
"Someone sued us for years, saying I was paying the Pythons money from my back pocket. And I said: why would I risk going to an American jail to give John Cleese more money?"
Eric admitted there was a "lot of arguing and fights" between the Monty Python stars but he thinks that was good for their work.
He said: "Some things in Python were very enjoyable and some were not. Holy Grail was cold and miserable. Sometimes that makes it funny. One of the worst things you can have in comedy is enough money.
"Python was quite a lot of arguing and fights and good work is often like that. The best thing about showbiz is when it's over. I think if you're enjoying yourself, then you're not acting or giving, you're just having a good time. Well, that's not funny."
Meanwhile, Eric is also concerned they didn't do enough to "protect" their image amid the rise of AI technology.
He said: " I always felt that we ought to protect our images after I saw that tacky advert with Fred Astaire and the vacuum cleaner. I felt very bad about that. So I felt that we Pythons ought to have done something to protect our image in a way that's appropriate. But I don't think there is a way that's appropriate.
"I have had my image done in one of those extraordinary machines where 40 cameras capture you from every angle. It was for a film they wanted to make sure they could finish.
"But it worries me. I don't trust AI. I mean, look at how many times you have to correct a word. It completely misreads you. ChatGPT writing essays really bothers me. The point is to find out what we think, not what a machine thinks."
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