John Cleese and Eric Idle are continuing to duke it out on social media.
The Monty Python legends exchanged barbs earlier this year, locking horns over their estrangement after Idle complained that he still had to work because Python’s earnings had dried up.
Idle blamed the mismanagement of the Python brand on Terry Gilliam and his daughter, Holly. The latter runs HDG Projects, which manages Python and helped stage Monty Python Live (mostly) – One Down Five to Go, the group’s 2014 reunion shows at the O2 in London.
Now, in a fresh post on X (once Twitter), Idle has accused Cleese of firing former manager Jim Beach and installing Holly. He said this was the reason their relationship was “over.”
Cleese fired back on the same platform, accusing Idle of “invention.” He added: “Jim, who was an old friend of mine from Cambridge days, became Python manager after the O2 show. About four years ago he suffered a bad stroke and subsequently resigned as our manager. His number 2, Holly Gilliam, automatically took over as Python manager.”
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What has cleese done?
The thing that stands out the most to me is when he said that London was no longer an English city. What he meant by that is that it was no longer a mostly white city.
That was a little ambiguous, because he said that after London was the major city that voted against Brexit, he was saying it was more foreign (European) than English. Schroedinger’s asshole type of comment.
Also he said that because he was pro Brexit (which is already not good), so it might not have been about skin color at all, just international European culture.
He did get caught in the Rowling shitshow, early on when he started saying “I just hope (trans people) are treated kindly” but slowly admitted that he only had surface knowledge and let it slip that he thought the whole trans thing was an act or a choice. I don’t think he was malicious or aggressive about it, but he was called out on propagating transphobic messages.
And he spoke up against cancel culture.
It’s possible that he doesn’t understand that even if he doesn’t mean bad things, he’s letting bad propaganda slip out and repeating a language that hurts easily targeted people without understanding the scope. But he doesn’t seem very willing to learn quickly about it.
I haven’t heard anything recent if he changed his mind or double down about any of this.
Watch the clip of him on Graham Norton with Taylor Swift.
His constant condescension and blatant misogyny are on full display.
He aabsolutely means all the shit things you pointed out above IMO, he just doesn’t realise the world has moved on and those opinions are shit.
He’s the worst kind of shit. Shit that thinks it’s perfectly normal to be shit and it’s everyone else that’s stinking up the place.
Being socially inappropriate and unemphathic/unconsiderate. Your call how “wrong ” that is.
Supposedly he is unable to drop the act at home.
The way he plays Basil Fawlty is supposedly reasonably accurate to his general behavior. This comes from his ex wife who also played
Basils wifein the series.Nothing like Rowling that i am aware off.
His ex-wife was Connie Booth who played Polly the maid not Fawlty’s wife in Fawlty Towers, she also co-wrote both series with Cleese.
I understand, but I disagree. He’s fine. Always welcome.
All Pythons are always welcome.
Well, I don’t want to paint with too broad a brush here, but it sounds like someone is being a…
Bigus
Dickus.
Great share, thanks!
He has a wife, you know?
What is her name?
Oh no, the horror of not being able to coast off of some popular skit shows and movies from 40 years ago!
I really enjoy a lot of MP movies, but you can’t expect what was already somewhat niche comedy to pay for a comfortable life forever. Come up with new material and, y’know, put effort in.
It’s a global phenomenon, not “somewhat niche comedy”.
Yes, they deserve to “coast”.
I’d argue that the movies were global phenomenons, but the skit show was actually very hit-or-miss (like basically every skit show is.) Skit shows really shine on places like TikTok where you’re able to just watch the highlights. Give viewers a quick 3 minute long skit, and move on. But that’s because the highlights are ignoring the bad or unfunny skits.
Okay, but I dont think they had places like tiktok 40 years ago
Which is exactly why I say the show was hit-or-miss.
It’s things like this that make me mad copyright was extended so long. It was originally set at 20 years to prevent this from happening and encourage people to make new art.
The dude is 81. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect to be able to retire long before that. Entertainers generally don’t have pensions, so earnings from their copyrighted material can function like one.
I have no problem with copyrights held by an artist lasting for the life of the creator. But copyrights maintained by corporations or other entities indefinitely, especially after the death of the creator, are bullshit.
If they made millions off their content and are now penniless, that tells me that poorly managed their money seeing as most middle class people will only make maybe a couple million over the entirety of their lives.
Very true. But that’s different from not deserving the proceeds from their work.
If I mismanage my money and am completely broke when I hit retirement age that doesn’t mean I don’t deserve the pension I’ve been paying into my entire career.
You can blame companies like Disney for getting copyright protections extended to the absurd length it is now. Hell, because of them, Steamboat Willie only just recently fell into public domain and that came out in 1928.
Sad thing really. Never really liked the attitude of Idle much, bit full of himself.
Then again Cleese’s flirtation with his inner Basil Fawlty persona (he kind of gels with prickish characters and it’s solidified with age).
I’m sort if glad Chapman didn’t live to be in this era, as he might have embraced the mad and absurdist frantic polarization and be broken by it like Lineham.
I very much prefer Palin, sitting out in old age and not yelling on social media.
Well Palin continued his career as a genial travel show host. I’m sure he’s not busy loving off python residuals. I think all of Cleese’s movie money went in divorce settlements.
