Eric Idle on ‘Monty Python’ Money Troubles, “Poor” John Cleese Relationship

Eric Idle is addressing Monty Python‘s money troubles and his “poor” relationship with his comedy troupe colleague John Cleese.

In a new interview in The New Yorker, the 81-year-old discussed how he’s been anything but, well, idle in his octogenarian years due to feeling cash strapped.

Idle had posted in February, “I never dreamed that at this age the income streams would tail off so disastrously … I don’t know why people always assume we’re loaded. Python is a disaster. [Their musical] Spamalot made money 20 years ago. I have to work for my living. Not easy at this age.” He also appeared to blame the comedy troupe’s asset manager, Holly Gilliam, member Terry Gilliam’s daughter, for the state of their finances. Cleese also posted that he “loathed and despised” Idle, then later said he was only joking.

Idle says his comment about the group’s finances was, “One-hundred-per-cent true. I never thought Python would get into a situation where it doesn’t have enough to keep us all in our old age. But three of us are on the road touring! It’s not entirely due to one person. Spotify’s nicked everything, and YouTube nicks everything. People assume you’re loaded. But, like anybody else, I have to work for a living. I don’t think that’s bad for me, to be honest. I’m touring. It keeps me fit. I like making people laugh. Would I like to sit around reading a book? Of course I would. Sometimes you can’t get what you want.”

At the time, the 84-year-old Cleese came to Holly Gilliam’s defense, saying she was, “efficient, clear-minded, hard-working and pleasant.”

Idle now says he stands by his criticism: “I don’t think it’s appropriate that somebody’s daughter is managing the company. You can’t be neutral in a situation where your dad is on the board. I think it’s not right, and it leads to dangerous feelings and difficulties.”

He describes his relationship today with Cleese as “poor” and noted it “started to go a bit south during lockdown, and I got worried. I haven’t seen him for eight years. I think when you lose touch with people face to face, all sorts of things can happen. It’s a pity.

“I don’t think there is any Python left,” he added. “Two of them are gone, and some are on the edge! (Laughs.) And some got lucky and didn’t go. I don’t think there’s a there there. It’s forty years ago that we did anything fresh, really.”

Meanwhile, Cleese claimed he’s saying goodbye to X/Twitter in a new post referencing Elon Musk.

“Good bye, Twitter,” Cleese wrote Sunday evening. “And thanks for dinner, Elon.”

The tweet wasn’t explained, but Cleese has been posting frequent criticisms of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, while Musk has been posting criticisms of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.

Given that Cleese retweeted a post Monday morning, however, it seems rather unlikely that he’s actually leaving the platform.