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Eric Idle has recently been quite candid online about his financial status, and contrary to the comedic work he is known for, he is being serious.
The 80-year-old Monty Python actor took to X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) to share what might seem astonishing to the average viewer of his famed franchise, per The Guardian.
“I don’t know why people assume we’re loaded,” he wrote. “Python is a disaster.”
In one of a heated series of tweets fired off over the weekend, he also acknowledged Spamalot, the Broadway show he adapted from Holy Grail in 2004, which he said “made money 20 years ago.”
“I have to work for my living,” he added. “Not easy at this age.”
After being asked about how much “his houses” are worth, he revealed that he “sold [his house] last year.” In response to someone who questioned whether or not he was being “sincere” in the posts, Idle explained that he and his costars “own everything [they] ever made in Python and [he] never dreamed that at this age the income streams would tail off so disastrously.”
The Monty Python comedy troupe was launched in 1969 by comics Idle, John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. In the same post, Idle called out Gilliam and (indirectly) his daughter Holly for the franchise’s financial failures.
“But I guess if you put a Gilliam child in as your manager you should not be so surprised,” he penned. “One Gilliam is bad enough. Two can take out any company.”
In response to his tweets, Idle’s daughter Lily commended her father’s honesty and “for finally finally finally starting to share the truth.”
The revelations continued after a fan suggested that a Netflix documentary be made “on the rise and fall of Monty Python.” Idle bitterly clapped back, “Fuck Netflix and fuck documentaries.”
When someone argued that his blunt response was why he’s not “wealthy,” he replied, “I don’t mind not being wealthy. I prefer being funny. I don’t like being assumed to be wealthy. It’s different. I think Python was Executive free comedy.”
Nonetheless, Idle claimed he is doing “fine,” noting that he’s “engaged and writing” and even “creating a new show,” per Deadline. In 2018, Idle released his memoir Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, which takes its name from his song that was first debuted in the comedy troupe’s 1975 film Monty Python’s Life of Brian, per CBS News.
