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This post by John Cleese sent me down a worm hole...
lol... What?
Were they like a feuding 70's band, who managed to hold it together for two amazing movies and a fun show? I seriously had zero idea.
Eric Idle confirms
A quick google search lead me to this article... just posted yesterday
www.telegraph.co.uk
It's a little long, but definitely worth the read...
Highlights
He may not be the Messiah, but, in the eyes of those who venerate Monty Python, one of its members, Eric Idle, has been a very naughty boy. Over the past few days, Idle has taken to social media to complain vociferously about the downsides – both artistic and commercial – of his involvement with Python, which began as long ago as 1969 and has continued to delight, and frustrate, both its members and fans ever since. Idle declared, apropos of a fan’s innocuous enquiry, that “I don’t know why people always assume we’re loaded. Python is a disaster. Spamalot made money 20 years ago. I have to work for my living. Not easy at this age.”
However, from the outset, there was a tension between the roles that Cleese and Chapman played within the group. Palin wrote in the published edition of his diaries The Python Years, dealing with the period 1969 to 1979, that because Cleese was higher-profile than the other members of Python – “John was a big name, one of the great new discoveries of the Sixties…the rest of us were journeymen scriptwriters”, he said in 1993 – he felt that he was in charge and therefore dominated the others. Hence Idle’s later claim that Terry Jones, in particular, was bullied by him.
It may have been because of Cleese’s influence on the group that Chapman, an amicable and talented man – and also one of the first public figures in Britain to come out as gay – was allowed to remain in Python, given how heavy and destructive his drinking was. Palin wrote in his diary in 1969 that Chapman was “the high priest of hedonism”, and complained that “he is now concerned with his homosexual relationships and perpetuating the atmosphere of well-being which good food and drink bring.
Chapman, at the time, was suffering from cancer that would eventually kill him in October 1989, and his televised memorial service on December 3 became notable for two things: firstly, Monty Python’s members’ almost childish desire to say “f___” during the service, and secondly Cleese’s eulogy, in which he (tongue in cheek) declared that “I guess that we’re all thinking how sad it is that a man of such talent, of such capability for kindness, of such unusual intelligence, should now, so suddenly, be spirited away at the age of only forty-eight, before he’d achieved many of the things of which he was capable, and before he’d had enough fun. Well, I feel that I should say, nonsense. Good riddance to him, the freeloading bastard, I hope he fries!” It was irreverent and hilarious: the last gasp of Python united. Chapman, you suspect, would have loved it.
Of all the Pythons, the one who seemed (and seems) happiest with the life of a celebrity is Idle, who long since swapped rainy England for a life in California, and recently complained, of his diminished earnings, that “we still get something but not enough to keep me on the beaches.”
This resentment only increased with time, and in 1971 Palin wrote that “The split between John and Eric and the rest of us has grown. John and Eric see Monty Python as a means to an end – money to buy freedom from work.” This was not an opinion shared by Jones, of whom Palin wrote “Terry is completely the opposite and feels that Python is an end in itself – work which he enjoys doing and keeps him from the dangerous world of leisure.” He noted that “In between are Graham and myself.”
Honestly, I'm sad to hear about all this, but not surprised. One of favorite movies of all time and some of my favorite actors. I remember my dad renting The Holy Grail when I was a kid and telling me I was going to love it. All the stupid shit, I laugh so hard. Can't even tell how many times I rewatched it and had most the dialogue memorized.
Sad to see people get old and bitter... Feuds boiling over...
Kind of reminds me what what happened with Crosby Still and Nash... And the venom Nash had for Crosby for a couple decades before Crosby died.
lol... What?
Were they like a feuding 70's band, who managed to hold it together for two amazing movies and a fun show? I seriously had zero idea.
Eric Idle confirms
A quick google search lead me to this article... just posted yesterday
Monty Python’s long, not entirely serious history of hating each other
As Eric Idle’s recent gripes prove, members of the revered comedy troupe have spent more time feuding than working. But is it all a joke?
www.telegraph.co.uk
It's a little long, but definitely worth the read...
Highlights
He may not be the Messiah, but, in the eyes of those who venerate Monty Python, one of its members, Eric Idle, has been a very naughty boy. Over the past few days, Idle has taken to social media to complain vociferously about the downsides – both artistic and commercial – of his involvement with Python, which began as long ago as 1969 and has continued to delight, and frustrate, both its members and fans ever since. Idle declared, apropos of a fan’s innocuous enquiry, that “I don’t know why people always assume we’re loaded. Python is a disaster. Spamalot made money 20 years ago. I have to work for my living. Not easy at this age.”
However, from the outset, there was a tension between the roles that Cleese and Chapman played within the group. Palin wrote in the published edition of his diaries The Python Years, dealing with the period 1969 to 1979, that because Cleese was higher-profile than the other members of Python – “John was a big name, one of the great new discoveries of the Sixties…the rest of us were journeymen scriptwriters”, he said in 1993 – he felt that he was in charge and therefore dominated the others. Hence Idle’s later claim that Terry Jones, in particular, was bullied by him.
It may have been because of Cleese’s influence on the group that Chapman, an amicable and talented man – and also one of the first public figures in Britain to come out as gay – was allowed to remain in Python, given how heavy and destructive his drinking was. Palin wrote in his diary in 1969 that Chapman was “the high priest of hedonism”, and complained that “he is now concerned with his homosexual relationships and perpetuating the atmosphere of well-being which good food and drink bring.
Chapman, at the time, was suffering from cancer that would eventually kill him in October 1989, and his televised memorial service on December 3 became notable for two things: firstly, Monty Python’s members’ almost childish desire to say “f___” during the service, and secondly Cleese’s eulogy, in which he (tongue in cheek) declared that “I guess that we’re all thinking how sad it is that a man of such talent, of such capability for kindness, of such unusual intelligence, should now, so suddenly, be spirited away at the age of only forty-eight, before he’d achieved many of the things of which he was capable, and before he’d had enough fun. Well, I feel that I should say, nonsense. Good riddance to him, the freeloading bastard, I hope he fries!” It was irreverent and hilarious: the last gasp of Python united. Chapman, you suspect, would have loved it.
Of all the Pythons, the one who seemed (and seems) happiest with the life of a celebrity is Idle, who long since swapped rainy England for a life in California, and recently complained, of his diminished earnings, that “we still get something but not enough to keep me on the beaches.”
This resentment only increased with time, and in 1971 Palin wrote that “The split between John and Eric and the rest of us has grown. John and Eric see Monty Python as a means to an end – money to buy freedom from work.” This was not an opinion shared by Jones, of whom Palin wrote “Terry is completely the opposite and feels that Python is an end in itself – work which he enjoys doing and keeps him from the dangerous world of leisure.” He noted that “In between are Graham and myself.”
The Pythons implode
Predictably, the continual disagreements over billing (and therefore money) began to lead to schisms between the Pythons after a few years. At the start of 1973, Cleese announced that, while he was prepared to work on a stage tour, he was no longer prepared to appear in the television series. As Idle later said, “It was on an Air Canada flight on the way to Toronto, when John turned to all of us and said ‘I want out.’ Why? I don’t know. He gets bored more easily than the rest of us. He’s a difficult man, not easy to be friendly with. He’s so funny because he never wanted to be liked. That gives him a certain fascinating, arrogant freedom.”The Spamalot spat
Idle had his greatest Python-related success in 2005 with Spamalot, the musical adaptation of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was an enormous hit on both Broadway and in the West End and continues to be revived to this day. Although the Pythons were initially supportive of the project, with Cleese serving as the recorded voice of God, and all of them appearing at the West End premiere, they offered their own candid opinions about the show; Gilliam dismissed it as “Python-lite” and says “it helps with the pension fund, and it helps keep Python alive…as much as we’d like to pull the plug on the whole thing it carries on”, and Jones alternated between saying that Spamalot was “terrific good fun” and complaining that “Spamalot is utterly pointless….regurgitating Python is not high on my list of priorities.”Honestly, I'm sad to hear about all this, but not surprised. One of favorite movies of all time and some of my favorite actors. I remember my dad renting The Holy Grail when I was a kid and telling me I was going to love it. All the stupid shit, I laugh so hard. Can't even tell how many times I rewatched it and had most the dialogue memorized.
Sad to see people get old and bitter... Feuds boiling over...
Kind of reminds me what what happened with Crosby Still and Nash... And the venom Nash had for Crosby for a couple decades before Crosby died.
