John Cleese Now Says He Was Only Joking About “Loathing and Despising” Eric Idle

James Hibberd
·3 min read
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John Cleese says the media got it wrong when it quoted his tweet seemingly declaring that he and his Monty Python co-star Eric Idle have always “loathed and despised each other.”

Cleese originally made the comment amid an apparent online dispute over the beloved comedy troupe’s finances, sparked by Idle criticizing the other Pythons, as well as their asset manager Holly Gilliam — daughter of Python member Terry Gilliam.

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The Cleese came to Holly’s defense — and he was apparently serious about that part. But 84-year-old claims he wasn’t being serious when he wrote, “We always loathed and despised each other, but it’s only recently that the truth has begun to emerge.”

“I’ve just seen the Press Association release,” Cleese wrote. “They got it totally wrong. My remark about ‘loathing and despising each other.’ 1. Referred to all the members of the group. 2. Was a joke I would have expected PA staff to have 1. An understanding of irony 2. A sense of humour.”

Somebody pointed out he could have added “/s” to indicate he was being sarcastic, to which Cleese responded, “Explaining a joke kills it. And … making a joke too obvious kills it too. The requirement for surprise means that the listener has to make a small mental leap to ‘get’ it. Too big a jump and they won’t get it. Too little, and it becomes too obvious. Tricky.”

While for his part, the 80-year-old Idle has since managed to say something nice about Cleese after the dust-up, praising his colleague’s comedic talent when replying to a fan: “I never said he wasn’t funny. He was. Hilarious. 61 years.”

Previously, Idle had groused, “We own everything we ever made in Python and I never dreamed that at this age the income streams would tail off so disastrously. But I guess if you put a Gilliam child in as your manager you should not be so surprised. One Gilliam is bad enough. Two can take out any company.” The actor, singer and writer recently put his Hollywood Hills home on the market for $6.5 million.

Idle also added, “I’m doing no more Python. I gave already. Ungrateful bastards … I still love and am proud of what we did as Python. It was a very unique group. I think of us as an ex-Liverpool team. We played together well. Way back in the day. But it was never very supportive of people’s feelings and emotions. Not Brothers. Colleagues.”

Cleese fired back (along with the “loathed and despised” line): “I have worked with Holly for the last 10 years and I find her very efficient, clear-minded, hard-working and pleasant to have dealings with.” Cleese added fellow Python Michael Palin “has asked me to to make it clear that he shares this opinion” and that “Terry Gilliam is also in agreement with this.”

It seems there haven’t been any back-channel talks about the spat between Idle and the others, however. One fan noted to Idle, “The Python news cycle is alive after a long time and it’s all because of a few choice tweets.” Idle replied, “And I only talk to you guys — amazing really.”

The Pythons have sometimes been a fractious group over their five decades in comedy, yet were always able to mend fences and come together for various projects and reunions — such as 2014’s Monty Python Live (Mostly) show at London’s The O2 Arena.

“Terry and I quarreled about material all the time, and sometimes got very fed up with each other,” Cleese noted. “But that happens with creative people who care a lot about what they’re doing.”

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