As we may have mentioned once or twice in the past, Eric Idle and John Cleese have been at each other’s digital throats for years, battling over the current state of Monty Python’s finances while comedy fans watch helplessly from the sidelines of social media. Recently, Cleese threatened to publish some of his private correspondence with Idle, purely in order to make his former collaborator look bad.
And now, apparently, Monty Python fans can’t even post sketches online without kicking the hornet’s nest that is Idle and Cleese’s online feud.
This week, a Python fan caught Idle’s attention by tagging him in a post in which they shared a clip of their “favourite” sketch, “Working-Class Playwright,” which was included in the second episode of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, “Sex and Violence.”
An inversion of English stereotypes
The sketch found a shaggy-haired Idle visiting his gruff father (played by Graham Chapman) in London. In a hilarious inversion of English stereotypes of the day, Idle had moved to Yorkshire in order to seek a career in coal mining, leading his blue-collar dad to criticise these life choices while extolling the virtues of labouring in the arts.
“What do you know about getting up at five o’clock in the morning to fly to Paris, back at the Old Vic for drinks at 12, sweating the day through press interviews, television interviews and getting back here at 10 to wrestle with the problem of a homosexual nymphomaniac drug-addict involved in the ritual murder of a well-known Scottish footballer?” Chapman asks. “That’s a full working day lad, and don’t you forget it!”
In response to the post, Idle noted that he incorporated the sketch into the 2009 stage show “An Evening Without Monty Python,” which he co-directed. He also revealed that he originally included it in the script for the Pythons’ 2014 reunion concert at the O2 arena, but “John Cleese inexplicably asked for it to be cut.”
A good reason to scrap the sketch
In Cleese’s defence, there was one very good reason to scrap the sketch. The best part of “Working-Class Playwright” is Chapman’s performance as the irate father with a debilitating case of writer’s cramp. And Chapman was unable to make the O2 reunion due to his having died 25 years earlier. Having another member of the Monty Python team, or some other actor, step into the role just wouldn’t have been the same.
Following Idle’s random Cleese diss, one fan asked them to “please stop sniping at each other” as it makes their followers “sad.” Idle jokingly responded by asking the “tiresome” Marilyn to “fuck off.”
At least, we hope he was joking.