Eric Idle Quotes

Eric Idle presents witty, absurd satire that pokes fun at stereotypes, Hollywood excess and silly authority.

27 quotes

1. I got used to dealing with groups of boys and getting on with life in unpleasant circumstances and being smart and funny and subversive at the expense of authority.

2. Basically, the Germans came to us and said, 'We don't have a sense of humour.'

3. Typical Hollywood crowd - all the kids are on drugs, and all the adults are on roller skates.

4. American Beer is a lot like making love on a canoe - it's fucking close to water.

5. At least one way of measuring the freedom of any society is the amount of comedy that is permitted, and clearly a healthy society permits more satirical comment than a repressive, so that if comedy is to function in some way as a safety release then it must obviously deal with these taboo areas. This is part of the responsibility we accord our licensed jesters, that nothing be excused the searching light of comedy. If anything can survive the probe of humour it is clearly of value, and conversely all groups who claim immunity from laughter are claiming special privileges which should not be granted.

6. As long as there are innocent nickels to be made from the gullible, Python-starved public, I shall be out there dressed in silly frocks and singing filthy lyrics. I'm coming your way in search of ancient dollars.

7. Bear in mind the simple rule, X squared to the power of two minus five over the seven point eight three times nineteen is approximately equal to the cube root of MCC squared divided by X minus a quarter of a third percent. Keep that in mind, and you can't go very far wrong.

8. The Minister of Transport issued this appeal to motorists: Can anyone give him a lift to Leicester?

9. We would only do a (Monty Python) reunion if Graham (Chapman) came back from the dead. So we're negotiating with his agent.

10. Having little money to spend was a valuable learning experience. My schooling also shaped my work ethic because while other children were listening to the Goons, I was studying, which enabled me to go to Cambridge University.

11. Americans like to think 'Python' is how English people really are. There is an element of truth to that.

12. If you're famous, you have to [be overly generous], otherwise people say, "Eric Idle came in and only left me $4." I always tip more than people expect.

13. At least in America, you have freedom of speech, which is a good thing. It's just a question of whether you're allowed to use it on 'Fox News'.

14. Many years ago I also bought a house in Provence for about 70,000 francs. It had no electricity or running water, and no road leading to the house, but gradually we made improvements. It's my escape and I love it.

15. No day of my life passes without someone saying the words 'Monty Python' to me. It's not bad.

16. I believe in the separation of church and planet.

17. I've got soggy thighs. It must be dinner time.

18. I think the special thing about Python is that it's a writers' commune. The writers are in charge. The writers decide what the material is.

19. There's no gap between the writer and the performer, which is what I think makes [Monty] Python unique. Five or six people who write Python and five or six who act it. That's what makes it unique.

20. I hate movies. They're so boring. So tedious.

21. Probably spending 12 years at boarding school - comedy became a survival gene. But I think some people are funny right off the bat, as soon as they can speak or be naughty.

22. Know what I mean? Eh, eh, Nudge nudge, Say no more?

23. One of the reasons we moved to L.A. in the first place [was] so that it was no big deal that I was in show business. We decided if we move[d] to L.A., then everyone in one way or another was involved in it.

24. Executives do not on the whole do well with comedy. They can't understand it, they can't read it, they can't spot it.

25. My education was paid for by the RAF Benevolent Fund, so a charity school, run like an orphanage, with uniforms and beatings. It was tough, but it got me to Cambridge - like being a chrysalis suddenly becoming a butterfly.

26. My wife, Tania, is very big on dogs, so I'm always paying out to animal charities.

27. I love my family, my wife, my kids, my dogs, my home, my life. I am a very happy and contented man.