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[[caption-width-right:300:''"And now for something completely different."'']]
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->''"I never think in terms of target audience. I try to write what makes me laugh, so I'm the target audience. I guess I just hope there's another person in America like me."''
Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943 in South Shields, England) is a British actor, comedian and screenwriter, best known as a member of Creator/MontyPython, though he has also written and acted in other projects, such as ''Music/TheRutles''.
Within Creator/MontyPython Idle was the only member who worked alone.[[note]]Terry Gilliam doesn't count, since his primary role was the animations.[[/note]] All the others wrote in duos, but he always preferred working independently and didn't mind learning a lot of dialogue for it. He often played reporters, naïve innocents or cheeky bastards. Some of the most popular Python sketches have him in it, including "Nudge Nudge". Idle is also an accomplished singer-songwriter and wrote many of the group's songs together with Neil Innes (Music/TheBonzoDogBand). Their SignatureSong, "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life", originally from ''Film/LifeOfBrian'', was written and sung by Idle.
Idle's most succesful non-Python projects have been the comedic TV series ''Series/DoNotAdjustYourSet'', ''Splitting Heirs'', ''Series/RutlandWeekendTelevision'' and the spin-off Music/TheRutles and the comedy film ''Film/NunsOnTheRun''. Apart from that he appears a lot in CelebrityCameo roles in American films and sitcoms, including ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', ''Series/SuddenlySusan'' and Declan Desmond in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''. He also wrote a SF comedy thriller called ''Literature/TheRoadToMars''.
Idle also wrote the successful stage musical ''Theatre/{{Spamalot}}'', a cash-in on ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'', which has sold a lot of tickets all across the world, but at the same time received criticism for "selling out", not the least among some of the other Pythons. At least Idle lampshades this image too. One of his TurnOfTheMillennium concert tours was called ''Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python'', and another was ''The Greedy Bastard Tour''.
The standard IDE for the programming language Python, IDLE, was named after him.
'''Works'''
'''TV appearances'''
* ''Series/DoNotAdjustYourSet'' (1967-1969)
* ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'' (1969–70, 71-72, 74)
* ''Series/RutlandWeekendTelevision'' (1978), where Music/TheRutles span off. He plays both the reporter as well as Dirk [=McQuickly=].
* ''Series/LaverneAndShirley'': Appeared in the 1981 episode "I Do, I Do" as Derek [=DeWoods=].
* ''Series/FaerieTaleTheatre'': The narrator in ''Literature/TheFrogPrince'' (1982) episode -- which he wrote and directed -- and the Pied Piper in ''Literature/ThePiedPiperOfHamelin'' (1985) episode.
* ''Series/OneFootInTheGrave'' (1991-1992): Mervyn Whale.
* ''Splitting Heirs'' (1993): Tommy Butterfly Rainbow Peace Platel
* ''Series/{{Frasier}}'': Appeared as Chuck in the 1996 episode "High Crane Drifter".
* ''WesternAnimation/PinkyAndTheBrain'': Played Pinky's parents in the 1998 episode "The Family That Poits Together, Narfs Together".
* ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'': Played Guzelian in the episode "War, and Peace and War". Also composed the song "Let's Make Peace".
* ''Series/SuddenlySusan'': Played Ian Maxtone-Graham, one of the regular characters.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Voiced documentary filmmaker Declan Desmond in four episodes: "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS14E16ScuseMeWhileIMissTheSky 'Scuse Me While I Miss the Sky]]" (2003), "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS16E5FatManAndLittleBoy Fat Man and Little Boy]]" (2004), "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS18E13SpringfieldUp Springfield Up]]" (2007) and "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS23E20TheSpyWhoLearnedMe The Spy Who Learned Me]]" (2012)
* ''Series/TheMaskedSinger'' (2022): Appeared in Season 8 as [[spoiler: the Hedgehog]].
'''Films'''
* ''And Now For Something Completely Different'' (1971)
* ''Film/MontyPythonAndTheHolyGrail'' (1975): Brave Sir Robin, Concorde and the man who orders everyone to "bring out yer dead". Minor peasant characters here and there.
* ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian'' (1979): The cheeky man who jokes about while being crucified and eventually is brought away instead of Brian. Also Stan, who wants to be a woman, and the Jewish haggler.
* ''Film/MontyPythonLiveAtTheHollywoodBowl'' (1982)
* ''Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife'' (1983): One of the French waiters. Wife of the Protestant man and wife of the American tourist. The singer of "The Meaning Of Life song" and "The Galaxy Song". Also the wife of the British couple visited by the Grim Reaper.
* ''Film/NationalLampoonsEuropeanVacation'' (1983), in which Idle plays a British bicyclist
* ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie'' (1986): Voice of Wreck-Gar
* ''Film/TheAdventuresOfBaronMunchausen'' (1988): Desmond and Berthold
* ''Film/NunsOnTheRun'' (1990): Brian Hope
* ''Film/{{Casper}}'' (1995): Paul "Dibbs" Plutzker
* ''Film/TheWindIntheWillows1996'': Rat
* ''Film/AnAlanSmitheeFilmBurnHollywoodBurn'' (1998): AlanSmithee
* ''WesternAnimation/QuestForCamelot'' (1998): Voice of Devon
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretOfNIMH2TimmyToTheRescue'' (1998): [[spoiler:Evil Martin]]
* ''WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer1998'': Slyly
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthParkBiggerLongerAndUncut'' (1999): Dr. Vosknocker
* ''Film/OneHundredAndTwoDalmatians'' (2000): Voice of Waddlesworth
* ''Film/EllaEnchanted'' (2004): The {{Narrator}}
* ''WesternAnimation/ShrekTheThird'' (2007): Voice of Merlin
'''Theme Park Attractions'''
* In the Ride/DisneyThemeParks, he played Dr. Nigel Channing in ''[[Film/HoneyIShrunkTheKids Honey I Shrunk the Audience]]'' and went on to reprise the role in the second and third/current versions of the ''Ride/JourneyIntoImagination'' dark ride at Epcot (as a means of ArcWelding the Imagination! pavilion's attractions).
* For Ride/BuschGardens Williamsburg, he wrote and co-starred in the short film ''Pirates 4-D''.
'''Books and other writings'''
* ''Series/TheTwoRonnies'': In 1971, 1976 and 1978 he wrote the scripts of 10 episodes.
* ''Hello Sailor'', a 1975 novel.
* ''The Quite Remarkable Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat'', a 1996 children's book/album combination featuring original songs by Idle and John Du Prez.
* ''Literature/TheRoadToMars'', a 1999 science fiction novel drawn from an unproduced screenplay from TheEighties.
* ''The Greedy Bastard Diary'', a 2003 record of his experiences on ''The Greedy Bastard Tour''.
* ''Theatre/{{Spamalot}}'': Wrote the libretto and (with John Du Prez) music. He also provided a prerecorded NoTalkingOrPhonesWarning for it, plus the similar voiceover for God in the U.K. and touring versions.
* ''Always Look on the Bright Side of Life'', a 2018 "Sortabiography" (read: memoir) of his life and career.
'''Albums'''
* ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (1970)
* ''AudioPlay/AnotherMontyPythonRecord'' (1971)
* ''Monty Python's Previous Record'' (1972)
* ''AudioPlay/TheMontyPythonMatchingTieAndHandkerchief'' (1973)
* ''AudioPlay/MontyPythonLiveAtDruryLane'' (1974)
* ''The Album of the Soundtrack of the Trailer of the Film of Monty Python and the Holy Grail'' (1975)
* ''Monty Python Live at City Centre'' (1976)
* ''The Monty Python Instant Record Collection'' (1977)
* ''Monty Python's Life of Brian'' (1979)
* ''AudioPlay/MontyPythonsContractualObligationAlbum'' (1980)
* ''Monty Python's The Meaning of Life'' (1983)
* ''The Final Rip Off'' (1988)
* ''Monty Python Sings'' (1989)
* ''The Monty Python Instant Record Collection, Volume 2'' (1991)
* ''The Ultimate Monty Python Rip Off'' (1994)
* ''The Instant Monty Python CD Collection'' (1994)
* ''Eric Idle Exploits Monty Python'' (2001 live album)
* ''The Rutland Isles'' (2003 solo cabaret, ostensibly "an award-seeking documentary" travelogue)
* ''Spamalot'' (2005)
* ''The Hastily Cobbled Together for a Fast Buck Album'' (unreleased)
!! Eric Idle's work provides examples of...
* AffectionateParody: His project ''Music/TheRutles'', with Neil Innes (Music/TheBonzoDogBand) is a comedic parody and homage of Music/TheBeatles. Idle loves the band and Music/GeorgeHarrison was a huge fan of the film, even playing a reporter in one scene. Harrison also helped bankroll the Python movies.
** Idle also did a short parody of ''Music/{{Tommy}}'' by Music/TheWho, called Pommy, about a boy who became deaf, dumb, and blind after watching a Ken Russell movie. [[note]]Russell directed and wrote the screenplay for the movie version of Tommy.[[/note]] This also involved Neil Innes & was done for ''Series/RutlandWeekendTelevision''
* AntiChristmasSong: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOg7aPNLLG0 Fuck Christmas]]" combines this with ClusterFBomb.
* BitingTheHandHumor:
** ''Series/RutlandWeekendTelevision'' was unnecessarily crippled by a miniscule budget granted by a parsimonious BBC. Idle, Innes, Woolf and Batley ended the first series on a bitter spoof song about the mean and miserly attitude of the BBC, where the male characters sat naked on a row of stools in a bare studio, with only minimal modesty-saving towels (Gwen Taylor was absent for this one).
--> ''Hello, I bet you're wondering why we're here''
--> ''Sitting on our bums, without a stitch of gear''
--> ''For as it happens, the budget has expired''
--> ''And everything's gone back to the place from whence it's hired...''
** In the 1970s Idle appeared in TV commercials for the chocolate brand ''Breakaway''. When he performed the [[AudioPlay/MontyPythonLiveAtDruryLane Monty Python stage shows]] and did the ''Nudge Nudge'' sketch he brought the crowd to roaring laughter and applause by suddenly taking a bit from a Breakaway piece of chocolate and shouting: "Ugh, Breakaway!" It did cost him his exclusive contract with the company though....
* BorrowedCatchPhrase: It was actually Idle who first said "And Now For Something Completely Different" in ''Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus'', but the line was used most by Creator/JohnCleese.
* CelebrityCameo: He plays an polite English tourist in ''Film/NationalLampoonsEuropeanVacation''.
* TheCoconutEffect: Ironically, in a major sense-of-humour failure, Idle threatened to sue an independent film-maker who used the "That's not a horse - you're using coconuts!" gag, claiming he had originated it for ''Monty Python and the Holy Grail''. Saner counsel prevailed when it was pointed out to him exactly how old the gag was, and that (for instance) a [[Radio/ImSorryIllReadThatAgain radio comedy show Idle himself had written for]] had used this gag way back in the 1960s - '''ten years''' before ''Holy Grail''. And the BBC radio comedy archives preserved [[OlderThanSteam older examples still]]....
* HeAlsoDid: Idle has written a lot of songs and even sang the opening and closing theme of the British sitcom ''Series/OneFootInTheGrave''.
* LyricalDissonance: Many of his [[PepTalkSong pep talk songs]] sound perky and upbeat... unless you're listening to the lyrics!
* MotorMouth: Idle has a lot of sketches where he just rambles about something. The most famous ones are probably the "Money Song" sketch and the "Mr. Smoke-too-much" skit.
* PepTalkSong: He has written a lot of subversively cheery songs, of which "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" is the most famous.
* PunnyName: [[ExaggeratedTrope Exaggerated for humor]] in Creator/MontyPython's "Travel Agent" sketch, where Eric Idle plays an eccentric man named "Smoketoomuch". He's completely oblivious to the fact that his name is a pun, apparently believing it to be a perfectly normal name. Even after the travel agent makes the ObligatoryJoke, "Well, you'd better cut down a little!", he claims that it's the first time he's heard anyone joke about his name.
* TheSomethingSong: "The Galaxy Song" and "Penis Song" from ''Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife'' were written by him.
* SymbolSwearing: "I Bet You They Won't Play This Song On The Radio" from ''AudioPlay/MontyPythonsContractualObligationAlbum'', which is all [[ClusterBleepBomb bleeps]] and [[SoundEffectBleep sound effects]]. No two bleeps are the same, though.
* WholesomeCrossDresser: After Creator/TerryJones Idle may be the second best drag performer of the Pythons. The wife of the American tourist and the Protestant housewife in ''Film/MontyPythonsTheMeaningOfLife'' are very convincing portrayals. What makes him unique is that his imitations of women aren't as shrill as the others, just a mellowing of his natural voice.
----
-->''[[Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus Does this site have any pages about pointed sticks?]]''
-->'''''SHUT UP!!'''''