Monty Python star Eric Idle insists he WANTS to be ‘cancelled’ for his politically incorrect comedy: ‘The point was absolutely to upset and insult the bourgeois’
Famed English comedian Eric Idle says he wants to be ‘cancelled’ for his comedy.
The 76-year-old funnyman, who first rose to fame in the 1960s as a founding member of the Monty Python comedy team, is outspoken about political correctness.
He says that there is a lot of bullying going on in the name of decency.
Famed English comedian Eric Idle (pictured) says he wants to be cancelled, telling the Daily Telegraph on Tuesday that there is a lot of bullying going on in the name of decency
‘I would like to be cancelled so I can go home and read a book and not have to make an a**e of myself all over the world,’ Idle joked in The Daily Telegraph on Tuesday.
Idle, who is in Australia to perform a show in Sydney this week, explained in the chat that he thinks comedy is about saying the wrong thing at the right time.
‘You have to remember that Python was offensive when it started. We were not the cuddly old f***ers we are now,’ he told the publication.
‘It was very offensive. The point was absolutely to upset and insult the bourgeois.’
Idle, who is in Australia to perform a show in State Theatre on Thursday, explained that comedy is about saying the wrong thing at the right time, Pictured: Idle in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, a box-office smash despite offending audiences
After debuting on the BBC in 1969, Monty Python earned a reputation for outrageous, surreal, often violent and sexual humour.
Idle says the point of comedy is to test boundaries and say the ‘unsayable’.
‘And so who are the people saying you can’t do that?’ he says. ‘I don’t understand that. Who is the committee that does this?
Debuting on the BBC in 1969, Monty Python earned a reputation for outrageous, surreal, often violent and sexual humour. Pictured: Michael Palin, Eric Idle, Terry Jones Terry Gilliam and John Cleese at a Monty Python reunion in 2013
‘It sounds a bit like the French Revolution committees, who said, ‘off with his head’. I think a lot of bullying goes on in the name of decency.’
Monty Python, who formally disbanded three decades ago, often attracted notoriety and scandal.
Their films Monty Python and The Holy Grail (1975), and Monty’s Python Meaning of Life (1983) became box office hits, while shocking audiences.
Monty Python, who formally disbanded three decades ago, often attracted notoriety and scandal. Pictured: Michael Palin and Eric Idle in Life of Brian
But it was their 1979 smash Life of Brian, a parody of pious religious movie epics that created a storm of protest around the world.
Set in the time of Christ, the film features a climax where the hero, Brian (Graham Chapman), a Jew, is crucified because he has been mistaken as a messiah by the Romans.
As he and others hang on crosses, they sing ‘Always Look on The Bright Side of Life,’ a jolly sing along composed by Idle.
The notorious climax of Life of Brian featured Eric Idle and Graham Chapman performing a jolly singalong ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’ (picutred)
Condemned by a diverse range of religious groups as blasphemous, Idle says the film would never be made today because ‘you don’t laugh at religion.’
The comedian has recently been treated successfully after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Idle will appear at the State theatre in Sydney in the comedy event Just for Laughs alongside Shaun Micallef on Thursday.
Idle will appear at the State theatre in Sydney in the comedy event Just for Laughs alongside Shaun Micallef on Thursday
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