Eric Idle said John Cleese was bullying after their latest X exchange reopened a years-long fight over Monty Python, Spamalot and who got paid what. The comedian said the public row upsets fans, and he made clear he sees little point in continuing it.
Idle’s latest flare-up began on September 10, when he wrote on X, “I hope you like and enjoy the book I spent five years on. That’s what I’m doing. Python is dead.” On September 13, Cleese answered that Idle had made at least 16 million dollars from the show, while Michael, Terry, Graham and he made just over a million each for writing all the iconic comedy scenes.
September 10 and September 13
Idle’s own version of the money fight is more pointed. He told The Telegraph, “I think I have more business sense. I think they’re not very good at it, a lot of them,” then added, “they all got angry about Spamalot. You go, ‘Excuse me, I made you all a million fucking dollars each… when you’ve paid that back, we can talk.’”
That is the practical split at the center of the feud: Idle frames the dispute around royalties from Spamalot, the musical based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail, while Cleese casts the argument as a question of gratitude for the writing credits that still generate money. The money claim is not just a throwaway insult; it is the basis for each side’s view of who owes whom.
Spamalot and gratitude
Idle then sharpened the line even further when he replied to a fan on X: “No – it’s unseemly and upsets the fans. Plus a one way feud is better known as bullying.” He was also responding after Cleese defended Holly Gilliam following Idle’s accusation that she had put Monty Python’s finances into decline.
In 2024, Idle had already said he and Cleese had not seen each other in a decade and that their friendship was over. This latest exchange makes the business split harder to ignore, because the fight now sits between two things that rarely mix well: ownership of old material and the public management of a long-finished comedy brand.
Holly Gilliam and the feud
For readers tracking whether Monty Python could ever be used again as a reunion pitch, Idle’s blunt line is the clearest answer in the source material: “Python is dead.” That is not a settlement, but it is a warning shot, and it leaves the surviving members’ money dispute where it already was — public, personal and unresolved.
