Eric Idle names his favourite Monty Python sketch
It’s difficult, if not entirely impossible, to talk about modern comedy without mentioning the influence of the British comedy troupe Monty Python. Establishing themselves as bastions of comedic foolishness and absurdity, the first televised performance of the gang came in the form of 1969’s Flying Circus, featuring troupe mainstays John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Graham Chapman.
Alongside the zany, surreal animation style of filmmaker Terry Gilliam, Monty Python became iconic for more reasons than just one, with their look and style coming to influence contemporary pop culture in the 1960s. Running in tandem with the ‘Beatlemania’ craze of the same decade, Monty Python’s impact would span across the globe, with many trying to replicate their idiosyncratic style of comedy.
As the author and screenwriter Neil Gaiman notes: “What fascinates me, having met all of these guys, pretty much – I’ve never met Michael Palin, would love to – you definitely get a sense of how they are individuals and how that strange combination of individuals gave us Python…And you needed those people, just in the same way that with the Beatles, you had four talented people, but together you had the Beatles. And I think that’s so incredibly true when it comes to Python”.
The series, movies and subsequent sketches that Monty Python created became famous across the world, with every comedy lover having their own specific favourites. But what about the Python members themselves?
Taking part in a Reddit AMA back in 2019, Eric Idle was asked this exact question, with one user requesting the actor’s “favourite sketch” from the history of the troupe. Replying with haste, Idle had a simple response, stating, “Yellow. No, blue,” a reference to a scene from the iconic comedy movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail from 1975, which told the story of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table and their silly search for the Holy Grail.
The movie, which is recognised as one of the greatest comedy films of all time, features several memorable scenes, with Idle’s chosen sketch of choice coming towards the end of the flick when Michael Palin’s Sir Galahad the Pure approaches a ‘Bridge of Death’, where the keeper asks that he answer three questions in order to be able to pass. Asked for his name and then the goal of his quest, Galahad eventually becomes unstuck when asked for his “favourite colour”.
“Blue, no Yellow!” Palin’s Galahad yells before he is flung into the air to his death. Curiously, the dialogue from this scene differs slightly from Idle’s remark, but perhaps his answer was an additional inside joke, referring to the idea that he, too, forgot his favourite colour. Then again, maybe he just misremembered the hilarious moment.
Take a look at the sketch from the 1975 film below.
