Book Review: Eric Idle - Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, A Sortabiography

Eric Idle's A Sortabiography.

Of all the autobiographies I've read by Monty Python members so far Eric Idle's Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, A Sortabiography has been the easiest one to read. I'd even go so far as to say it's a bit of a page turner that's hard to put down.

I'm guessing it's because he made most of it up, probably... or maybe it's just the really, really good bits, I mean he has reduced a 50 plus year career in entertainment to a mere 272 pages.

I swear you could fit three of these books inside Michael Palin's published diary of just The Python Years. Admittedly Palin was too lazy to remove all the boring bits out of his diaries.

On the plus side you get a little more Python insight than you do with John Cleese's book, So, Anyway, largely because Eric, more than any other Python, continues to repurpose/repackage Python material for modern audiences, with stage shows like Spamalot, and the O2 Python reunion show.

Actually this book is a very easy read that really does cover a lot of highlights of Eric's entire career both publicly and behind the scenes. Eric isn't afraid to name drop a few famous names that have become good friends, and there is a particularly great chapter dedicated to his close friend Robin Williams, whose death was clearly a blindside to even those who knew him well.

Eric is known for many things but he will forever be known for the song, Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, which I find is kind of strange to be the number one song requested at British funerals. It's kind of the theme song to the human experience rather than a song to go out on - even though they do in Life of Brian.

For a long time I thought Bright Side was a Max Bygraves song because it sounds like something he would sing (my Mum was a fan), until it takes a turn into death. I don't think I ever heard the whole song until several years after the release of Life of Brian when it came to home video perhaps? People generally don't sing the 'bright side of death' part too often, and I was a little too young to see Life of Brian in the cinema.

Anyway, it's a song that kind of sums up Eric's outlook over the years. It's hopelessly optimistic even about death, and that seems very much like Eric based on this book.

If you only ever buy one of the autobiographies from the members of Python, Eric's is the easiest, and most optimistic one I've read thus far. Noting that I've still to read Graham Chapman's (mostly lies by his own admission, probably), Terry Jones (not sure if he even has one), and Terry Gilliam's (of course he has one). Then I probably need to read the Python Autobiography so I can buy all the same words repackaged in a bumper collectors edition (clearly with all the boring bits from Michael's diaries taken out since it's only 368 pages).

* This article contains Amazon Associate commission links that help keep this site free.

Comments

Checking in on Tesla's Optimus Robot - Managing Expectations

Last year Elon Musk announced at the first Tesla AI day the Tesla Bot, which has since been renamed the Tesla Optimus, that is basically a general purpose humanoid robot assistant with human like appearance and proportions. Elon expected they would have a working prototype by the end of 2022. While very little has been released about the project since, in June Elon took to Twitter to announce that they would delay this year's Tesla AI day until September 30 in anticipation of having a working prototype of the robot by that time. Elon Musk announces the Tesla Bot at the 2021 Tesla AI day. When I initially wrote about the Tesla Bot I noted that both Boston Dynamics and Disney Imagineering are developing robot technologies that demonstrate a streamlined, humanoid robot like Optimus is certainly possible. However with precious few details, and the occasional appearance of static, concept manikins of Tesla Optimus bots at places like the Cyber Rodeo Gigafactory Austin, Texas (see vi...

Is AI Art 'Art'? The Say NO to AI Art Movement, and Why Human Artists Will Adapt

AI Art No T-Shirt by TET Also available on other items . Right now there is a big debate over not just whether AI art is 'art' but whether AI's are actually ripping off the work of actual human artists, without their consent, to create their images - particularly images 'in the style of' specific artists. From my own observations this debate started to get more traction when artist's signatures began appearing in the output of AI Art image generators. Is It Art? Cool Froyd the Cat Sketch by TET. My style is very much influenced by classic Disney and WB character styles. To get some clarity on how real human artists work (of which I am one)... we, that is all of us... take influences from the art that has come before. i.e. whatever artists we like, have studied, seen etc. we are influenced by. It shows up in our work, intentionally or not. If you really study my own cartoony art style you'll see I'm heavily influenced by early Disney and Warner Bros cart...

Bruce, South Australia - A Forgotten Aussie Town with Spectacular Landscape Views and Potential

The Bruce Railway Station. Now a private residence. V isiting the almost forgotten town of Bruce reminds me of visiting Silverton back in 2007, except Silverton has been revived into a kind of arts town with a very famous pub. Bruce, on the other hand seems a little too spread out, and a bit too out of the way to make a similar 'arts' kind of revival. Bruce's Pub appears to be an art studio with signs of restoration work in progress. The main part of town appears to be the Bruce railway station (now a private residence) and a pub, also privately owned and possibly was, or still is, and artist studio. Other buildings and homesteads are set fairly wide apart, and are mostly privately owned homes. You don't get much sense of being in a town as such. I'm told there are approximately 14 local residents/families? Once earmarked to be a commercial centre, Bruce fell by the wayside after successive floods and drought in its early years. Obviously the railway line is no lo...

James Gunn's Social Media Monkeys Joke Was a Highlight of His Superman Movie For Me

B efore James Gunn's Superman Movie was released there was a whole rumor going around that the movie would feature monkeys on computers trolling Superman's social media, sparking much outrage. #supersh*t. I didn't know this was even a thing until just prior to writing this article. I did a search to see if anyone had posted a clip of the monkeys scene from the movie and got pages of discourse featuring videos and articles prior to the film. Most of it from Gunn detractors (let's say) seeing it as some kind of childish swipe at them... well not them specifically but, you know, those other people who have every right to hate on anything sight unseen. Anyway, I'm not going to give even one such example a link or air because it's kind of sad watching someone devote so much commentary to a throw away gag that is absolutely a nod to James Gunn's Superman trolls. The whole reason this post exists, is to say I loved the joke, because fourteen years ago, and I...

Kids today are smarter than their parents?

Mother's Bed Art Board Print by TET. Available from RedBubble . How often have you heard it said that kids today are smarter than their parents? I’ve heard it quite frequently in the media – even Dr Phil has said it. I say speak for yourself. It’s not true and don’t let the media fool you. Today’s kids may have access to more information that may give them more choices but in my experience, they only take in what they want to hear and still make stupid, uninformed decisions. Just like we used to at their age. Like any cross section of people there will be exceptions. There are kids that are genuinely smarter, more mature and responsible for their age. However the vast majority know everything they need to know by the time they turn fourteen. They’re ‘adult’ enough to be responsible for all their own decision making so parents should just let them do what they please…right? Just like we thought at fourteen. Don’t be fooled. Just because your son knows how to download MP3’s onto an i...

Boom Crash Opera Born Classic But Not Again

Boom Crash Opera are an Australian Band that reached the peak of their popularity in the mid to late nineteen eighties. They are a band that I knew about at that time but was never really excited by until they released their ill fated double album Born and Born Again in 1995 (Album cover pictured). At the time of its release I was very much into emerging Australian musical acts and was also looking out for new sounds that were different and had kind of a futuristic/electronic sound. Artists that I was buying at the time included; Swoop , Nine Inch Nails and Pop Will Eat Its Self . As well as a really interesting release by David Bowie, the concept album, Outside . Born was a fairly radical departure for Boom Crash Opera (BCO). The first single, Gimme , was often compared to the sounds of Gary Glitter, particularly his single, Rock n Roll part 2 , because of the pounding drum loops. Watch the video below. My favorite single from the album is dissemble which probably went now...

Three Days Before Christmas - 2025 in review

While this is an AI image of me, I can assure you I write all of this blog myself with no help from AI at all. I 'm afraid this may be an uninteresting article, three days before Christmas, for the sole purpose of not missing my weekly post to this blog. I'm drawing a blank on what to write about so... I settled on doing a review of posts for the year. Read on at your own discretion. Starting 2025 I introduced my new Resident Dragon Daily Cartoon series that grew out of a daily drawing habit I had started six months earlier. As I write this I've sketched about 335 cartoons, and digitally inked just over 50 of them. Initially I was writing about the new US President but I stopped covering US politics back in March of this year, because I was tired of giving the current US president any attention at all. So I won't. Let me know when you elect a proper leader. Since 2025 was an Australian Federal Election year I took a deep dive on looking into our political landscape...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog