Monty Python Genius Eric Idle is 69 Today

I'm not one to do a bunch of articles on birthdays (Even though I just did one last week on William Shatner). In fact, I rarely make a big deal out of celebrity birthdays on my show. Musician birthdays, that's another thing. It's a great excuse to roll out an old rare song from your birthdayer©. But as far as celebrities, eh meh. If you do a whole segment on your radio show about birthdays, you need to work a little harder.

That being said, let's say Happy Birthday to Eric Idle. One of the masterminds behind the amazingly funny Brit comedy troupe Monty Python. But there's more to Eric than just Python. He's an accomplished musician, as evidenced by his brilliant ditties such as 'Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life' , he's a prolific author, penning 9 books and he's worked on 33 movies in various roles, from acting, to writing to directing. Not to mention getting 14 Tony nominations for Spamalot, the Broadway musical based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Python is such a part of comedic cultural history, (and I know you love comedy, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this...) I thought we should pass on some of our favorite Eric Idle bits- uh, er, I mean sketches.

Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

The Pope and Michelangelo

Storytime

And Now For Something Completely Different: Eric on SNL