Eric Idle's best jokes, roles, sketches and songs

The song that closes "Life of Brian," "Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life" is Eric Idle's signature song, and remains immensely popular. It's sung at football matches, played constantly on the radio, and sung at funerals. However, it's never so powerful as when it's sung by 140 crucifixion victims, all looking on the bright side of death.

In the mid-'70s, Idle created The Rutles, a similar, less successful rival of the Beatles - "the pre-fab Four." He played the McCartney-esque Dirk McQuickly, who played bass on songs like "Ticket To Rut" and "Ouch!" Idle wrote and produced all of the Rutles music, which all appeared in his mockumentary, The Rutles: "All You Need Is Cash." The Beatles loved it so much, George Harrison makes a cameo in the film.

Some of Idle's best Python sketches were ones that deal with language, or when a particular sort of annoying person is being unusually exasperating. He hits both in "Nudge Nudge", a sketch that brought the phrase "wink wink nudge nudge" proudly into the vernacular.

Idle was a talented enough singer to perform in the British National Opera's production of "The Mikado." The frat humor of W. S. Gilbert was perfect for Idle, as he played a hapless executioner without the heart to actually execute anyone.

In addition to turning "Holy Grail" into "Spamalot," Idle also wrote an oratorio based on "Life of Brian." For "Not the Messiah (He's A Very Naughty Boy)," he narrated, sang baritone, and played many of his parts from the film, including songs like "Hail to the Shoe," "I Want To Be A Girl" and "Amordeus," which is described as "choral sex."

Various upper-class twits compete in waking neighbors, rudeness to waiters, and shooting of tied-down rabbits to see who is the ultimate Upper-Class Twit of the Year. Idle's Simon Zinc-Trumpet-Harris comes achingly close to the title, but shoots his rival instead of himself, and ends up finishing third. Don't worry, he still dies.

"Spamalot!" was Idle's attempt to turn "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" into a Broadway musical, which resulted in a box office smash, three Tony Awards, and a whole lot of cash. It works as an homage to the original film, but also a parody of Broadway musicals themselves, particularly here with "The Song That Goes Like This."

When the Griswold family visits Europe in the second "Vacation" movie, Idle unwillingly travels the same course as them. He's victimized over and over, first hit while riding a bike, then injured by a revolving door, and finally nearly drowned in a fountain. He needs a new travel agent, and to figure out what happened to the old Rusty and Audrey.

"The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" reunited Idle with Terry Gilliam. Idle was the Baron's friend Berthold, the world's fastest runner, who saves his life – or does he? Idle didn't love the experience, commenting, "Up until Munchausen, I'd always been very smart about Terry Gilliam films. You don't ever be in them. Go and see them by all means - but to be in them, f------ madness!!!"

In "Holy Grail," Idle plays Sir Robin, who accompanies King Arthur all the way to the Bridge of Death. He's very loyal, but not especially smart. Not to spoil anything, but let's just say it's important to refresh your geography knowledge before attempting three fatal questions.

Idle has a dual role in the Rutles mockumentary. He also plays the journalist narrator, who remains unflappable in the face of production difficulties. No matter where the camera is pointed, or how fast he has to sprint to stay in the shot, the Rutles biographer never gives up on the shot.

Before Michael Bay began his robot magnum opus, there was an animated "Transformers" movie featuring a wild array of voice talent. Judd Nelson, Leonard Nimoy, and Casey Kasem supply voices, and it's the last film performance for both Orson Welles and Scatman Crothers. And of course, Eric Idle. He voices Wreck-Gar, leader of the Junkions, who only communicates through overheard movie dialogue and ad slogans. Maybe they transform into tape recorders.

"The Galaxy Song" is John Cleese's favorite Idle tune, calling it "sweet and full of wonder." It's all about the incredible improbability of life existing at all in the enormous universe. Of course, the sentiment is undercut by having Idle emerge from a refrigerator during a sketch about live organ transplants. Some pedants critique the scientific figures in the song, but not Stephen Hawking, who even recorded his own cover version of the song.

In "Nuns On The Run," Idle plays a gangster who hides out from danger by dressing up as a nun — Sister Euphemia of the Five Wounds. When he's trying to bone up on Catholicism, he ends up summarizing the Holy Trinity in an idiotic-yet-profound way: “God is his son. And his son is God. But his son moonlights as a holy ghost, a holy spirit, and a dove. And they all send each other, even though they're all one and the same thing.”

When fellow Python Terry Jones wrote and directed his own "Wind In The Willows," Idle was on board to play Mr. Toad's friend Rat. Since this was an Eric Idle performance, Rat also performs a song – once he makes sure his whiskers look beautiful.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are huge Monty Python fans, so when they made "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut," they wrote a part for Eric Idle. He plays the scientist who implants a V-chip into Eric Cartman's head to stop him from swearing, which eventually malfunctions and allows him to shoot lightning bolts out of his fingers at Saddam Hussein. The Pythons would have approved of the absurdity.

Idle knows the real benefit of being an entertainment legend isn't the awards or the fame – it's the honorary degrees. But he earned his degree from Whitman College during a joke-packed commencement address, including this gem: "Someone once said America is 300 million people all walking in the same direction singing 'I Did It My Way.' Actually, it was me. I said that."

It seems like nothing delighted a member of Monty Python than playing a character who tormented another Python. Plenty of people will drive you crazy because they talk too much. but Idle has a real genius for stringing together minutes-long stretches of annoying nonsense, as seen in this travel agent sketch. The highlight might be that Mr. Smoketoomuch can't say the letter "C," but can say "K" – so he can actually say "C" words as long as they're misspelled.

This ode to a semi-bee, "accidentally bisected" by its owner is a John Cleese-Eric Idle collaboration. It was inspired by "Fish Licence," an even stranger sketch where Cleese tries to get licenses for his various and bizarre pets, all named Eric. It is not clear whether he loves them all carnally, or if that pertains only to the half-bee. Well, semi-carnally.

Idle was a regular host of "Saturday Night Live" in the '70s, even enlisting Lorne Michaels and cast members in other projects like "The Rutles." In his most memorable hosting appearance, he kept up a running "Save Britain Telethon," which featured Bill Murray's miserable attempt to chug grape juice, and Queen Elizabeth II kicking a Canadian in the groin. It raised only $20 (later down to zero after the lone donation was rescinded).

All of the Pythons got to release their own hand-picked compilation of sketches, and Eric Idle remains ridiculous, even when he's introducing... Eric Idle: "He’s often been described as the funniest of the Monty Python boys. He’s obviously not the nicest – that was clearly Ringo. But many people have suggested that he might have been the third tallest. Was he indeed over six feet tall or was he perhaps two smaller men sitting on each other’s shoulders?"

When Sir Robin goes out adventuring on his imaginary horse, he's accompanied by two minstrels who sing about his bravery. But when he encounters the three-headed knight, they frighten him so badly that he flees. Or he got spooked by the minstrels' graphic descriptions of all the horrific injuries he isn't afraid of. That's probably why his official title is Sir-Robin-The-Not-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot.