Eric Idle Returns

The last thing you want to hear when you need your auto insurance most is a robot with countless irrelevant menu options. Which is why with USAA Auto Insurance you'll get great service that is easy and reliable all at the touch of a button.
Get a quote today. Restrictions apply.
USAA! All set for your flight? Yep, I've got everything I need. Eye mask, neck pillow, T-Mobile, headphones.
Wait, T-Mobile? You bet. Free in-flight Wi-Fi.
15% off all Hilton brands. I never go anywhere without T-Mobile.
Same goes from a water bottle, chewing gum, nail clippers. Okay, I'm gonna leave you to it.
Find out how you can experience travel better at T-Mobile.com slash travel. Qualifying plan required.
Wi-Fi were available on select U.S. Airlines.
Deposit and Hilton Honors membership required for 15% discount. Terms and conditions apply.
Hi, my name is Eric Heidel. And I feel horny about being a car.
I only laugh because I don't want to cry. You're always cornering me at some party.
grinding up against me, in front of your wife. That's the closest she gets to sex.
Folly's here, hear the yell. Back to school, ring the bell.
Brand new shoes, walk and lose. Climb the fence, books and pens.
I can tell that we are going to be friends. Yes pens I can tell that we are gonna be friends Yes, I can tell that we are gonna be friends Hey there, welcome to Conor O'Brien Needs a Friend We're laughing already, and you know When we can laugh, it means we're alive and life is good, isn't it? Yeah Would you like to talk about we were laughing absolutely not absolutely some things are meant for off mic yeah some things are meant for not even off mic yeah yeah exactly exactly um listen i'm happy to be here with you guys just had a lovely interaction with your family oh yeah mr gorley my daughter your beautiful wife your daughter she's how old now she's three she's three turn three she's never to come here again i I understand.
Without my permission. I understand, yeah.
No. Gorley.
My daughter was here. Your beautiful wife, your daughter.
She's how old now? She's three. She's three.

She's turned three.

She's never to come here again.

I understand.

Without my permission.

I understand.

Yeah.

No, she was happy.

Kids love it here because we have this nice office building.

Yeah.

And it has lots of candy and treats.

And, um.

Yeah.

I mean, Glenn came with a Minnie Mouse on a noose.

Right.

And there's a story behind that.

Yeah.

That was a little disturbing. She had Minnie Mouse.
and Minnie Mouse looked like Minnie Mouse was in bondage. Your beautiful daughter.
And some of it was kind of around the neck, and it looked like frontier justice for Minnie Mouse. There's an explanation.
The Salem witch trial. Minnie committed manslaughter.
Oh, I see. Okay.
Then Minnie had to pay. No, we had to get her to go on our bike.
We had to tie Minnie onto the bike so that once Minnie was on there, Glenn would go on the bike. We don't tie Glenn to the bike.
She has a seat. Right.
But if she holds Minnie, Minnie will fall somewhere. So we had to tie Minnie to the bike seat.
Okay.

And we did it by hanging her by the neck till she be dead.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It was disturbing.

It was.

Yeah.

Because Minnie was lifeless

and your daughter

didn't seem to care.

Shout out to the Disney company.

Does Disney have any control

over how they're...

Once they've sold the doll,

they have no say over it.

I don't think so.

You can do whatever you want to. Oh, wow.
Normally Glenn wears a black hood. Oh.
What? What? No, just take it out for drinks. Oh, no.
I wasn't saying anything like that. I was saying you could like stab it or light it on fire.
Oh, so you're both. Both got it.
Where did you go? Drinks. What's wrong with taking Goofy out for a drink and watch the game? Just you and Goofy, a stuffed Goofy sitting in a bar.
I would like to do that and see if anyone came over and said anything. Probably not.
Wait, do you treat him Goofy like he's an actual person? Sure. Someone walks by and I'm like, hey, Goofy, you know.
What? What? Yeah, what? I don't know what I'm doing anymore. Goofy just sits there with a full drink, and then do you try to surreptitiously drink it to seem like Goofy's drinking, or what? Yes, every now and then I drain a little bit of Goofy's drink.
Oh, my God. So that it looks like, and then I say, excuse me, hello, Goofy's.
Goofy's running a little low here. And if there's a game playing, do you make him high five you? I go to high five, but he just falls off limply.
He just falls off the couch. And then I go like, someone's had too much over here.
Goofy's. do you make him high five you i go to high five but he just falls off limply he just falls off the couch and then i go like someone's had too much over here goofy's do you see goofy back up to his room or does he come to yours all right now we're not getting into that now you took it too far i did you did that was you this is a classy i do want to bring up this is reminding me that uh that one of my sisters i forget was not me it was not me i not me, I want to say that, but we were really little.
Well, it's clearly you now. Okay.
Someone went in, and I forget which sister it was, but someone went in there, cut off all the hair on like three of their dolls, and then carved their name backwards onto the skull, which is so... Oh my God.
On the forehead. Your sister's name or the name of the doll? I think it was the name of my sister backwards.
And are you kidding me? Yeah. And and I remember that being I don't remember who did it.
It was not me. I swear it was not me.
But I remembered seeing the results and thinking this is like we're all really young at this point. And whoever did it just wrote the name backwards.
Was the name Nanok no it was not nanok but i just remember that being like a chilling like oh this is a grisly crime scene but it was dolls but the backwards thing is what's getting me that feels very devil no but i think it was because they were trying to spell their sister's name neil and uh and wrote it backwards because they were very young wait so it was someone writing someone else's name like a frame job? This was you. No, I didn't do this.
I did lots of terrible things. Yeah.
I did terrible, terrible things, mostly to Justin. Apologies, Justin.
I've told you this, right? I would play very complicated games. He just wanted to play cops and robbers, and I would immediately get would immediately get lawyers involved I would say well now we have to go see a lawyer because you drew

your gun he'd be like I didn't even fire my gun I went you drew it and in Massachusetts count you know like in the in the commonwealth of Massachusetts and I would make him fill out papers insufferable he was so bad awful person the absence of fun no and there was a big gap between us. So he was a very young kid and I was in my late 40s.

But he's fine. of fun.
No, and there was a big gap between us. So he was a very young kid, and I was in my late 40s.

But he's fine now. They just released him.

I get it. People do weird things with

dolls. I used to do weird things.

It's a time of life

when dolls can be a crime

scene, and it's acting things out in a safe way.

Yeah, okay, I guess. That's weird

though. Your brother was a bully a little bit to you yeah danny used to beat me up a lot and i used to always think hey i got a chance and i never did i just danny's a strong guy i can't take danny no you can't no he was a football player in high school and he used to he was huge and he would be well now you're making me feel like i should try and fight danny um would lose.
He would beat you up badly. He would badly beat you up.
I could choose my moment. What if he doesn't see me coming? I come up from behind.
Like a sucker punch? Oh, no, I'm holding something. I've got like a stick.
What? That's still like kind of a sucker punch, but he doesn't expect it? I wouldn't use my real hand. My hands aren't very strong.
So I would have like a big bat. Like a weapon.
Yeah. You would probably win, but you'd be a bitch.
But I don't care about that part. Okay.
You see a scenario where I could take your brother Danny. Yeah.
If he doesn't see you coming. Danny.
Yeah. Suck it, Danny.
Okay. Take it easy.
Okay. Have we accomplished anything here with this opening? No, nothing.
This is awful. All we've managed to accomplish is we've killed five minutes.

Okay.

And so it's time to start the show.

I think we start the show.

I'm satisfied.

Are you?

Yes.

Satisfied with less.

The podcast rule.

My guest today is a comedy legend,

one of the members of the iconic comedy group Monty Python.

His new book, The Spamalot Diaries, is out now.

I can't even, there are no words. To say I'm honored is just dumb, because it's a word way beyond honored.
I'm elevated, enervated, filled with light. You're with us today, Eric Idle.
I could not be happier that you're here. You've been on the podcast before.
You're one of my favorite human beings on earth. I will say that without reservation.
He hates a compliment. But as you know, I've been telling you for years and years and years in my opinion, there's Python and then the rest of us are just dicking around.
So I mean that. And I love, I want to say this right up top, that you have brought this book in that I adore.
It's called The Spamalot Diaries. And it's a joy.
It's a real treat. And it's about the process.
And that's one of the things that I adore about it. But first, let's talk about how much you admire me i've allotted 40 i've allotted 40 minutes well you know you should know how i feel about it uh i i i think you're i can't even don't nothing nothing yet i think you're one of the funniest people on the planet oh Oh, that's insanity.
We're not doing that. No, it is.
And that was a surprise to me because I always thought you were hilarious. But then I saw you do stand-up at the Largo.
Yeah. And you killed me.
Oh, thank you so much. And I've forgotten.
Obviously, you've been doing stand-up for millions of years when you weren't around. Not really.
I had done. I never did classic stand-up.
But if I'm in front of an audience, I'll try anything. And so.
Well, you're like me. You're shameless in front of an audience.
I am. Oh, my God.
Oh, my God. But you're much funnier than me.
And I. Nope.
But anyway, let's make this about you. I'm cutting it off.
I don't like this. This is about Eric Idle.
And one of. You just invited me to say something nice about you.
Yeah, but I thought you'd take that- You guys really are horny friends. Get a room.
I thought you'd take that opportunity to shit on me and you fucked it up. I've had one of the best things that's happened to me in my adult life is getting to know Eric on a bunch of occasions.
And then Eric, I know you've moved since then, but you would have me to your home. lovely wife tanya would be there your daughter lily would be there my wife and i eliza would go and you'd put together this salon of really funny cool musical people and but one of the things that always grabbed my attention is i'd walk in the front door and there was a poster and it was from university it's from 1963 i think it is from 1963 and it's from the edinburgh festival yeah it's from the edinburgh festival my first public performance and it's you as a as a as a squeaky young lad and it's a giant photo of a handsome young man with the world ahead of him you know okay squeaky might not be the right i meant you were clean.
Probably, yes. But it's this poster from 1963, and it's when you're getting started.
This would be easily six years before Python, but you're just getting started. And I always looked at that.
Every time you had me over, I would look at that poster and kind of time travel back to this other time when all of you guys were getting started and finding your way. It's before you all found each other and it's magical.
That's not quite true. You see, oddly.
That's true. You had worked together.
Quite by chance. I had already met John Cleese.
I'd already met Graham Chapman, who was at St. Bart's Hospital studying to become a fully qualified alcoholic.

You know, I like a person who does their, really does their work.

Puts the time in.

Yeah, puts the time in.

And I met an Edinburgh, Terry Jones and Michael Palin, who were doing the Oxford Review.

So in 1963, we'd all met.

You'd all met.

With the exception of Terry Gilliam.

Right.

Whom no one has yet met.

You can meet him, but you still haven't met him yeah i would look at that and uh and just think about this is a document this is a you know i'm a history buff and i'm also a comedy buff and to look at that poster it was always hard to lure me away from it because i just thought that's the year I was born. And I just want to, I wanted to put that in just to accentuate that.
But it's also the year of the Beatles. Yeah, it's the year of the Beatles in England, not the year of the Beatles.
In America, we think 64, but it was 63. Yeah, yeah, very much so.
At the Edinburgh Festival was the first time all the girls were playing all their records and going, what's all this about? What's all this about. So yeah, these, yeah, very much so.
At the Edinburgh Festival was the first time. All the guys were playing all their records and going, what's all this about?

What's all this about?

Yeah.

These guys with this weird hair that are from Liverpool.

Absolutely. And then they came through Cambridge the year after and everybody changed.

The whole world changed.

We used to wear little old tweed jackets with leather pads.

Yeah.

Suddenly we were wearing beetle jackets and saying, who's your favorite beetle? Yeah. You know, and so they actually did literally change the world after that.
You know, it's funny. You can look at college yearbooks and high school yearbooks from 1963.
In the United States, if you look at a high school yearbook from 1964, everyone's got buzz cuts and horn rim glasses, everybody, and they all look kind of the same. And then you look at the high school year, but from 1965, there's still the occasional guy with a crew cut who just can't get the message, but everybody else has that hair.
It changed everything. But we'll talk about the Beatles another time.
I want to talk about. The Rolling Stones.
The Rolling Stones. They took the blues.
Which is deceptively simple form. And they transformed it.
I have a theory issue that Python. Because this was all rock and roll came in just in those years.
And everybody's, the band used to be in the pit. And then they came up on the stage, put on tight trousers, started to play loud music, and all the girls chased them.
And the comedians had to wait in the wings for a while. But my theory is that Monty Python became the first mock and roll group.
Yes. Because we did stadiums, we ended up playing the Hollywood Bowl, we did O2, we were the first ones.
And the second was, of course, Saturday Night Live. Yeah.
Because they had all the – they brought rock and roll into it. Yeah.
So the comedians were all fighting back then. Yes.
It was – it's funny you say that because – and then, yeah, I guess I had to be third in that line. Wait, what? I came along and people were – women were like, I got to fuck that guy guy no no they're just saying fuck that guy oh yeah oh oh i misheard it yes i misheard it um the now you're right okay i gotta get the hearing checked but you know what you're no when i first did snl the first time i did it my first guest was joe co.
And Belushi came on and mocked him. So that was actually really mock and roll.
But your, this is an interesting trajectory because your good, dear departed friend, George Harrison, famously said he felt the Beatles break up sort of, I think, technically in 69, beginning of 1970. That's right when Python is hitting the air.
And George Harrison said he really felt the spirit of the Beatles was passed on and went into Python. And I thought, did you guys ever talk about that? Did you talk about that with George? We talked about almost everything because when we met, we just talked all night.
And we just talked and talked for about two or three weeks. But what was it like being in your group? What was your group like? What was your John like? But I think that the secret of it was that America.
Your John. Everyone's got to have a John.
But what was America, what happened in America was when the Beatles first arrived in America, what made everybody love them was they were funny. Yes.
And there was this guy called Ringo with a big nose, a funny name, the funny haircuts, and everybody knew Ringo first. That's the first name they knew.
But it was their humor at that airport conference that broke them in America. I'm convinced of it.
Yeah. And so, in a way, they were just as funny as we were.
They just were all Liverpool comedians, really. Yeah.
But they went the wrong way. They went the wrong way.
They went on the dark side. They wasted their time in music when they really could have been a sketch troupe they really could have been a sketch troupe and it's sad when people take the wrong turn but what are you going to do what i really wanted to start with uh because sometimes people bring their their project along and i think okay we'll get to that the thing that's special about the spam a lot diaries is when you were putting Spamalot together, and this is 2004, 2003, 2004, you kept a diary of the entire process of putting it together.
You then set the diary aside. And I remember going to your house when you and Tanya were packing it up to leave, to move to a different house, and you were packing everything up.
In that process, you find the diary that you had forgotten. I had completely forgotten I'd written it.
I completely forgotten I'd kept it. And I read it and I gave it to actually Puddles, you know, Puddles and his wife to read.
And she said, this is great. And I gave it to my wife and she said, oh, this is fantastic because what's interesting about a diary is you don't know what's going to happen.
You don't know it's going to be that thing and it's going to be successful. So it's full of anxieties and arguments and rows and it's the process.
Yes, this is what I love. I keep saying about it, it's a process, not a miracle.
There's this misconception and maybe it's it's appropriate it should be this way people love to think they're going to come in and they see something miraculous and that it just happened and maybe that's the way an audience should look at it but what's amazing is you read through this diary because i think well oh yeah spam a lot massive hit sold out forever. So of course, it just happened.
You read this and you see how much work Anxiety rewrites and the creative wrestling between you and the director, Mike Nichols, the famous Mike Nichols. You have emails in here.
You have notes back and forth, there's disagreements with other, you know, or sometimes friction with other pythons, and you're just like Job. You're just going ahead trying to make this thing happen.
I think that's what's interesting, and I'd forgotten about it. I was just writing every few days what I was feeling.
And right and so is this comes up with a direct form of honesty and i kept in the rows because i thought no no people mustn't believe that the artistic process is just we'll have a cup of tea and we'll we'll make this thing there are conflicts people need to be angry we used to row in python about what sort of chair it should be that's not a funny chair this is a funny chair no no this is a funny chair you know so i think those those are important and so i kept in particularly the row early on with mike because i thought it was very important for people to understand it you must maintain your vision of something if you're a writer and you're doing a play and the director doesn't have every say. Fortunately for us, we'd been friends for 15 years.
You and Mike Nichols had met. Mike and I, we'd just been pals.
We'd been on holidays. We'd had the best of times.
We'd been to the theater, been to places all overseas, and we had never had a crossword. And then suddenly we're working together and it's a completely different relationship, obviously.
Now you're the real, you're that person, he's that person. And I thought, well, I'm going to leave that because I think it's important to know that people establish who they are and then they can move forward.
I guess the part that is most fascinating to me is the statement that one of the themes that comes through in the Spamalot diaries, and this applies not just to Spamalot, but to Python and I think just to comedy and all work, is that fighting, arguing is an essential part of the process. Turmoil, anxiety is part of the process.
And I cannot tell you how many, tells me oh i love to write i just love writing i think you must be a terrible writer because i don't under that's not my my process and my wife is a very good writer and she will tell me oh i'm just i'm i hate it it's miserable and i'll say right exactly yes that's what it exactly. Yes, that's what it is.
That's, you know, keep going, but that's what it is. I think if you're content with what you're writing, you're not very good.
Almost all great writers, you know, I think Graham Greene said he'd written one or two sentences he was quite proud of. Sentences.
I think all writing is like that because you're trying to capture flies in aspic. I mean, it's really a very difficult thing you're doing.
You're putting down life in this code, 26-letter code. How does that possibly even work? And how some people have the gift of making you just read any sentence about anything and you just pick up a book and you just read them all the way through because of the way they write i find that fascinating but well it's also um i've read a biography recently there's a wonderful biography of mike nichols and you find out i mean his childhood in his experience fleeing nazi germany coming to to America, kind of remaking himself.
He famously had alopecia. He lost all of his hair, having to wear a wig.
Not speaking English. Not speaking English.
And he completely remade himself into the coolest, smartest, most urbane guy doing comedy,

along with Elaine May,

the sheer, not just talent, but will,

and the amount of struggle and pain you have to go through to remake yourself as Mike Nichols into that.

And then I think you,

we've talked about it before in the previous podcast,

and you've been very open about it,

you have a very difficult

childhood in many ways yes yes um i think that's an advantage in our hearts i think um but nobody had a more difficult childhood as mike and for me there's a new book about um the making Virginia Woolf, and which he's in.

And I'm amazed it's his first film,

and he's standing up to Harry Warner and saying,

no, it's going to be in black and white.

Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?

He wanted to shoot it in black and white.

He's got the two biggest stars on earth,

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor.

And he's a young punk who's never directed anything in his life. And he's telling the biggest man in show business to fuck off.
And so the balls on that guy, absolutely incredible. Unbelievable.
But it's based on some kind of his perception of what should be was really pure. If Mike said something and it wasn't quite right, you go, oh, it's not quite right.
I never had any doubt that sometimes he would, he was a most fabulous friend of hell. He didn't write, but he wrote with you in a sense.
He'd say, well, we need somebody to say this, and then I say this, and he would encourage it out of you so that you wrote better, always with him. Well, there's a line in the Spamalot Diaries, you and Mike Nichols, there's a lot of correspondence back and forth between you two.
And at one point, Mike Nichols writes you and he says, I've given, I've been thinking a lot about you, Eric, and your childhood. And he's talking about, he acknowledges that he had a crazy, insane childhood, but he's talking about how your childhood was so difficult.
And he said this line that really stuck with me, which is, I guess we all inoculate ourselves against our own childhood. And that really stuck with me that whatever happens to us individually, and this goes to anyone listening, it happens to you, you tend to dismiss it.
Like, well, no, I was fine.

Oh my God,

what this other person went through.

You know what I mean?

And when Mike Nichols says that line,

he said,

because you're so good.

I don't know how much of it

is being English

and how much of it

is your own character

as Eric Idle,

your own personality.

But I could just see how

you have a stiff upper lip.

You could be very dismissive

of any kind of pain in your life.

I'm fine.

I'll see you learn empathy. I mean, you start by being an egotistical shit by going into show business.
Look at me. I'm in show business.
Yeah. And then you can behave very badly.
And I learned from lots of very good people. Like Robin Williams taught me how to be nice to fans.
I would just tell them to fuck off. And they would laugh and go away, you know.
But that was good enough for them to say, oh, he told me to fuck off. I just was told to fuck off and they would laugh and go away you know but that was good enough for them to say oh he told me to fuck off i just was told to fuck off by eric and that became a thing and then i thought and then i watched robin and and his empathy and remembering that this is somebody's moment in their life and it's a big moment in their life because they've they've waited they love you they want this moment so if you are a shit or dismissive um it it's it's it's a nasty memory so what i always do is i always say well i'm eric and i get their name yes and then you're on a one-to-one human basis with them yeah and you're not some kind of god and they're not some object fan.
So I try and, and I think, I think that works in all sorts of situations where you remind people that they're people. Yeah.
And we're just here at this moment. The all new Nissan Armada Pro 4X is an unshakable fortress powered by a twin-turbo V6 engine ready to propel your adventures to new heights.
Yeah, your voice changes when you do a car act. I'm trying to become Will Arnett, but I can't do it.
He's like, the all-new Nissan Armada Pro 4X. No, listen, I'm going to explain this car to you because this car is fantastic.
Its max 8,500 pound towing capacity

has the power to haul all your favorite toys

on your next big adventure.

You could steal the Statue of Liberty with this.

It's incredible.

I'm not saying do that.

I'm just saying this thing,

that's a lot of hauling power.

Nobody gets left behind with the Armada Pro 4X's premium interior that seats up to eight passengers that's crazy I don't know eight people going big never goes out of style no terrain is too tough for the all new Nissan Armada Pro 4X the most capable Armada ever built built for the most rugged of terrain the allnew Nissan Armada Pro 4X gives you freedom to explore further. Hey, Sona.
Pretty recently I got together with a bunch of my chums. Yeah.
What did you guys do? Guys I went to college with. We all played football together.
And don't laugh at that. That's real.
Sorry. Yeah.
It was one of those little table games of football. It's actually a video game.
It's simulated football. And it was the 80s, so it wasn't a very good game.
Anyway, it was a good time. We got together.
We had a good time. It's really nice to get together with people.
And I got to say, from game nights to parties with friends or special anniversaries, celebrating important occasions means more moments with the coolest people in your life. I want to say cheers to 50 years of Miller Lite, the greatest tasting light beer for people who love beer since 1975.
And now the perfect time to celebrate legendary stories with friends, family, and a great tasting light beer. You know what I call this? What? I call it Miller time.
Oh. I came up with that.
It's the 50th anniversary of Miller Lite. Can you believe it? I can't.
It's the perfect beer for beer lovers. Doesn't fill you up.
You always know what you're getting when you crack open a Miller Lite. Yeah, it's crisp.
It's crisp. You can have it with anything.
You can have it with ice cream. You can have it with a corn cob soup.
Doesn't matter. Miller Lite.
Great taste. 96 calories.
Go to MillerLite.com slash Conan to find delivery

options near you or you can pick up some Miller Lite

pretty much anywhere they sell

beer. You know what time it is? Ding dong.

It's Miller time. Celebrate

responsibly. Miller Brewing Company,

Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 96 calories and 3.2

carbs per 12 ounces.

The best B2B marketing

gets wasted on the wrong people.

This makes me nuts, Blay. Yes.

Me too. Me too.
Have you ever been

So The best B2B marketing gets wasted on the wrong people. This makes me nuts, Blay.
Yes, me too. Have you ever been served an ad that wasn't intended for you? All the time.
You know, for a while I kept getting ads for expensive pots. And guess what? I don't cook.
I have never cooked anything. I once tried to just boil some ramen and guess what happened? There was an explosion and three buildings were destroyed.
So when you want to reach this, that ad should never have gone to me for a special pot. It's a lot of buildings.
Yeah. A lot of buildings went and I had to flee the country for a while.
When you want to reach the right professionals, use LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn has grown to a network of over 1 billion professionals.
and that's where it stands apart from other ad buyers. Have they got a billion? I don't think so, buddy boy.
You can target your buyers by job title, industry company, role, seniority skills, company revenue, all the professionals you need to reach in one place. So do me a favor, stop wasting budget on the wrong audience.
Come on. Get your head in the game.

Start targeting the right professionals only on LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn will even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign so you can try it yourself.
Just go to linkedin.com slash teamcoco. That's linkedin.com slash teamcoco.
Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads. It's funny you mentioned Robin because I didn't realize how close you guys were.
You guys were very close. And I was lucky enough to have some great interactions with Robin Williams before he passed.
One of the most memorable examples to me of his kindness is when I went through my whole tonight show debacle and finally i'm the show is done and i don't know if i have a career anymore what am i going to do next you remember this this part very well sona because sona was with me during all that and i'm lying on the floor uh in the living room of my house and my phone rings and i pick it up and it's robin williams i don't even know how he got my phone number i'll never forget he goes like how you holding up chief and i said uh oh robin thanks so much for calling and he said you know listen you know you're gonna be fine you're gonna be great i know you like to ride bikes because he was really into bicycling and he said i know you like riding bikes uh go down um to this the bike shop down in santa monica i want you to go down there and i've set up a bike for you and i said what and he said no no just just head on down there and so and ride around you'll feel better and i went down and it was a colgana which is a very nice bike

and he said i told him to paint it in all these crazy irish colors and i get down there and it's the most it's the ugliest i mean it was just you know greens and and shamrocks and everything and i couldn't believe and he was like oh you're gonna like that bike. Don't worry about it.
And I just thought I thanked him many, many times. I just couldn't believe that he was thinking about me.
You know how we are in life. You think about someone, oh, that's too bad what happened to him.
Oh, whatever. Anyway, I'm going to go get a sandwich.
No, no. He reached out.
He thought what might please you. He went and got to the shop and chose.
I mean, he would put a lot of effort into making you feel better, which I thought that's very, very Robin. That's fantastically typical Robin.
And that generosity and kindness is something combined with the wit on the man is not a common combination. You know, I don't think Dr.
Johnson was busy sending people. Maybe, I don't know.
But I think— He had Boswell do it. He had Boswell.
Boswell! Send that fucker a bike! There's so much in the book that I want to make sure I weave in because you hit on so many themes I love. As you're approaching the premiere.
Of course, now we all know how the story turns out, but when you're reading through the book, it is very much what you say. You're reading these texts, these messages, these diary entries day by day.
You don't know what's going to happen and you can feel the anxiety. You can feel the self-loathing.
You can feel the gloom. And at one point you say, I think the English, there's an English tendency to prefer failure.
And I thought that is so fantastic because in a strange way, I understand how failure can feel more comfortable. And a big hit, it's the tall poppy syndrome, which is very Irish.
It's very United Kingdom. It's what do you do with a big hit? And everywhere you went, people were congratulating you and you're uneasy with it.
I wasn't used to it, but also I didn't quite expect it. And it takes a while to know what to do with that, because you're still trying to understand, have we fixed it? Did it really work? And Mike would always keep on making it better and better.
He'd cut little bits and keep improving it. But I think there is a thing in England that failure is a noble and a wonderful thing.
And if you look at Dunkirk and some of their great victories, the English ran away quite a lot.

Which is often a wise choice.

Maybe a good choice. If the English don't run away in 1940, they are not there to fight Hitler in 1942.

So, yeah.

No, I mean, I think there are many reasons for it.

But also, I think the tall poppy, which is what the Australians also call it,

is also that when you're on a small island, people are envious of people's success. And so people try and either play it down a bit or, oh, yeah, I did happen to climb Everest last week, but I'm also working on some Latin thesis.
I mean, people, they tend to try and diminish. Yes.
America's great because let's all try and be successful. Yeah.
That's the starting point. Right.
And it's fine. Yeah.
When in England, if you've been successful and you've got a car, people will scrape the car with their, you know, as they go by, you bastard. Whereas in America, the reaction would be, one day I'll have one of those.
And think it's completely different attitude this is something bono said uh uh bono said that you know in america if you see a house on a hill and you walk by and you see a mansion on a hill you think someday i'm gonna have that mansion he said in ireland if you see a big mansion on a hill you think, I'm going to burn that fucker down.

Yeah, I understand that.

I don't want it from... He said, in Ireland, if you see a big mansion on a hill, you think, I'm going to burn that fucker down.
Yeah, I understand that.

I don't want it for myself.

I just don't want that asshole to have it.

It's funny because this leads into my next question, which is that you bring up that you had this realization at one point that the Holy Grail, which is spam a lot, the, you know, that, that it's really about Python and the members of Python. And when, and this resonated with me right now, because all you do, you just said it right now is, you know, there's this tendency to want to run away all throughout Holy Grail.
One of the reasons Sir Robin is able to, his only strategy is to run away. Run away, run away.
And I've, you know, always. King Arthur says run away.
It's a command. It's a command.
Yes, yes. Robin does.
You're quite happy. Robin denies he's running away.
He's pissing off and buggering off. No, no, no.
No, not. You say, you know.
Brave Sir Robin. Yeah, yeah.
But you talk about, and you go through, and you talk about the different members of Python and how they kind of fit their role in the Holy Grail, whether it was intentional or not. Because I had to bring, I mean, there were 98 characters in the Holy Grail.
Yeah. So I put that on stage.
So what I did was i collapsed as many as i could of the characters played by michael palin into one character aspects of that character and the same with me and the same with lance a lot john cleese you know so that so that then when you do that you do find more of michael who's always like you know he really wants a bit of temptation, but he better hadn't. No, no, I got to go.
I got to go. No.
Yeah. One of my.
Being rescued from all the. From all the girlies.
All the girls who are horny. Oh.
And you could tell he's. Yeah.
He made two films about that that too of his own which that's basically the same theme he's probably perhaps not no i think it's very significant about it's so funny because i relate to both your character i i relate to running away and, you know, no, there's some temptation. Oh, well, I should probably go watch my cholesterol.
I'll just be over here, but I'm going to think about it a lot and I'm going to hate myself a little bit. But yeah, you go through, it's very convincing that whether it was intentional or not.
I think that often writing reveals yourself. I mean, I think good writing is definitely all about yourself in some really bizarre way.
And when you're adapting something, a piece of work, it's very nice to come across themes that are just in there. There's one scene when Michael is being led away from Castle Anthrax, you know cleese is getting him out come on let's go he said no couldn't i have a bit of temptation no no no no temptation at all and just as they leave frame you hear michael say oh i bet you're gay and we use that for a whole scene yeah where lancelot's whole rage and anger is explained by the fact he's repressing it all.
And out he comes. And he dances the song, his name is Lancelot.
He likes to dance a lot. There's a huge Peter Allen number.
I find that that's really the most exciting thing about adapting work is finding little things in there which will make it work on stage. Because Mike and Casey, there was a whole scene.
We kept trying to write the spanking song, you know, because the girls say, oh, spanking, spanking tonight. And we keep writing a spanking, a spanking.
There's going to be a spanking. And they going to be and they said no no and they would not have it so the way out was this just this hint in the in the script which i improvised and it was just it was fabulous to find because it it makes lancelot's character very much more he's not just angry he's angry because he had an angry father and he stands up for her but saying this man is your son and he comes up with the most wonderful like it could be arthur miller yeah he comes out and stands up for him and it's a very nice dramatic twist in act two which i like you said in python there were disagreements.
I know in my comedy career, I just became, with all my different collaborators and creative partners, arguments and fights. And you'd come down to, if someone else was listening to it, they'd think you were insane.
You talked about how you'd all argue in Python about, is this the right chair? No, this isn't the right chair. No, the dead parrot should look like this.
It shouldn't look like that, that's not funny but this is and i remembered robert smigel you know uh one of the just genius people i've i've been fortunate to work with over the years i remembered once us going back and forth arguing about something forever and this is maybe 30 years ago and i said no but it got a big laugh and he went yes but that's not the kind of laugh we want at that point. And I was thinking, it's a goddamn laugh.
What do you mean it's not the laugh we want at that point? But I also understand what he's saying, you know? And so, but anyone else listening outside the door would think these two idiots, what is their problem? But I think that is the common thread just in this process if i think if you're trying to do it right which is i think it's a fascinating process and i've i i i was had some very good mentors we used to write for jokes for david frost and i had you know barry cry and dick voss were people who taught me how to be you know what to do and how the ropes and then you become you find your own compart you know companions who who then become argumentative it's really was very argumentative i mean sometimes rows huge blazing rows would break out um but that again i think that's because if you if you don't care it's not important yeah and and and and i think i only was not very good at standing up because i was a solo writer in that group and i remember and then that's why i think i got on with george he was a solo between two big forces of lennon and mccartney right and i was between you know mike and terry and mike and ter Terry wrote and John and Graham wrote. And I remember when George came out to the filming of The Life of Brian, he paid for it.
He said, how's it going? I said, well, it's all right. It's hard to get on screen, you know, with Michael Payne and John Cleese.
He said, imagine how I was trying to get into the studio with Lennon and McCartney. Mic drop.
Okay, you got it. I got it.
You think you have problems. Yeah, exactly.
Cry me a river. This is, and we don't have to talk about this, but it's something that as a lifelong, someone who's been so influenced and odd by Python i think of it as sort of santa claus

like like a child i just want to believe that everyone's getting along and you and cleese

famously lately have had your disagreements and that have come out in public and i know

i'll think oh i don't want mommy and daddy to fight but that's childlike of me because

you're human beings that disagree and you've known each other a long time disagree about

Thank you. mommy and daddy to fight, but that's childlike of me because you're human beings that disagree and you've known each other a long time.
But we don't disagree about comedy. This is only about money.
This is only about business. And there's no reason, I mean, a fool and his money are easy parted, you know, six of us, you know, much more quickly.
I think I think there's no right or wrong way to deal with business. And if somebody has one view of it and somebody doesn't and somebody has another, those can lead to very bad arguments.
And unfortunately, we don't see each other enough. I haven't seen them in 10 years.
It's been 10 years since you saw John? Nine since John, 10 since Mike. If you don't sit across the table and know that person and what decade they're in, I think there's a lot of room for disagreement.
And, you know, we're just old. And it's like we never disagreed on the very important things on what was funny, really.
But that was a a while ago you know there's also there's a there's a misconception that anyone could have which is wait a minute monty python the most in my opinion influential show of of all time and then that led to these movies which are in my opinion flawless and beautiful and fantastic and that you you've all gone on to these things and then of course spam a lot a huge hit and you talk about how there's this perception that well everyone in python must be driving around in bentleys with cash you know in convertibles with cash just flying out and that uh you say you know we're all touring to keep you know at this age to keep it going. And that you say, you know, we're all touring at this age

to keep it going.

And that's a misconception that people can have.

I think so because, you know, it still depends

what sort of deals you have.

And nowadays residuals are becoming, I think, of the past.

You know, they've got rid of all the music residuals.

You know, you've got Spotify and YouTube. Everything takes everything.
You know, I mean, I think it's very difficult. I don't mind it because I quite like doing what I do.
I quite like going out there and making people laugh, see if I can still make them laugh. Because I think that's a sort of little joy that we get.
I think it's a secret little joy. We're all comedy junkies, laugh junkies.
And so I'm about to go and do a tour of Australia and New Zealand, and I've got some really wonderful surprises. I like surprising people.
I like making my shows about something. So there's like a through line.
I was with Professor Brian Cox last week, and he said he's doing a show. And I said, what's yours about? And I said, mine's about the meaning of life.
And he said, well, so is mine. I said, yeah, but mine will be deep.
You introduced me. You introduced me to him at a part.
I mean, again, this is one of the gifts of getting to go to Eric Idle's home is you said, oh, here's Brian Cox. And we chatted and he's this brilliant mind.
And the next thing you know, he's I become somewhat, you know, friendly with him. And I think this is you have salons.
You have it's nice what you do. You get really smart.
It's not just funny people. It's music people.
It's people from science. It's people from astrology.
It's people who are historians. And I can just see that you have this endless joy for trying to figure it all out.
I like putting people together. I like conversation.
But I love at the end of the evening is a ding dong. We have a and so i love musicians and so i've always got musicians um anybody like brian cox if he's going to tell you about quantum and that's very nice over dinner you know yeah uh but and he also plays the piano so we we have gigs his son george plays guitar and i've been playing with this group who have been playing with the monkeys and they're really

great and we just sit around and play hit after hit it's just that's my happy that's when I'm happiest after dinner out come the guitars we'll just sing it's funny you say this because like what is it about I've love playing guitar um I could never make a dime off of it, but it's just, it's my hobby

and I really love doing it.

And I got to do the Newport Folk Festival

a month or two ago

and there's footage of it

and I'm up there playing with all these amazing people

and Jack White came.

But the comment that shows up every time I'm up there

is Conan seems,

this is the most joyous I've ever seen Conan. He seems so much happier doing this than comedy.
I thought, I love comedy, but they're not wrong. No.
I love that. Me too.
And just playing and gigging with people and having fun and listening. Because it's a different part of your brain.
You're not thinking, you're not and where's the next laugh you know you're just feeling the next chord so then i i love that and i i'm doing a show now which is really a one-man musical yeah and i do a couple of songs so one's a tribute to george harrison i wrote which i i really like because i miss him a lot and one's for robin which i wrote for his memorial and And it's a very sweet song. And I put up pictures of them, and it's kind of a nice way of recognizing that people have moved on and gone and say, well, it isn't all like, you know, it isn't all maudlin.
I mean, there's a lot of good jokes. Well, you've written, first of all, it's the most requested song uh at funerals uh i think in certainly in the in the uk maybe in the world and what's the second that's a really good question actually it was my way it replaced which is really a terrible song for when you're dying yeah i did it i smoked i smoked and smoked they said i shouldn't but i did i ate fatty foods they said i shouldn't but i did uh the um uh you wrote on, uh, the bright side of life.

And, um, it has, it's such a great song. I mean, it's this amazing scene in life of Brian.
And at the time I remember it extremely controversial because, you know, people are being, they're on, they're dying, they're on a crucifix and the singing always look on the bright side of life and i think it's everything it is

the perspective that i completely 100 agree with uh which is this is terrible and ridiculous and

silly at the same time that is sometimes the only way we can go we can move on and it's just and

it's got my one of my life's got a funny plot you're here and then you're not like it's that's

all there is to it i think yes i i mean what's really funny about always looking at the bright

Thank you. and it's just and it's got my one of my life's got a funny plot you're here and then you're not like it's that's all there is to it I think yes I mean what's really funny about always looking on the bright side of life is you are being crucified yeah there's very little to look forward to at that point let's face it if there's any point in life I think Eric Eric I think you're being overly negative.
Yeah, you're giving it a bad rap. You're getting a good stretch in the low back.
Oh, God. Well, you are.
Oh, man. Between the L4 and L5, gravity is giving you a little pull.
But it is an ironic song, and I think it's a war song, and I think it comes from my father. Their generation, their songs were always like, oh, always look on the bright, the blue skies will open, bluebirds over the bright.

They were always about future optimism because they're in a war.

So I think that's what that sort of song is.

It's just like a war song. And it was played in the Falklands when HMS Sheffield was hit by an exoset.
And they had to wait for rescue for three hours. They sang that for three hours.
And so I think there is something recognizing that it is a ridiculous thing. And teams, you know, seeing it when they're losing at football.
I mean, they move on the bright side, you know, there's nothing to look forward to at that point.

Right, right.

We're down.

It's over.

There's not enough time left.

I have to ask you this because I know that you've,

you talk about playing guitar with these iconic musicians.

You played for hours and probably thousands of hours with George Harrison.

You also stayed up all night once in Rome playing with Keith Richards.

And I'm just curious how you can, don't you leave your body at some point and say, that's Keith Richards I'm playing guitar with, or that's George Harris I'm playing guitar with? How do you get over that? Oh, I think pretty quickly because you're playing along, you know. So you're in the moment if you're playing with somebody.
And luckily I had a pretty good back. I had a jazz guitar background.
So I knew better chords than they did often. But with Keith, you know, I mean, Keith is like the most extraordinary.
He's like an old coward. You know, he behaves.
Oh, dear boy, do come up and have it. Well, can I get you? I mean, he's like wearing, you know, dressing gowns and very calm.
Where's the lunatic, you know? That's hilarious. Oh, come in.
Please do come in. And he's wearing a caftan.
Not a caftan. Dressing gown.
Dressing gown. And a little, you know, smooch.
Sanctuary biscuit. Oh, dear boy, can I get you a glass of brandy? What would you like? What can you take? You know, I mean, quite a different world

than you'd expect.

And we did sing all night that night.

And, you know, it was in Rome.

And went in Rome.

Went in Rome.

So then the next day I turn up at the set

and Chevy, I hadn't got any words left.

It was my last scene.

And then Chevy comes up to me and says,

I've written this big new scene for us.

Oh, is this for European vacation?

Yeah. And I went, I've got to live.
And he said, oh, fuck. So you had to lose a scene in European vacation because you were up all night playing and singing with Keith Richards.
I'm sorry. Yes.
Well, that's probably as good an excuse as anybody. It's worth it.
Yeah. I think it's worth it.
Yeah. I'm going to miss the next podcast.
I i'm sorry i was singing all night with keith richards no no he's in he's in london what are you talking about you're in the pacific palisades you were with richard keiths yeah um yes we got on this very dark topic of death and everything you have one of the funniest ideas ever i've heard for an inscription on your tombstone which i really like i'll tell you what it is because you've clearly forgotten eric idol see google i'm glad to know that still stands up it's good i why why not i mean why are we getting into here? Exactly. The rest is nonsense.
Yeah. Well, I want to thank you.
It's a great day for me when I get to spend any time with you. You're one of my all-time heroes, and you've changed my life in so many ways with your work when I was a young lad.
And you guys completely, I think, reordered the universe and showed us all what could be done. And I still think you're far ahead of everyone else.
My love to your family, Tanya, and of course, Lily, who I adore. The book is The Spamalot Diaries.
And it is a joyous read. It's a little harrowing at times, but it's great, and it's a great book for anyone to read who's in the process of trying to make something happen.
It could be a Broadway play. It could be anything you're trying to do.
It's very inspirational. Yes.
Thank you. You've given people a real gift here.
That's very kind. I like that.
I'm glad that that's so, because I do think it's very inspirational. Yes.
And so you've given people a real gift here. Oh, that's very kind.

I like that.

I'm glad that that's so because I do think it's a process, not a miracle. Yeah.
And let's end with just explaining our shirts. Indeed.
You want to explain these? Well, these shirts are to raise money for a statue for Terry Jones. and they're going to build a statue for him on the promenade in Wales

where he comes from Colwyn Bay. And they're raising money on a go for fun me basis.
And so we're here promoting. I think there should be a statue to Terry Jones.
I think this is a lovely idea. And we are hoping it will be the nude organist, but we're sure and you said it was a gofundme is that correct it's a gofundme yes it is so people can just

well they can see google yeah

very nicely done sir uh eric idol uh go go forth and do good works thank you it's been always a joy to talk to you we drink so much water every day and it's just water and I'm like hello boring yeah it's gotta be a way to make water more exciting well guess what someone cracked it with authentic flavors and lively. Waterloo sparkling waters bring full flavor artistry.
Blay, you're drinking one right now. Drinking one right now.
I got the raspberry nectarine and it is tasty. It's very good.
Very tasty. Everyone here in the office has been enjoying them.
They're excellent. They are delicious.
And you say, what's flavor artistry? Some people think, oh, you're just talking a lot of high class nonsense. No, it's about custom crafting multi-sensorial flavor experiences of aroma, taste, and mouthfeel that make you say, wow.
Wow to that sentence. Waterloo waters are crafted, not formulated or off the shelf, just purified sparkling water and non-GMO project verified natural flavors, which I insist on.
Me too. With zero calories, sugars, or sweeteners.
I drink water constantly. I just had a couple of glasses of water, and it was just regular water upstairs, and I regret that time.
It's boring. You'll never get that back.
I'll never get that time back. Three full glasses of water.
I wish it was Waterloo. And I could have had, what did you have? Raspberry? You know what? What's that one? Cracking open a peach right now.
Okay, well, you could have offered that to me. You just ate a second when I haven't had one.
Oh, sorry. Nice, thanks a lot.
I'm so thirsty. Were you working tomorrow? Give Waterloo Sparkling Water a try.
Look for Waterloo Sparkling Water next time you shop. Learn more about the flavors from Waterloo Sparkling Water at drinkwaterloo.com.
This episode is sponsored by E-Trade from Morgan Stanley. Dive into the market with E-Trade's easy-to-use tools, and now there's even more to love.

Get access to expert insights from Morgan Stanley to help navigate the markets. Open an account and get up to $1,000 or more with a qualifying deposit.
Learn more at E-Trade.com. Terms and other fees apply.
Investing involves risks. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC member SIPIC.
E-Trade is a business of Morgan Stanley. On an episode not too long ago, we talked about your grandma Maude.
Maude, right? Yeah, Maude, yes. This would be my mother's mother, Ruth Reardon.
And yet, for reasons we didn't know when we were kids, we all called her Madie. And then I asked her once, why do we call you Maddie? And she said that there was a cartoon strip back, maybe even before the turn of the century or at the turn of the century.
I believe she was born in 1890. And she was on a playground and some kids were harassing her, teasing her.
And so she kicked at them and they started calling her moddy moddy because there was a well-known cartoon at the time about a i don't know if it's a mule or a horse that kicked people oh my god here it is and this is the mule or the horse kicking someone right there and her name was mod and her name was it. Oh, my God.
I'm trying to see what the date is on this. That would be cool to know.
I can't see. I can't make out the date.
I thought it said 1904 somewhere. Would that be too late? No, I don't think so.
You can still kick people when you're 14. This is really cool.
This is... Her classmates sound like dicks.
Well, kids don't change. I know, but they were bugging her so much that she needed to kick them, and then they started calling her a kicking mule.
Well, yeah, but it's not like the name stuck and her grandchildren ended up using it. Oh, no, this is so cool.
This is a good... There's a guy who gets kicked by a mule.
He's angry. So he takes the mule.
He says, I'll fix this pesky critter. He ties the mule up.
The mule kicks some more people. It's kicking automobiles.
It's kicking everybody. And then the people realize that the owner's the one that caused all this problem.
So they go and they kick him. And the mule then gets to laugh at the owner who just got kicked.
Hee haw. Oh, and by the way, you can see this.
Just go to at Team Coco podcasts on Instagram. My question is, did they do the same bit every week? I don't know.
How many of these cartoon strips did they do? At least this is a cartoon strip that's acceptable today today if you look at a lot of cartoon strips from the turn of the century they would not pass muster anymore they're incredibly you find out that mules politics wow this this is an america first mule he wants closed this is a closed border mule this is so cool to see this

to think that my grandmother would have seen this. It does say to be continued next Sunday.
Yep. So I bet there's a whole story.
Yeah, I think this, my guess is this mule just keeps on kicking people. I have a little info about it.
And her name was Maude,

is the name of the strip,

is a comic strip by

Frederick Burr Oper.

It first appeared

in the Hearst newspapers

on July 24th, 1904.

That's it.

The rest of the stuff is...

Wait, you...

Can I just say,

Adam, you approached the mic like,

I've just got some news.

The Hindenburg has exploded

at Lakehurst, New Jersey.

All souls have been lost.

Even you seem surprised by your own lack of information. This is less interesting than I thought it was.
Her name is Maude in 1904. Newspapers.
Although Hearst papers, though, it probably does have some politics. Yeah.
Well, this is, I love that kind of connection to just, I mean, first of all, this is, as I've spoken about before, I loved my grandmother. And after my grandfather passed, she lived with us for a while.
And she, yeah, she was this amazing link to the late 19th, early 20th century. and I remembered her telling me it was once in New Year's Day and she told me she had a very clear memory of New York City

because she was staying with relatives in New York City

in 1900 on New Year's Day.

And she was describing it.

She was describing it. She was describing the carriages going by, how cold it was, the snow.
She said, I can see it right now, like perfectly. And I thought, I'm always fascinated by time travel, that concept that you can have a human connection to somebody.
I don't know if you had this with, because I know, Sona, you lived with your grandparents. Yeah, and Dede both lived into their 90s.
Into their 90s. Yeah.
And they came from? They came from Istanbul. Yep.
And I mean, my grandpa started, he was a butcher when he was 12. Like, they just put him to work really early.
Right. So it's like the idea that you are trusting a 12-year-old with slaughtering animals just feels like a completely different world.
But also just the fact that then they come to this country and they're living with you and you're going out to In-N-Out to grab a burger and whatever else you're up to. It's just this amazing clash of cultures.
I find that stuff fascinating. Well, my great grandma also lived with us and she was old as shit.
She was really old. You don't say old as shit.
She was really, really old. And I remember she was this old wrinkly lady and I was really young.
I was maybe like 10. And my mom's like, she's going to sleep in your room.
And from then on, I was terrified of the dark because I thought she was like an old witch lady. And she was just like when you say she was what did you say? Old as shit.
Yeah. How old is old as shit? She was.
I mean, when I was 10, she was like 95. Because there are young comedians out there that now see me and go, you're old as shit.
So it's all it's all relative. That's right.
I was 10 and she was 60. No, no, seriously.
How old do you think she was? She was 95. Yeah.
But she was like an old wrinkly lady. And I was young and I was like, why is this old person in my room? And I got terrified of the dark.
You're like an awful grandchild. I was really bad.
I love this. Like old and wrinkled? Why is that in my room? I have, we did something else.
I don't want to, I should wrinkle. Well, we got to know.
This is really bad. So she had a son who passed away that no one told her passed away and then my uncle who was still in Istanbul and we'd hold up two fingers and be like Menzi, you know, touch one of them and she would touch him and be like, oh, that's, you know, Bejo Dayday who was my uncle and she'd just she'd just instantly start crying.
And we thought it was so funny. Wait, I understand what was happening here.
Because we kept reminding her of these people she hadn't seen in a long time. And we'd instantly make her cry.
And Dani and I were like, let's go make Menzi cry. Whoa.
Oh my God, you're a monster. You're a sociopath.
How is that? We were just fascinated with her instant sadness.

I thought you were the true sociopath,

but it's you all alone.

It really was messed up.

What a twist.

It was so messed up.

To be fair, I did it to my grandmother, Maudie, too.

I used to go, remember that loved one that perished?

It was fun.

We used to call it, it was the old fun,

we called it the parish game.

Oh, man. Hey, let's go play parish.
And we'd go into Monty's room. Remember the one you loved who perished? Look at them waterworks.
You're an awful, awful person. No, no joke.
That was really bad. Yeah, you're a bad person.
It was bad. We would make her laugh just for fun.
All right, well, listen, let's have some good come from this. You don't need to clarify no joke.
We would make her cry just for fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because we were terrible people. Let's have some good come out of this.
If you're listening right now and you're tempted to go mock a very, very old relative by reminding them of someone they lost long ago, think twice. Yeah.
That's a little word from Conan O'Brien needs a friend. Conan O'Brien needs a friend with Conan O'Brien, Sonam of Sessian and Matt Gourley.
Produced by me, Matt Gourley. Executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross and Nick Liao.
Theme song by The White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino.
Take it away, Jimmy. by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Britt Kahn.
You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts,

and you might find your review read on a future episode.

Got a question for Conan?

Call the Team Coco hotline at 669-587-2847

and leave a message.

It too could be featured on a future episode.

You can also get three free months of SiriusXM

when you sign up at siriusxm.com slash Conan.

And if you haven't already,

please subscribe to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend

wherever fine podcasts are downloaded. the market with E-Trade's easy-to-use tools.
And now there's even more to love. Get access to expert insights from Morgan Stanley to help navigate the markets.
Open an account and get up to $1,000 or more with a qualifying deposit. Learn more at E-Trade.com.
Terms and other fees apply. Investing involves risks.
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC member SIPC. E-Trade is a business of Morgan Stanley.
Auto insurance can all seem the same until it comes time to use it.

So don't get stuck paying more for less coverage.

Switch to USAA Auto Insurance

and you could start saving money in no time.

Get a quote today.

Restrictions apply.

USAA!