Monty Python star Terry Gilliam has been reported as having died by Variety magazine. The celebrity lifestyle magazine reported Gilliam’s death and released a pre-written obituary for the only American member of the Monty Python team. The somber tribute began, “[D]irector Terry Gilliam, the only American member of the Monty Python comedy troupe and an Oscar nominee for the screenplay to his film Brazil has died.”
Tributes poured in for Gilliam, but much to the embarrassment of the magazine, reports of Gilliam’s death had been greatly exaggerated. Award winning actor and director Terry is very much alive.
Stuff reports that the magazine may have acted after spotting a hoax post announcing Gilliam’s demise on Facebook. Variety quickly removed the report of Gilliam’s death and deleted a Twitter announcement of the same. Sadly for the magazine, when it comes, to the internet “quickly” is never quick enough. Fans of Gilliam and Monty Python’s Flying Circus were quick to leap on the error and have some fun at Variety’s expense. As a result Terry Gilliam was soon trending worldwide.
Terry Gilliam dead? Did somebody press the publish button on the wrong post? pic.twitter.com/LyiB3Z64pR
— Sean Fitzgerald (@SeanDFitzgerald) September 8, 2015
The Herald reports that Variety took several hours to release a retraction, and by that time Gilliam’s fans were in full swing with an outpouring of jokes. Perhaps predictably many of the jokes parodied Monty Python’s famous “dead parrot” sketch in which a shopkeeper tries to convince a customer that a parrot he purchased is not dead but is “resting.”
Digital Spy reports that relieved Gilliam fans were quick to chip in with gags with Monty Python references. One fan tweeted Terry claiming that since the report was shown to be false there had been “2.3 trillion ‘it’s only a flesh wound’ jokes.”
. @TerryGilliam I’ve scanned social media & since the false report of your death there have been 2.3 trillion “It’s only a flesh wound” jokes
— Joel McHale (@joelmchale) September 8, 2015
Another said “how dare you ‘kill off’ Terry Gilliam. Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.”
How dare you “kill off” Terry Gilliam, random internet person? Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries.
— Michelle Milliken (@MichelleyM) September 9, 2015
One Twitter user was quick to note that if anyone was likely to find reports of their own death amusing it would be Terry Gilliam.
Far from being dead, Terry, who turns 75 in a few weeks, is actually currently working on his long awaited Don Quixote after securing a distribution deal with Amazon. Last year Gilliam joined the other “not dead” members of the Monty Python team for a run of live shows at London’s O2 arena.
[Photo by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images]
