Comedy icon John Cleese slams woke warriors

British comedy legend John Cleese has slammed those who “cancelled” the late Barry Humphries, saying they were “out of contact with reality”.

John Cleese in promo shot for his 2023 tour. Picture: Supplied.

BRITISH comedy icon John Cleese has slammed woke warriors who cancelled the late Barry Humphries, saying people who behave as if they have all the truth on their side are “out of contact with reality”.

Humphries, whose famous alter-egos included Dame Edna and Les Patterson, had his name stripped from the Melbourne International Comedy Festival’s top award after he made comments about transgender people.

The Barry Award was renamed the MICF Award in 2019. Humphries, who died in April, was a founding patron of the MICF.

Asked about Humphries’ cancellation by the MICF, Cleese — The Monty Python and Fawlty Towers legend — said: “Well, I don’t understand it.

“It’s an extraordinary authoritarian attitude. In a liberal democracy, and God knows it’s imperfect enough, we try to discuss things with people and see if there’s some common ground.

“If we can create some common ground, then we might have legislation.

“But to behave as though you have all the truth on your side, and nowhere else, is out of contact with reality. That’s not the way things are.

“People are both good and bad. They have positive and negative impulses. You don’t get people who are completely pure, or people who are completely bad. So this is a very crude analysis on which they base most of their binary thinking.

“It’s a hot-button issue,” Cleese added. “Everybody has strong feelings about it, although nobody really understands what it is, which is quite funny.”

Cleese told the Sunday Herald Sun he knew Humphries “a little bit” and considered the first time he saw Humphries on stage “at that point, it was the funniest solo show that I’d ever seen in my life”.

John Cleese has defended the late Barry Humphries and condemned cancel culture. Picture: Amanda Stronza

“I couldn’t believe how quick his mind was, how he would remember names of people from the audience during the first half, when he was making jokes in the second. He was marvellous.”

Cleese also revealed he is currently making a TV show about cancel culture.

“What I’ve discovered is (cancel culturalists) refuse to come on the show to discuss it, because they’re attitude is, ‘We’re 100 per cent right, and you guys are 100 per cent wrong. If we dignify you by discussing it, it might suggest there’s one or two ideas of yours that are worth considering and we’re not prepared to do that’.”

Cleese, 83, is touring a new show, An Evening With the Late John Cleese, and will be in Australia next month. The comedian discusses his experiences in the afterlife, and what people can expect when they get there.

“I died several weeks ago, and it’s very nice up here,” Cleese says on a Zoom call. “You sip fruit juice and watch sport all day. There’s very little comedy because there’s nothing to make fun of.”

Cleese says he’s studied the scientific side of the afterlife for a long time.

“I’m pretty convinced that something goes on after we die,” he says. “People are surprised when I say that, but that’s because they don’t know the literature. A lot of people think that it’s a religious matter. but I regard it as a scientific matter.”

Have Cleese’s studies shaped his feelings about leaving this mortal coil?

“I have mixed emotions,” he answers. “Certainly, you’re saying goodbye to a lot of people that you love. That’s the bad bit.”

Cleese’s tour will also feature clips and memories from a career including the comedy troupe Monty Python, classic movies (The Life Of Brian, A Fish Called Wanda) and definitive sitcom Fawlty Towers.

John Cleese and Prunella Scales in the TV program Fawlty Towers.

Actor and comedian, John Cleese in the Monty Python film, "The Meaning of Life".

“There was no mission with Monty Python. We didn’t know what we wanted to do,” Cleese says. “But we wrote things, read it out, and started to laugh. I think it was not having a plan that enabled it to be so original. Once you put a label on something, you’re kind of constricted.”

He recalls a BBC heads of department meeting, where six out of eight bosses voted against making or broadcasting Monty Python.

“My experience throughout my career is the vast majority of people in charge of what I’ve been doing, have no what they’re doing,” Cleese says dryly.

He is also workshopping ideas for a Fawlty Towers reboot with his daughter Camilla, a comedian, producer and writer.

The original series was a slapstick classic, and starred Cleese as inept hotel manager Basil Fawlty. It ran for 12 episodes from 1975 to 1979.

Camilla Cleese and John Cleese are workshopping ideas for a Fawlty Towers reboot. Picture: Amanda Stronza

“We’re thinking about it, but it’s very difficult,” Cleese says of a Fawlty Towers update.

“We have to get away completely from the original and set it somewhere else. I think we’ll probably set it somewhere like the Caribbean because then we’d have a truly multicultural cast, which is good. We can get a lot of fun out of that.”

Cleese says Camilla will “probably play a very competent hotelier”. However, after Basil’s wife Sybil dies, he visits the well-run resort, and “chaos results”.

Cleese added: “That’s all we’ve come up with so far. And I work very slowly. The moment you have time pressure, your mind will goes back to things that are derivative and stereotyped.”

The cast of Fawlty Towers, starring John Cleese and Connie Booth. f/l Aug96 Unknown Source Undated/photo b/w /Television / Actor /Comedy headshot actress TV series show

While Cleese is taking a long and considered path for Fawlty Towers, he is deep into planning a stage adaptation of The Life Of Brian, and adamant he won’t change a scene in which a male says he wants to be a woman and have a child.

“I want to be a woman … it’s my right as a man,” the character says.

Cleese confirms during a table reading in New York, several Broadway figures suggested he cut the scene due to transgender sensitivities.

“There were actors at the read-through who were very distinguished, who had Tonys, and nominated for Tonys, who said there was a section that I should cut,” Cleese said. “But I don’t think I’m going to.”

John Cleese performs at the Princess Theatre, Launceston, on July 24; Wrest Point Entertainment Centre, Hobart, July 26; Costa Hall, Geelong, July 29; Hamer Hall, Melbourne, July 31; QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane, August 2; The Concourse, Sydney, August 5; Canberra Theatre, Canberra, August 8; Civic Theatre, Newcastle, August 11.

Tickets: bohmpresents.com