John Cleese says wokeness is impacting comedy, creativity
The entertainment icon discusses the current state of comedy with Fox News Digital.
Comedy legend and Monty Python star John Cleese slammed the BBC in a recent interview, arguing that the British media giant had lost its sense of humor and become "dominated by people who are frightened of offending" people.
Cleese, who played the character Basil Fawlty in the show "Fawlty Towers," declared that he would not allow the show to air on BBC.
"I’m not doing it with the BBC because I won’t get the freedom," he said in an interview with GB News, released Thursday.
JOHN CLEESE SAYS WOKENESS HAS A 'DISASTROUS' IMPACT ON COMEDY
Comedy legend and Monty Python star John Cleese slammed the BBC in an interview, arguing that the British media giant had lost its sense of humor and become "dominated by people who are frightened of offending" the public. (Fox News Digital)
Cleese was the subject of headlines across Britain after it was revealed that the beloved sitcom will return to television. Cleese will be starring in the show along with his daughter, Camilla Cleese.
The comedian said he missed when the BBC wasn’t worried about offending people.
"I was terribly lucky before, because I was working for the BBC in the late Sixties, Seventies, and the beginning of the Eighties."
Cleese said that he wants to deal with "subjects that get people upset but I want to get sensible people with a sense of humour who will listen to each other and who will trade arguments rather than simply making speeches." (Screenshot / GB News)
"That was the best time because the BBC was run by people with real personality who loved the medium and who were operating out of confidence, which was okay because there wasn’t so much competition," Cleese told GB News.
But those times are long gone now, Cleese emphasized, especially because the network has "become far too dominated by people who are frightened of offending others."
Cleese slammed the BBC in 2020 after an episode was temporarily removed from a streaming platform tied to BBC Studios for "racial slurs."
"I want to deal with subjects that get people upset," Cleese said, "but I want to get sensible people with a sense of humour who will listen to each other and who will trade arguments rather than simply making speeches."
He concluded that Britain has "gone from what was a middle-class culture with all its failings to a tabloid culture and that is why there is so much of this screaming at people."
Britain has "gone from what was a middle-class culture with all its failings to a tabloid culture and that is why there is so much of this screaming at people," Cleese said. (Dave J Hogan/Getty Images)
Cleese took to Twitter to make additional attacks on the BBC.
"While I'm always grateful to receive career advice from a towering talent like Nick Robinson, I think it is more important for the British public that the BBC re-discovers its sense of humour."
"Those were the days…" he mused in a tweet from Thursday.
Nick Robinson is a presenter on BBC’s Today program.
JOHN CLEESE SPEAKS OUT AGAINST CANCEL CULTURE, SAYS IT ‘MISUNDERSTANDS THE MAIN PURPOSE OF LIFE’
Cleese responded to one fan who asked him if the reboot of Fawlty Towers could be "genuinely funny, like the originals[.]"
"Virtually impossible," he wrote.
"But it is possible to make something that's funny enough And completely different, of course."
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