John Cleese, a founding member of the pioneering British comedy group Monty Python, has said they were “early targets” of cancellation culture.
Cleese was speaking to The Sunday Times about his new GB News chat show, The Dinosaur Hour, which includes an episode on cancellation culture. Monty Python’s 1979 film “Life of Brian” caused a furore among some members of the Christian community when it was released.
“You could say we were early targets of cancellation culture,” Cleese told The Sunday Times. “People don’t like to have their cherished ideas punctured or challenged. We all like to live in our own closed systems of thought, surrounded by people who think a bit like us. This is what happens on the internet, where you get these bloody echo chambers. That’s why comedy is even more important now, as a way of piercing those bubbles, opening them up, letting in fresh air. It does us all good. The problem is that innovative comedy becomes difficult when a joke that goes against someone’s idea of good taste means that the comedian is banned for life. It undermines the creative impulse.
Asked if the comedy for which he is famous, which peaked in the 1970s and 1980s, would work today, Cleese said: “The trick with creativity is to understand that it’s not a talent, it’s a state of mind. You have to get out of fear and doubt. You have to get into a place of playfulness and curiosity so that you can find connections and push boundaries. Cancel culture tends to make people think less broadly, more literally. It is harder to make funny – or intellectually interesting – connections. It is culturally dangerous. I’m so old that I don’t worry about being cancelled. But as a young man starting out, it might be different.
Speaking about The Dinosaur Hour, Cleese said: “KGB News came to me with the best offer I’ve ever had from a TV company. Usually you have these executives who think they know more about comedy than you do, telling you what they think is funny. It is like an accountant telling a novelist how to write a plot. But they said, ‘Make 10 programmes and you can do exactly what you want,’ which is remarkable. I know a lot of people have it in for GB News and, to be fair, I don’t agree with the opinions of some of its presenters.
“I’ve had carte blanche to say what I want and to be as silly or as serious as I like. We may even do a second series,” Cleese added.
Ofcom’s Broadcasting Standards investigation into GB News found the channel to be in breach of its impartiality rules. The channel has given a platform to former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, which Cleese says he “can hardly believe”.
