John Cleese, the legendary member of Monty Python, has vowed never to work for the BBC again because they would fire him in five minutes.
Cleese, 82, said he would reject any advances from the company because he thought it would either censor him or fire him right away.
The Fawlty Towers creator ironically made the comments while speaking to the BBC on Radio 4’s Today show.
The BBC hasn’t approached me and asked if I’d want to host any one-hour programmes, and if they had, I would have said, “Not on your nelly.”
I would only be canceled or censored five minutes into the first program, I said.
Cleese, a vocal opponent of woke culture, will co-host a program on GB News with comedian Andrew Doyle.
He responded to presenter Amol Rajan’s inquiry regarding his views on the boundaries of free speech by saying, “Someone once remarked to me: “Everyone’s in favor of free speech, especially for the ideas that they like.”
In answer to the question of whether people expressing views and disseminating false information concerning public health issues should be allowed to do so, he added: “If there is a factual reaction to anything like that, then it should be made.”
“That’s the job, to put the facts out there, and then to have ideas that are somewhat different and have a legitimate conversation about it. But not to attempt to dodge a public discussion and then try to get yourself through (on) social media.”
John Cleese said, “No, because I find the entire thing to be such a muddled jumble,” when questioned about his personal views and whether he belonged to the Liberal Democrats or the SDP.
He claimed: “After the abhorrent Brexit argument, when I believed our nation had descended to the lowest intellectual level I can ever recall, I sort of lost interest.”
I live in hotel rooms, the Monty Python actor continued. Since I spend 10 months of the year traveling, I am interested in politics all around the world. However, I don’t believe that our nation is now in a decent situation.
The previous three Tory governments, in my opinion, have been increasingly terrible.
Cleese criticized woke culture in July, calling it’s impact on comedy “disastrous.”
He blasted today’s cancel culture as the “death of creativity” and claimed he didn’t think comedians still had the freedom to be funny at FreedomFest in Las Vegas.
‘I think it’s especially frightening at the time because you can only create in a free environment, where you’re not severely evaluating everything you say before you speak,’ Cleese added.
Many comedians nowadays sit there and, when they get an idea, mutter something to the effect of, “Can I get away with it? In my opinion, no. He said that So and So went into problems, and she claimed that. You understand what I mean? And that’s how creativity dies.
At a South by Southwest festival panel in March, Cleese’s microphone was seized when he said France and Italy deserved historical reparations for enslaving the British people.
He continued: “It’s a history of people who were stronger beating up others who were lesser and it’s always been that,” pointing out that global history is “a history of crime”.” It’s disgusting to the core.
But to suggest that one group was worse than another is absurd. After all, you are aware that the British were slaves twice.
“[People] become competitive about this business of being oppressed,” Cleese said. Between 0 and 400, the Romans enslaved us, the English.
Despite the fact that the event was advertised as a “comedy panel,” his comments provoked outraged responses and created a tense atmosphere for those in attendance.