MONTY PYTHON’s John Cleese Calls Cancel Culture ‘The Death of Creativity’

Published: July 21, 2022

MONTY PYTHON’s John Cleese Calls Cancel Culture ‘The Death of Creativity’

By Movieguide® Contributor

MONTY PYTHON star John Cleese is the latest comedian to hit back to cancel culture.

In an interview with Fox News, the actor said, “There’s always been limitations on what [comedians] are allowed to say…but I think it’s particularly worrying at the moment.”

“You have to be allowed to build,” he continued. “And a lot of comedians now are sitting there, and when they think of something, [they think] ‘Could I get away with that? I don’t think so. So-and-so did that and he got into trouble.’ And that’s the death of creativity.”

He also talked about how the nature of what people are uncomfortable hearing about changes as the years go by.

“It’s as though human beings [have] to have some things that you absolutely musn’t do and other things that are alright, and they just change every 25 years,” Cleese explained.
He called wokeness’ impact on comedy “disastrous.”

Cleese isn’t the only actor/comedian to rebuke cancel culture.

Movieguide® previously reported on Jerry Seinfeld’s thoughts on “cancel culture”:

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld says modern, politically correct culture ruins sitcoms.

“When we did my show in the 90s, it was so easy to make fun of things. It was so easy,” Seinfeld told Amy Schumer.

“You just knew what to do,” Seinfeld continued. “You know the angle you’re going to take and you know it’s going to be fresh and it’s going to be funny.”

SEINFELD, one of the most popular comedies in the 1990s, poked fun at nearly everything people today find offensive – politics, religion, race, gender, romance, and homosexuality, among other topics.

“You know exactly where their head is at,” Seinfeld said of older sitcoms. “We don’t know where anybody’s head is at now. In terms of 300 million people. Where’s their head at?”

This is not the first time Seinfeld called out PC culture.

“I have no interest in gender or race or anything like that. But everyone else is kind of, with their calculating—is this the exact right mix? I think that’s—to me it’s anti-comedy,” Seinfeld said in 2015.

“Funny is the world that I live in. You’re funny, I’m interested. You’re not funny, I’m not interested. I have no interest in gender or race or anything like that,” Seinfeld said in 2014. “It’s more about PC nonsense than ‘Are you making us laugh or not?’”