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Monty Python Great John Cleese Gets a Show on GB News, the British ‘Free Speech Channel’

Monty Python Great John Cleese Gets a Show on GB News, the British ‘Free Speech Channel’

And now for something completely different!

Monty Python great and icon John Cleese will host a show on GB News, a channel launched in 2021 in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

You can watch it on YouTube, too. I highly recommend it. I can hear heads on the left explode:

The Monty Python star, who will present shows on GB News from next year, said: “There’s a massive amount of important information that gets censored, both in TV and in the press. In my new show, I’ll be talking about a lot of it. You should be prepared to be shocked.”

Asked how his show with GB News came about, Cleese told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I was approached and I didn’t know who they were … And then I met one or two of the [GB News] people concerned and had dinner with them, and I liked them very much. And what they said was: ‘People say it’s the rightwing channel – it’s a free speech channel.’”

The 82-year-old said he would not be offered such a show by the BBC: “The BBC have not come to me and said: ‘Would you like to have some one-hour shows?’ And if they did, I would say: ‘Not on your nelly!’ Because I wouldn’t get five minutes into the first show before I’d been cancelled or censored.”

Cleese reminds the media how to do their job: “If there’s a factual response to something like that, then that should be made. That’s the job, to put the facts out there, and then to have opinions slightly separate and have a proper argument about it, but not to try to avoid a public debate.”

Is anyone shocked Cleese hates cancel culture and political correctness?

If you are, you’ve never seen Monty Python or Fawlty Towers.

This clip from Life of Brian (Monty Python’s best movie!) is classic.

Cleese is not a conservative:

He said he despaired at the state of British politics and sang the praises of the Social Democratic party (SDP), a niche political party founded by supporters of David Owen who refused to join the Liberal Democrats in 1990. He said the SDP was for people who are “economically a little bit to the left and culturally a little bit to the right”.

But Cleese is consistent. The real test will be when he goes after people on the right during his show.

Let’s admit it. Some people on the right are not as consistent as they portray themselves.

This will be fascinating. I cannot wait to watch Cleese’s show.

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Comments

Disclaimer: I do love Cleese’s humor, and have been a fan of Monty Python since the 70’s.

That said, Cleese is an unrepentant leftist, and never missed a chance to describe President Trump in ways that would get you banned at Powerline.

Despite being of great intellect, he apparently can’t consider that the cause of all his free speech issues is, in fact, the left. He alludes to it in that GB is considered the “station of the right,” and that leftist BBC would never offer him an hour of time, but cannot say anything critical about Biden.

“A tweet about Biden: John Cleese
@JohnCleese | 5,729,122 followers

Reading about Joe Biden’s lack of boastfulness this morning, I felt deeply touched

It’s such a relief to have a person like him in charge of the US

Maybe we could try it in the UK one day.”

I think he is beginning to resist his leftward leanings though…

    Dimsdale in reply to Dimsdale. | October 11, 2022 at 7:19 am

    Long live Fawlty Towers!!!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26Bkfg3Bn84

    Mary Chastain in reply to Dimsdale. | October 11, 2022 at 8:26 am

    I’m giving him a chance because he hates political correctness and cancels culture. He is a free speech guy, no matter your politics. He can skewer anyone he wants. But what’s important is that he doesn’t try to shut up those who disagree with him.

      Exiliado in reply to Mary Chastain. | October 11, 2022 at 8:38 am

      We’ll see about that.
      If he is a leftist, you can expect him to SAY that he is all for free speech, but what he really means is “free speech as long as I agree with it.”

      He will not be the first to play that game.

        You are missing the irony of your statement.

          Exiliado in reply to Pasadena Phil. | October 11, 2022 at 9:02 am

          How?
          Please explain.

          @exiliado: You are falsely claiming that Cleese only supports free speech that he agrees with. Nope. YOU are saying that. Ironic isn’t it?

          Exiliado in reply to Pasadena Phil. | October 11, 2022 at 9:47 am

          I did not say what you say I said.
          I said, “We’ll see about that.”
          Then I explained that you can EXPECT a certain behavior because it is the NORM among leftists.
          Maybe he does fully support free speech, but that would make him an exception to the rule.

          Maybe YOU are missing the point?

          @exiliado: No. You are changing the point being made in Mary’s post.

          Exiliado, we don’t need to “see about it”. We’ve already seen Cleese for over 50 years. We know what he’s about. And we know that he defends free speech on the right. His comments about this very show are full of condemnation of leftist censorship. So I don’t see how you can make the suggestion you do, as if he were some unknown quantity.

          As Mary says, we’ll see what happens when, as of course he will, he goes after some act of censorship or other stupidity on the right; we’ll see how the unthinking element on the right reacts to that.

          He’s definitely a leftie, but he’s one of the old-school holdovers from fantasies about some commie Utopia in which everyone smokes pot and downs shrooms and sings Kumbaya while hallucinating about world peace. He’s not on board with the overly sensitive, humorless nutjobs that populate today’s tyrannical left. It was always going this way, he just didn’t see today’s left as the logical outcome of his old hippie dippy left (may still not, actually). But as everyone is saying, we’ll see.

    RickP in reply to Dimsdale. | October 11, 2022 at 10:53 am

    You are so correct. He’s a typical leftist turd that pushes government and control on people, that is until it affects him. The usual liberal hypocrisy in action.

      Dimsdale in reply to RickP. | October 11, 2022 at 1:33 pm

      Just do a search for “Cleese on Trump” and compare it to “Cleese on Biden.”

      He is definitely a leftists, but perhaps wokeism and censorship are helping him to open his eyes.

      I am not throwing away my Monty Python DVDs or CDs….. 😉

How many times have we stifled debate among “conservatives” simply by denying they are conservatives for not agreeing on “everything” that defines a “conservative” (according to the most “pure” person in the discussion)? We’ve had our own cancel culture going on for quite some time. That’s why I dropped the “conservative” label and all labels.

I do not define who I am by politics. My values define me. I am my own man and have good reasons to believe what I believe which is how a FREE society should be. I bring THAT into the political discussions and have found it much easier to navigate the terrain without getting trapped in the nuttiness of fools.

UK free speech means you can say anything the police let you say, no matter what channel you’re on.

The argument clinic was good, and Hitler disguising himself after the war by checking in with the name Hilter.

Can’t think of others.

Well, that was a nice wake up. I wonder if John’s two piece comes in my size?

That front image is not something I need to see first thing in the morning. I like guys but I like them as guys not dressed as the ladies.

“|And now for something completely different.”

A Pete Buttigieg pinup

Have any of you ever seen his management training films from the 1980’s. I remember watching “Meetings, Bloody Meetings” at work. The manager and our entire team (about 8 of us) sat in a conference room and watched it on videotape. It was funny and very good, something I’ll never forget. I’ve tried to buy copies but when I could find them they were very pricey. Yeah, he’s said some stupid things, politically, but I enjoy his comedy. He’s no dummy, irrespective of his opinions.

    He was just interviewed by the boys at Babylon Bee, a Christian operation and big Monty Python fans. Cleese was engaging and thoughtful with direct answers. He is very thoughtful and reasoned with his opinions and willing to debate them in a civilized and amusing way. I have no problem with that. Free speech is free speech.

      Indeed, but it is his left that is suppressing it “bigly.”

      He is indirectly saying that, but can’t do so directly, apparently.

      He is self censoring, and I again cite his lack of criticisms of Biden, and comparative surplus of same for Trump.

      I mean, he can’t really be impressed by Biden, can he?

Re-imagining the dead parrot sketch – where the cage is a voting booth and the parrot is a dead liberal wheeled in to vote …

It’s not like Cleese is calling for a return to the old way of selecting our leaders by having a “moist tart” tossing expensive cutlery at strangers passing by. I’m guessing he’s okay with elections.