John Cleese's cancel culture special is reportedly near-canceled
The Monty Python founder was supposed to "find out, on camera, about all the aspects of so-called political correctness." What a shame.
Uh oh! It sounds like Monty Python co-founder John Cleese won’t be able to fart in our general direction via his show about cancel culture any time soon, because it has reportedly already been canceled. Help! He’s being repressed!
The project—pretty hilariously titled John Cleese: Cancel Me—was announced all the way back in 2021. “I’m delighted to have a chance to find out, on camera, about all the aspects of so-called political correctness. There’s so much I really don’t understand, like: how the impeccable idea of ‘Let’s all be kind to people’ has been developed in some cases ad absurdum,” the comedian said at the time. “I want to bring the various reasonings right out in the open so that people can be clearer in their minds what they agree with, what they don’t agree with, and what they still can’t make their mind up about.”
Unfortunately, we’ll all be left to navigate those treacherous waters alone because Cleese and Channel 4, which was set to air the broadcast, could not rectify their schedules. The show was never filmed, and while Deadline reports that the channel would be interested in one day returning to the project, it’s unclear if Cleese feels the same.
If this is upsetting news, don’t worry: Cleese has addressed his thoughts on “wokery” multiple times already. In 2023, he suggested that Monty Python were “early targets of cancel culture” because some members of the Christian community hated Life Of Brian (via Variety). In what’s now become a pretty standard rant, Cleese has also stated (via Calgary Herald) that “one of the problems we have [in comedy] is we have the woke generation,” who “started out with a good idea, which is ‘Let’s not be mean to people.’ Then they take it rather the wrong way by assuming people are rather more sensitive than I think they are.”
Some of those things people have been “sensitive” about? In 2021, the comedian withdrew from a Cambridge Union speaking engagement because the society had banned a different speaker for doing a Hitler impression. The previous year, he not only signed a letter supporting J.K. Rowling, but doubled down on Twitter/X, writing: “Deep down, I want to be a Cambodian police woman[.] Is that allowed, or am I being unrealistic ?” If Cleese really wanted to be canceled so badly, he didn’t have to go through the hoops of announcing and then never filming a show to make that happen.