John Cleese’s Life Of Brian show won't look on the "Bright Side Of Life"

Preparing for his long-awaited cash-in to Eric Idle’s massively successful Spamalot, John Cleese is making some changes to his upcoming stage adaptation of Life Of Brian. In a new interview with The Daily Mail, Cleese confirmed he’s cutting the film’s beloved conclusion, a rousing performance of “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” while affixed to a crucifix, because “nobody is going to be shocked now.”

“People thought it was hilarious; they screamed with laughter,” he said. “Well, nobody is going to be shocked now. The joke is 40 years old.”

Aside from saying the quiet part loud and admitting his current comedic inspiration comes solely from offending people, Cleese assured the Mail that the film’s transphobic “Loretta” scene would remain in the show, despite “very experienced actors” telling him he “wasn’t able to do it.” Little did those experienced actors know how popular transphobia is today. Or, maybe, they know transgender people or are trans or think it’s a little gross that this 81-year-old comedy luminary is so obsessed with demeaning such a small and vulnerable community. We’ll never know.

Two people who did push back on the show are other Pythons. In May, Idle expressed his support for the project by tweeting he has “nothing at all to do” with the show, adding, “Apparently Cleese has cut the song. Of course.” To this, Cleese was predictably shitty, insisting that Idle “is very keen to use the song” because “he gets all the royalties from it.” That last bit must sting, considering Cleese’s 2008 divorce cost him millions and inspired his 2014 “Alimony Tour” and, presumably, the four Python reunions since 2009. Nothing predictable about a painful and expensive divorce dove-tailing into increasingly right-wing politics, bigotry, and an inability to empathize with others. It’s an original tale that hasn’t been choking culture to death for the last eternity.

Nevertheless, Sir Michael Palin also tried to offer Cleese some feedback that, yup, Cleese didn’t take. “Michael liked the first half of the new script,” Cleese said, “but was dubious about the changes that I had made in the second half.”

Cleese wants to challenge people by doing the unexpected. For example, he wants to ensure the integrity of the project remains intact by making sure a marginalized group he and his weird friends have an outsized interest in is subject to hackneyed jokes and stereotypes. No one could’ve predicted that the guy who spent the last few years complaining about “wokeness” and defending J.K. Rowling would do something like this. Unpredictable.