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[[File:John Cleese at 1989 Oscars.jpg|thumb|He who [[laughs]] most, [[learns]] best.]]
'''[[w:John Cleese|John Marwood Cleese]]''' (born [[27 October]] [[1939]]) is an English comedian and actor best known for being one of the members of the comedy group [[Monty Python]] and for co-writing the TV series ''[[Fawlty Towers]]'' in which he played [[w:Basil Fawlty (Fawlty Towers)|Basil Fawlty]].
== Quotes ==
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[[File:John Cleese 2008.jpg|thumb| When you get to my age … you realize that the the [[world]] is a madhouse and that most [[people]] are operating in [[fantasy]] anyway. So once you realise that, it doesn't bother you much.]]
* '''
* '''I'm struck by how [[laughter]] connects you with [[people]]. It's almost [[impossible]] to maintain any kind of distance or any sense of [[social]] hierarchy when you're just howling with laughter. Laughter is a [[force]] for [[democracy]].'''▼
** From ''[[w:The Human Face|The Human Face]]'', BBC Television (2001)▼
▲* '''Six hundred years ago we would have been burned for this. Now, what I'm suggesting is that we've advanced.'''
** Defending the film ''[[Monty Python's Life of Brian|Life of Brian]]'' on BBC chat show ''[[w:Friday Night Saturday Morning|Friday Night Saturday Morning]]'' (9 November 1979)
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* '''He who [[laughs]] most, [[learns]] best.'''
** As quoted in ''Creating Emotionally Safe Schools: A Guide for Educators and Parents'' (2001) by Jane Bluestein, p. 215
▲* '''I'm struck by how [[laughter]] connects you with [[people]]. It's almost [[impossible]] to maintain any kind of distance or any sense of [[social]] hierarchy when you're just howling with laughter. Laughter is a [[force]] for [[democracy]].'''
▲** From ''[[w:The Human Face|The Human Face]]'', BBC Television (2001)
* If you want creative workers, give them enough [[time]] to [[play]].
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** From an [http://www.avclub.com/article/john-cleese-14197 interview] with [[w:The A. V. Club|The A. V. Club]] (2008)
* Aping Urbanity, Oozing with Vanity
** "Ode To [[Sean Hannity]]", sent by Cleese to [[Keith Olbermann]], and [http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&brand=msnbc&vid=1211bdfc-2a9a-4e72-911f-e2d954bfe909 read publicly on ''Countdown with Keith Olbermann'' (8 August 2009)]
* When I was teaching, the headmaster told me "You know, the sad thing about true stupidity is that you can do absolutely nothing about it."
** A "tweet" by John Cleese on his @JohnCleese [verified] Twitter account
* All humans are stupid, but the smarter ones at least have a handle on their own ignorance.
** In conversation with [[w:Matthew Syed|Matthew Syed]]. Matthew Syed, "When dogma beats data, reason is lost", ''[[w:The Sunday Times|The Sunday Times]]'' (27 September 2020), p. 21
*History is a history of crime. It’s a history of people who were stronger beating up people who were weaker, and it’s always been that. It’s deeply, deeply distasteful. But to pretend that one lot were worse than another — you do know the British have been slaves twice, right?
**[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/john-cleese-sxsw-panel-1235109668/ “John Cleese Had Thoughts on Slavery at SXSW and It Was Super Cringey”], ''The Hollywood Reporter'', James Hibberd (12 March 2022)
*[People] get competitive about this business of being oppressed,… We were oppressed, the English, by the Romans for 400 [years], from about 0 to 400.
**[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/john-cleese-sxsw-panel-1235109668/“John Cleese Had Thoughts on Slavery at SXSW and It Was Super Cringey”], ''The Hollywood Reporter'', James Hibberd (12 March 2022)
*I want reparations from Italy,… and then the Normans came over in 1066 … they were horrible people from France, and they came and colonized us for 30 years — we need reparations there too, I’m afraid.
**[https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/john-cleese-sxsw-panel-1235109668/ “John Cleese Had Thoughts on Slavery at SXSW and It Was Super Cringey”], ''The Hollywood Reporter'', James Hibberd (12 March 2022)
*There's always been limitations on what they're allowed to say. Why you go to Molière and Louis XIV. I mean Molière had to be a bit careful. And there will always be limitations. I mean in England, until some ridiculous late date like 1965, all plays had to be submitted to what used to be a part of the palace called the Lord Chamberlain, and he would read it and there were hilarious letters used to go back was saying 'you may only say f--- once,' this sort of- ‘and you cannot say bugger. But you can say-' this sort of ridiculous negotiating letters.
**[https://www.foxnews.com/media/john-cleese-wokeness-disastrous-impact-comedy “John Cleese says wokeness has a 'disastrous' impact on comedy”] ''Fox News'' (20 July 2022)
*But I think it's particularly worrying at the moment because you can only create in an atmosphere of freedom, where you're not checking everything you say critically before you move on. What you have to be able to do is to build without knowing where you're going because you've never been there before. That's what creativity is—you have to be allowed to build. And a lot of comedians now are sitting there and when they think of something, they say something like, 'Can I get away with it? I don't think so. So and so got into trouble, and he said that, oh, she said that.' You see what I mean? And that's the death of creativity. So I would say at the moment, this is a difficult time, particularly for young comedians, but you see, my audience is much older, and they're simply not interested in most of the [[w:Woke|woke]] attitudes. I mean, they just think that you should try and be kind to people and that's no need to complicate it, you know?
**[https://www.foxnews.com/media/john-cleese-wokeness-disastrous-impact-comedy “John Cleese says wokeness has a 'disastrous' impact on comedy”] ''Fox News'' (20 July 2022)
*You can do the creation and then criticize it, but you can't do them at the same time. So if you're worried about offending people and constantly thinking of that, you are not going to be very creative. So I think it has a disastrous effect.
**[https://www.foxnews.com/media/john-cleese-wokeness-disastrous-impact-comedy “John Cleese says wokeness has a 'disastrous' impact on comedy”] ''Fox News'' (20 July 2022)
== Quotes about John Cleese ==
* Cleese, who enjoyed a fairly traditional, upper-middle-class upbringing, has dedicated his career to subverting the very same traditional British society which both molded him and projected him into the limelight. He has been enormously popular, in part because the British middle and upper class tend to enjoy that small moral relief which they experience through laughing at themselves. Christianity, nationalism and class have all come under Cleese’s satirical gaze while he continued to enjoy the fruits of the middle-class existence that he so tenaciously and profitably chipped away at. Now, like so many Boomers, he finds himself in the crumbling ruins of that same soppy-stern society, wishing that it would return, if only partially, and has begun a late-life declaration of war against political correctness, multiculturalism and the ‘loony left’ for which he is partly responsible.
** William Guppy, [https://im1776.com/2021/09/24/boomers-review/ Boomers: A Review], ''IM-1776'' (September 2021)
== External links ==
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* [http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/people/john_cleese_person_page.shtml John Cleese at the BBC Guide to Comedy]
* {{IMDb name|id=0000092|name=John Cleese}}
* [https://archive.is/20121230220735/www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23304261-5006016,00.html Podcast to celebrate The Life of Brian (March 2008)]
* [http://www.dailyllama.com/news/2002/llama143.html Daily Llama: John Cleese Visits Lemurs at San Francisco Zoo]
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