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 Basil Fawlty.

He who laughs most, learns best.

Quotes

Basil Fawlty was an easy character for me. For some reason, portraying a mean uptight incompetent bully comes naturally to me.

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 The Human Face, BBC Television (2001)

• Four hundred years ago, we would have been burnt for this film. Now, I'm suggesting that we've made an advance.
  • Defending the film Life of Brian on BBC chat show Friday Night Saturday Morning (9 November 1979)

• If I like chocolate it won't surprise you that I have a few chocolates in my fridge, but if you find out I've got 16 warehouses full of chocolate, you'd think I was insane. All these rich guys are insane, obsessive compulsive twits obsessed with money — money is all they think about — they're all nuts.
  • On Fresh Air with Terry Gross, promoting Fierce Creatures, which Cleese says is a satire about Rupert Murdoch's greed. (1997)

• Basil Fawlty was an easy character for me. For some reason, portraying a mean, uptight, incompetent bully comes naturally to me.
  • On Fresh Air with Terry Gross (1997)

• If I had not gone into Monty Python, I probably would have stuck to my original plan to graduate and become a chartered accountant, perhaps a barrister lawyer, and gotten a nice house in the suburbs, with a nice wife and kids, and gotten a country club membership, and then I would have killed myself.
  • On Fresh Air with Terry Gross (1997)

• 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

• If you want creative workers, give them enough time to play.
  • As quoted in Best New Games (2002) by Dale N. LeFevre, p. 9

• Technology frightens me to death. It's designed by engineers to impress other engineers, and they always come with instruction booklets that are written by engineers for other engineers — which is why almost no technology ever works.
  • BBC interview on Die Another Day (20 November 2002)]

• If God did not intend for us to eat animals, then why did he make them out of meat?
  • As quoted in W.T.F.? : (What Is Wrong With Tom Faerie?)‎ (2006) by H. M. Leathem

• You see, you could never do a sketch like that these days. The audience is too uninformed. I blame the Americans. Nation of obese, violent, pig-ignorant, bible-thumping morons contaminating world culture. That’s why I spend most of my time here in France. … Beautiful, isn’t it? Just look at those olive trees. [Interviewer: This is Santa Barbara.]
  • From PBS series Monty Python's Personal Best: John Cleese's Personal Best (2006), playing role of senile old man.

• My biggest regret? Not being knighted by the Queen. I should have been a knight, and I would have been knighted, if I hadn't written one horrible horrible Python sketch which I deeply deeply regret — [cue Python sketch: "Upper Class Twit of the Year"]
  • From PBS series Monty Python's Personal Best: John Cleese's Personal Best (2006), playing role of senile old man.

• When you get to my age, and I'm 66 now, you realize that 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.
  • From Channel 4 documentary The Secret Life of Brian (2007)

• Because these people are operating at a very very low level of mental health, they are incapable of understanding the teaching.
  • From Channel 4 documentary The Secret Life of Brian (2007)

• A wonderful thing about true laughter is that it just destroys any kind of system of dividing people.
  • From an interview with The A. V. Club (2008)

• Aping Urbanity, Oozing with Vanity
  Plump as a Manatee, Faking Humanity
  Journalistic Calamity, Intellectual Inanity
  Fox News Insanity, You're a profanity
  Hannity
  • "Ode To Sean Hannity", sent by Cleese to Keith Olbermann, and 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, 4 Apr 2017

• All humans are stupid, but the smarter ones at least have a handle on their own ignorance.
  • In conversation with Matthew Syed. Matthew Syed, "When dogma beats data, reason is lost", The Sunday Times (September 27, 2020), p. 21

External links

• Official website
• Official Podcast
• John Cleese at the Museum of Broadcast Communications
• John Cleese at the BBC Guide to Comedy
• John Cleese on IMDb
• Template:Worldcat id
• Podcast to celebrate The Life of Brian (March 2008)
• Daily Llama: John Cleese Visits Lemurs at San Francisco Zoo
• On-line video interview for Czech TV (24. 7. 2011)