John Cleese has his microphone taken away at South by Southwest festival for saying that Britain should get 'reparations from Italy and France' for Romans and Normans enslaving Britons

daily mail ^

[algore]

Comedy legend John Cleese had his microphone confiscated at the South by Southwest festival during a comedic discussion in which he suggested Italy and France owed historic reparations for enslaving Brits.

The Monty Python icon, 82, was riffing with other comics in front of the crowd in Texas when he talked about the 'competition' between cultures over who has been more oppressed by colonisations throughout history.

Pointing to world history being 'a history of crime', he added: '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?

Cleese explained: '[People] get competitive about this business of being oppressed. We were oppressed, the English, by the Romans from about 0 to 400.'

Despite the event being labelled a 'comedy panel', his remarks sparked horrified reactions and an awkward environment for those in attendance.

At one stage Cleese even had his microphone confiscated by American comic Dulcé Sloan, who said she did it to 'save a comic whose career I respect', per The Hollywood Reporter.

'And now you saved the colonizer,' Pasternack said. 'I saved a comic whose career I respect,' Sloan fired back Cleese rebutted claims that the British Empire was the first to colonise communities

The British comic insisted England was owed 'reparations' from both Italy and France, referring to the historic invasions of the Romans, and 1000 years later by the Normans under William the Conqueror.

'I want reparations from Italy', he told the stunned crowd. 'And then the Normans came over in 1066... they were horrible people from France and they colonised us for 30 years and we need reparations there too, I'm afraid'

[algore]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hR8KDDdssws

See the documentary

[nicollo]

The Monty Python icon, 82, was riffing with other comics in front of the crowd in Texas when he talked about the 'competition' between cultures over who has been more oppressed by colonisations throughout history.

The best humor is based on truths. Nevertheless, although he was making a legitimate point, it seems to me that Cleese was making fun of American race hustlers, which is far worse to them than claiming equal victimhood status.

[SteveH]

if the sins of parents are born by offspring, and debt is considered as transitive, then perhaps 1619 adherents can be told to go after the scandanavian people for their reparations...

[SunkenCiv]

This topic was posted 3/12/2022, thanks algore.

[SunkenCiv]

'I couldn't stop laughing... All these people in these silly costumes, all taking things so seriously. I thought it was a Python sketch.'

John Cleese tells Andrew Doyle that he was in hysterics watching King Charles's Coronation.

John Cleese in hysterics over King Charles's Coronation
- 'It was a Monty Python sketch!' | 12:52
GBNews | 924K subscribers | 1,324,267 views | May 8, 2023

[SunkenCiv]

• Reparations From Rome: John Cleese Ruffles Woke SxSW Panel [03/14/2022]

  ---

• Comedian and Screenwriter John Cleese reminds us that 'race doesn't matter, but culture does': "And we should not be frightened to say so," he added. [05/03/2024]
• No Laughing Matter: 'Life of Brian' is the Latest Battleground for the Future of Comedy [06/02/2023]
• John Cleese urged to scrap Life of Brian joke about man having a baby [05/20/2023]
• John Cleese Says 'Fawlty Towers' Reboot Won't Be On The BBC & Won't Be An "Anti-Woke Nightmare" [02/18/2023]
• John Cleese's War on Wokeism [08/07/2022]
• John Cleese takes stand on cancel culture, blacklists himself over Hitler controversy [11/15/2021]
• Cancel Me: John Cleese to present Channel 4 show on 'woke' thought [08/29/2021]
• John Cleese rolls Hank Azaria hard with mock Monty Python 'apology' [04/20/2021]
• John Cleese Mocks Hank Azaria's Apology for Playing Apu on 'The Simpsons' [04/14/2021]
• HILARIOUS: John Cleese Savages Transgender Orthodoxy in Epic Tweetstorm [11/22/2020]
• UK Knife Crime Hits Record High, Murder Surges in Khan's London [07/18/2020]
• When the Flying Circus has Flown [11/16/2019]
• A city without citizens [06/03/2019]
• John Cleese accuses London of not being 'an English city any more' [05/29/2019]
• A Diversity of Acid Attacks, Witchcraft Abuse, Genital Mutilation and Terror - Greenfield [08/31/2018]
• Why John Cleese is leaving the UK for Nevis [07/11/2018]
• In Conversation: John Cleese (legacy, Political Correctness, and the Funniest Joke He Ever Told) [09/17/2017]
• John Cleese on Political correctness [12/14/2016]
• Fawlty Towers star John Cleese backs Brexit - and suggested HANGING Jean-Claude Juncker [06/14/2016]
• Monty Python's John Cleese Says Our PC Culture Offends Him... [05/13/2016]
• Fox News Guest Says Birmingham, England Is 'Totally Muslim' City In Which 'Non-Muslims' Don't Enter [01/12/2015]
• John Cleese says you can't make jokes about Muslims - because 'they'll kill you' [11/27/2014]
• Monty Python live (mostly), review: poignant and predictable, but tremendous fun [07/20/2014]
• Alerts to Threat Levels in 2012 Europe (Humor!!) [03/17/2012]
• John Cleese: London is no longer English city [09/04/2011]
• London is no longer an English city, says John Cleese. Is he right? [04/29/2011]
• New Terrorist Alerts by John Cleese (from Monty Python) [01/10/2011]
• Actor John Cleese on Americans, Obama, Bush, Palin, Fox News (You aren't gonna like it) [01/01/2010]

[Political Junkie Too]

I said the same thing about Jews and Egypt.

-PJ