I searched, and this hasn’t been posted here earlier, which astonishes me.
The Telegraph, 23/4/2006: Germany enlists Basil Fawlty to stop us mentioning the war
If history really does repeat itself, just wait a few more years and it’ll be current again.
There is so much irony in this that it almost reads like a Python sketch. Or perhaps Beyond the Fringe.
This just makes me want to visit Germany and go around saying, “John Cleese told me not to mention the war, so I won’t.” Actually, I wouldn’t say it because I want to be a good guest and not offend people, but I’d be laughing inside and biting my tongue to keep from saying it.
The article does refer to Basil’s antics as “xenophobic”. But I’d think there’s still plenty of war memories to motivate people like that without simple xenophobia.