# John Cleese Cancels Himself **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** comedian-jokes\ **Created:** [November 11, 2021, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188 "2021-11-11T14:19:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/121 "2021-11-13T18:18:06Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Someone made an art piece depicting hitler in a way that hitler would probably never actually be. But was it in good taste? Could you make a piece of art depicting hitler that could ever be in good taste? More to the point… Someone made a speech, using hitler’s own words, in a context that hitler would not actually make. Isn’t that how we got here? ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/122 "2021-11-13T18:45:02Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Isn’t that how we got here? You started it. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/123 "2021-11-13T19:17:19Z")
Don’t just blame malice when stupidity will do. As the case of Aaron Rodgers showed, there are guys like Cleese that show how they are depending on unsavory sources of information for “their” opinion. And the right wing also wants you to ignore that they are also adding vaccination to the reason one should oppose “woke” ideas. In reality, that showed how the propaganda machine is adding more things to what they claim what being woke is. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/124 "2021-11-13T19:24:22Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > As in “kids these days are the first generation to be less cool than their parents”? Exactly like that. When you’re like, “Kids these days aren’t as cool as WE were when WE were kids,” you’re part of a long and storied tradition of fogeys who said exactly the same thing, including about you when you were a kid. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/125 "2021-11-13T19:27:47Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > As the case of Aaron Rodgers showed, there are guys like Cleese that show how they are depending on unsavory sources of information for “their” opinion. And the right wing also wants you to ignore that they are also adding anti-vaccination to the reason one should oppose “woke” ideas. In reality, that showed how the propaganda machine is adding more things to what they claim what being woke is. What about conflating unrelated stories to drive a narrative that has nothing to do with the OP? Is it fair to describe that as a propaganda machine adding more things to bolster the claims by the woke? ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/126 "2021-11-13T19:32:11Z")
> [@BlankSlate](#): > > You started it. You get it. 😄 ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/127 "2021-11-13T19:34:20Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > What about conflating unrelated stories to drive a narrative that has nothing to do with the OP? Is it fair to describe that as a propaganda machine adding more things to bolster the claims by the woke? You are the one saying that they are unrelated, but in reality is because you are **finally** noticing what I meant when I mentioned Aaron reaching for the woke card, it is not just about race, but about tarring anything that they don’t want as woke. The point is that as soon I read about Cleese reaching for that card it is the moment one should mention why doing that is a very ignorant thing to do, besides being a slur nowadays it is evidence about the type of sources Cleese is relying on nowadays. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/128 "2021-11-13T19:38:29Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > You are the one saying that they are unrelated, but in reality is because you are **finally** noticing what I meant when I mentioned Aaron reaching for the woke card, it is not just about race, but about tarring anything that they don’t want as woke. The point is that as soon I read about Cleese reaching for that card it is the moment one should mention why doing that is a very ignorant thing to do, besides being a slur nowadays it is evidence about the type of sources Cleese is relying on nowadays. May your reach always exceed your grasp. (Even if you’ve shown little grasp for what you’re reaching.) ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/129 "2021-11-13T19:45:30Z")
And that is why the right can add more and more things to being “woke” and slur all of them as a shorthand. It seems that some centrists don’t want to notice how the right is adding more things to an ignorant slur, and they are letting them get away with them. ---
**Author:** ![GreenWyvern](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/greenwyvern/32/2834_2.png) [@GreenWyvern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenWyvern)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/130 "2021-11-13T20:01:30Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > it is evidence about the type of sources Cleese is relying on nowadays. Cleese is also a strong supporter of Brexit, which should tell you something about him. He thinks that London ‘is not an English city any more’ because of immigrants, though he ‘doesn’t have anything against people from other countries’. Apparently he does have something against paying taxes, since he’s based in the tax haven island of Nevis. He’s been an anti-woke crusader for years. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/131 "2021-11-13T20:03:53Z")
The reason we can never make any progress or come to a mutual understanding is because the left (you, specifically in this case) are convinced that you’re the only ones that understand the tricks the right is up to and that poor dumb old “centrist” just don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/132 "2021-11-13T20:15:20Z")
What a surprise /s Not really, as I noticed early, just finding that they start blaming something or calling something as “woke” it is a good shibboleth that works now as a warning to all, the kind of warning that says that one should take anything of what they say from now on with a boulder size grain of salt. What it is even more telling is that Clesse, like many on the right, are adding also “cancel culture” into what woke is supposed to mean among the right-wingers. Turning something that is about being aware of social justice issues (the original definition of woke) into banning things or people that are not necessarily against social justice but to many other issues like science. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/133 "2021-11-13T20:31:58Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > The reason we can never make any progress or come to a mutual understanding is because the left (you, specifically in this case) are convinced that you’re the only ones that understand the tricks the right is up to and that poor dumb old “centrist” just don’t get it. Nah, the Republicans and conservatives are not shy on letting others know what they include when they talk about a “woke lexicon”, they blame the left when **they** fall for the ignorant talking points they themselves make. They are the ones dividing us with their invented wedge issues. [https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/558950-beware-language-and-the-art-of-manipulation](https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/558950-beware-language-and-the-art-of-manipulation) BTW I can see already a couple of bull crap points that the right wing pundit made there, the reason why that was linked to is just to show that indeed, the right wing is aware of why they are adding more issues to their ignorant talking points when they try to equate them with “woke” or cancel culture. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/134 "2021-11-13T20:51:45Z")
I’m going to assume you’re not trying to be intentionally insulting with this response or the seemingly dismissive way in which you ignored everything I just said. And even though you are not wrong about much of your criticism of the right, you continue to labor under the illusion that a) nobody but the left really has their finger on the pulse, and, b) the left doesn’t have it’s own set of faults and blind spots. Lest I be accused of putting words into your mouth, I stipulate that you didn’t explicitly state the latter. But, in aggregate, you certainly give that impression when you communicate. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/135 "2021-11-13T20:52:19Z")
The religion of Woke is based on racism. The only reason the Woke are deliberately obfuscating is because, at the present moment, the exuberance of some of the zealots has become embarrassing. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/136 "2021-11-13T20:53:18Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > The religion of Woke is based on racism. Ooh, I want to play! My turn: Lasagna is proof of sentient coral species. ---
**Author:** ![octopus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/octopus/32/3716_2.png) [@octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/octopus)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/137 "2021-11-13T20:55:19Z")
When the less radical left are coming out in force against the looney left ridicule loses it’s rhetorical effectiveness. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/138 "2021-11-13T20:57:14Z")
The Three Stooges were all Jewish, and they imitated Hitler, Goering, and Goebbels. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/139 "2021-11-13T20:59:37Z")
In death as in life. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2021, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188/140 "2021-11-13T21:07:26Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > I’m going to assume you’re not trying to be intentionally insulting with this response or the seemingly dismissive way in which you ignored everything I just said. > > And even though you are not wrong about much of your criticism of the right, you continue to labor under the illusion that a) nobody but the left really has their finger on the pulse, and, b) the left doesn’t have it’s own set of faults and blind spots. Thing is that I linked to the evidence of what is going on about what the right is doing when they call many unrelated things as “woke”. You may notice now how hard it is going forward to dismiss how they are loading that term as a way to discourage talks about social justice, vaccinations efforts, ways to deal with climate change, etc. And [toffee-nosed](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/toffee-nosed) comedians [that feel betrayed because young Britons do not appreciate his early comedy](https://www.theguardian.com/culture/shortcuts/2019/sep/03/john-cleese-monty-python-ruining-legacy) should not be seen as good arbiters about what progress is. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/john-cleese-cancels-himself/954188.md?page=8)