# The John Cleese Appreciation Thread PT II **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 25, 2001, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077 "2001-08-25T10:48:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077/1 "2001-08-25T10:48:17Z")
I LOVE this man! I am sorry if there already exists a part one, but I really don’t care! I know him from Python and Fawlty Towers and other works from there on out, but I would like to know what he has done prior to those. What a comedic genius! Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077/2 "2001-08-25T11:23:48Z")
John Cleese was involved with the following television programmes in the UK prior to **Monty Python’s Flying Circus** : 1. **The Frost Report** (1966-67), in which he appeared in a series of sketches with Ronnie Barker, Ronnie Corbett and others. 2. **At Last The 1948 Show** (1967), another comedy sketch programme produced by David Frost. Marty Feldman, Graham Chapman and Tim Brooke-Taylor were his co-conspirators. 3. **Marty** (1968-69), for which he wrote some of the sketches. Doubtless someone will add to this CV. ---
**Author:** ![Jenny\_Taylor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/90db22/32.png) [@Jenny\_Taylor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenny_Taylor)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077/3 "2001-08-25T11:28:59Z")
Cleese was involved in That was the weel that was in the early 60s and was involved in one of the most famous sketches of the 60s with Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett as 3 men of different classes.Sample quote " Upper class man…I look down on them Middle class man…I look up to him but I look down on him Working class man …I know my place . Really you had to be there!! Cleese went on to work with Graham Chapman and the pair wrote some sketches for some situation Comedies including Doctor in the House . They met the other (soon to be Pythons) on a programme called Do not adjust Your Set which was a vehicle for The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah band (which included Neil Innes and Viv Stanshall The rest is ,as they say , history. ---
**Author:** ![Jenny\_Taylor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/90db22/32.png) [@Jenny\_Taylor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenny_Taylor)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077/4 "2001-08-25T11:40:35Z")
Sorry That should be The Frost Report not That was the week that was ---
**Author:** ![Anal\_Scurvy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c57346/32.png) [@Anal\_Scurvy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anal_Scurvy)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077/5 "2001-08-25T11:42:10Z")
He has an old video out called HOW TO ANNOY PEOPLE. It was the most boring, annyoing two hours of my life. Fawlty Towers rocked, though. Especially the goosestepping. ---
**Author:** ![Jenny\_Taylor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/90db22/32.png) [@Jenny\_Taylor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenny_Taylor)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077/6 "2001-08-25T11:45:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Anal Scurvy \* > \*\*He has an old video out called HOW TO ANNOY PEOPLE. It was the most boring, annyoing two hours of my life. > > \*\* So it worked then!! ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077/7 "2001-08-25T18:16:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jenny Taylor \* > \*\*Sorry That should be The Frost Report not That was the week that was \*\* Yes, well, that’s the sort of blinkered Philistine pig-ignorance I’ve come to expect from you non-creative garbage. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Jenny\_Taylor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/90db22/32.png) [@Jenny\_Taylor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenny_Taylor)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077/8 "2001-08-25T19:25:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by pldennison \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > \*Originally posted by Jenny Taylor \* > > \*\*Sorry That should be The Frost Report not That was the week that was \*\* > > Yes, well, that’s the sort of blinkered Philistine pig-ignorance I’ve come to expect from you non-creative garbage. > > 😃 \*\* Yeah well you Freemasons are all the same.I would not become a freemason if you got down on your lousy bended knee and BEGGED!! ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077/9 "2001-08-25T19:54:40Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jenny Taylor \* > \*\*Yeah well you Freemasons are all the same.I would not become a freemason if you got down on your lousy bended knee and BEGGED!! \*\* Well I’m sorry you feel that way, but we did want a block of flats, and not Norman Bates’ fruitceller (can’t spell abittoir or whatever it was.) ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077/10 "2001-08-25T19:56:02Z")
I can’t seem to spell ‘fruit cellar’, either. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Grok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/96bed5/32.png) [@Grok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grok)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2001, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077/11 "2001-08-25T22:00:46Z")
I saw an interview with him in which he explained that watching someone behaving crazily is not necessarily funny. Watching someone who is watching someone behave crazily IS funny. They showed several examples from Fawlty Towers and Monty Python demonstrating this comedic principle. Cleese understands his craft, and has the tools to do it well. ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2001, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077/12 "2001-08-26T02:48:44Z")
Unlike some one-tick pony guys, his post-Python stuff is great too. I have a books on tape version of The Screwtape Letters read by John Cleese–he makes a most excellent bureaucratic demon. And he was great in _A Fish Called Wanda_ too. Speak Russian to me baby! ---
**Author:** ![Swede\_Hollow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3bc359/32.png) [@Swede\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swede_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2001, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077/13 "2001-08-26T03:14:40Z")
His Schweppe’s commercials were great, too. ---
**Author:** ![nonsequitur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ab097/32.png) [@nonsequitur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonsequitur)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2001, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077/14 "2001-08-26T18:58:18Z")
Cleese is the sexiest geek alive. ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2001, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077/15 "2001-08-26T19:24:12Z")
[John Cleese makes startling announcement!](http://salon.com/ent/wire/2001/08/24/cleese/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Jenny\_Taylor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/90db22/32.png) [@Jenny\_Taylor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenny_Taylor)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2001, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077/16 "2001-08-26T21:56:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Darwin’s Finch \* > \*\*[John Cleese makes startling announcement!](http://salon.com/ent/wire/2001/08/24/cleese/index.html) \*\* He has a point. Although you yanks turn out some sentimental drivel,nothing in the past 15 years beats Sienfeld or Larry Sanders. ---
**Author:** ![Brood\_McEto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/65b543/32.png) [@Brood\_McEto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brood_McEto)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2001, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-john-cleese-appreciation-thread-pt-ii/78077/17 "2001-08-26T22:01:48Z")
Anyone going to watch his Face special on TLC tonight? I know it’s going to be hilarious, even if it is serious.