# Why did John Cleese stop being funny? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 8, 2005, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-cleese-stop-being-funny/293563 "2005-03-08T19:21:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2005, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-cleese-stop-being-funny/293563/41 "2005-03-10T23:09:01Z")
He’s making videos for a [data backup company.](http://backuptrauma.com/) ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-cleese-stop-being-funny/293563/42 "2005-03-11T00:10:32Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > What you may be thinking of is that Cleese normally \*wrote \*with Graham Chapman, but has since claimed that he did 80% of the writing while Chapman lay around drinking champers and lossing off a few lines here and there for Cleese to write down. IIRC, Cleese did the majority of the hard work, but every now and then Chapman would throw in some totally off-the-wall idea that took the comedy to the next level. That is, when it came to their writing, Chapman contributed his fair share of the inspiration, but Cleese did more than his fair share of the perspiration, especially when Chapman’s alcoholism really got bad. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-cleese-stop-being-funny/293563/43 "2005-03-11T00:25:07Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Probably one of the ten funniest movies ever made, and he should have gotten an Oscar nomination. [He did](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000092/awards) ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-cleese-stop-being-funny/293563/44 "2005-03-11T00:27:55Z")
> [@paperbackwriter](#): > > Foul! > > If you saw Palin’s performance in the George Harrison Tribute Concert, you’d retract that. The reprisal of the Lumberjack Song coming in the middle of his tribute speech was perfectly done. Granted, it was an old Python skit he could probably do in his sleep, but he _wasn’t_ phoning it in. The skit left tears streaming down my face. He may not have been phoning it in, but I was referring to new comedic performances and material, not simply revisiting the old chestnuts periodically. I haven’t seen Terry Jones’ BBC docs, but are they funny, or just well-done? Palin’s travelogues are interesting, and he’s a good vehicle for these shows, but they’re not really gold mines of humor. I didn’t catch Idle on _The Daily Show_–I’ll have to keep my eye out for a rerun. Buzz is early but strong on _Spamalot_, though, so here’s hoping… ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-cleese-stop-being-funny/293563/45 "2005-03-11T00:34:14Z")
> [@Podkayne](#): > > I, too, was surprised to find that he’s not an atheist. But I definitely wouldn’t use the words “fervent” or “devout” to describe him. > > I dunno, he just seems very comfortable but humble about what he believes, which is probably why so few people know about it. 🙂 I think that is wonderful. I see no reason why one cannot be both spiritual and funny. Would that more “religious” types saw it that way! ---
**Author:** ![iwakura43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de0a6/32.png) [@iwakura43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iwakura43)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-cleese-stop-being-funny/293563/46 "2005-03-11T01:23:15Z")
You can see Jon Stewart’s interview with Eric Idle [here](http://www.comedycentral.com/mp/play.jhtml?reposid=/multimedia/tds/celeb/celeb_7103.html&setplayer=real_media). Did anyone else see the show on Food Network about wine, hosted by Cleese? That was pretty good. I’d like to go to one of his pool parties :o ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-cleese-stop-being-funny/293563/47 "2005-03-11T01:33:04Z")
> [@iwakura43](#): > > You can see Jon Stewart’s interview with Eric Idle [here](http://www.comedycentral.com/mp/play.jhtml?reposid=/multimedia/tds/celeb/celeb_7103.html&setplayer=real_media). > > Did anyone else see the show on Food Network about wine, hosted by Cleese? That was pretty good. I’d like to go to one of his pool parties :o Caught a bit of it, as I caught a bit of Jones on the crusades. Both are better than Palin, because ach has more depth than Palin. But as to the OP, I don’t think they’re particularly funny anymore, but that might have to do with the fact that a) they went to Cambridge (and all the really funny people went to the other place) and b) they got into comedy by chance - as I guess most comedians do - and it was just a stopgap (in some cases rather a long one) before they did something they really wanted to do. And doing the latter sometimes takes a long time, as it often takes a long time to work out what we want to do, and indeed who we really are. But horses for courses. Want a fab documentary? Get David Attenborough. The best. (Okay, only for the natural world, but still.) It’s his metier. I love watching people who are outstanding in their field. They are invariably humble, in the CS Lewis sense, of being able to design the greatest cathedral in the world and, when asked about it, say ‘yes, it’s good’. ---
**Author:** ![Torgo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/94ad74/32.png) [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-cleese-stop-being-funny/293563/48 "2005-03-11T02:03:29Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#): > > Mmmm. This reminds me of a comment made by the founder of the Samaritans… _“Just my way of getting through the day, dear. The Samaritans were engaged.”_ ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-cleese-stop-being-funny/293563/49 "2005-03-11T02:28:12Z")
> [@iwakura43](#): > > You can see Jon Stewart’s interview with Eric Idle [here](http://www.comedycentral.com/mp/play.jhtml?reposid=/multimedia/tds/celeb/celeb_7103.html&setplayer=real_media). Thanks for the link, though I was seriously underwhelmed. Nice guy, typical patter, but I’d say one guest/week is at least as funny. Cleese is still the contemporary winner, hands down. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-cleese-stop-being-funny/293563/50 "2005-03-11T03:26:19Z")
One of the funniest things I’ve seen in John Cleese naked, prancing around while reciting random Russian words. Hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2005, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-cleese-stop-being-funny/293563/51 "2005-03-11T03:31:24Z")
> [@Eonwe](#): > > One of the funniest things I’ve seen in John Cleese naked, prancing around while reciting random Russian words. Hilarious. You’re talking about a scene in _A Fish Called Wanda_. But I believe they were genuine Russian sentences (spoken to inflame Jamie Lee Curtis’ character, who got off on foreign languages), otherwise the scene makes little sense. ---
**Author:** ![Eonwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eonwe/32/240_2.png) [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2005, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-cleese-stop-being-funny/293563/52 "2005-03-13T03:25:40Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > You’re talking about a scene in _A Fish Called Wanda_. But I believe they were genuine Russian sentences (spoken to inflame Jamie Lee Curtis’ character, who got off on foreign languages), otherwise the scene makes little sense. I kind of think it was just random words. His character didn’t actually speak Russian, but he was just using a lot of nouns, “glasnost! Gorbachev!,” etc etc. IIRC, of course. They were real words, but not actual sentences. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-did-john-cleese-stop-being-funny/293563.md?page=2)