John Cleese on offense and “political correctness”

January 31, 2016 • 1:30 pm

John Cleese has made a career out of offending people, for that’s the thrust of much of his comedy, especially with Monty Python. In this short Big Think video, he sounds off on the hyper-offensiveness plaguing today’s society (he singles out college students), showing that it’s a warped extension of a laudable concern for the dispossessed. (By the way, I don’t agree that all humor is critical, and I’ve put a joke at the bottom* that is completely inoffensive.)

The money quote: “If people can’t control their own emotions then they have to start trying to control other people’s behavior.” We’ve seen this going around the internet quite a bit in the last year, when it’s been deemed okay to mock some viewpoints while others are totally off limits, branding those transgressing those boundaries as ideologically polluted.

h/t: Cindy
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*Here’s a joke that doesn’t offend anyone (except perhaps invertebrates):

One day a guy is sitting on his couch when he hears a knock on the door. He gets up and looks around and doesn’t see anyone. All of a sudden he hears a voice from on the ground. He looks down and sees a snail standing there without a shell. The snail says “Hey, Buddy, can I come inside and spend the night?….I don’t have a shell and it’s cold outside!” The guy looks at the snail and says “Get lost!” and kicks the snail across the street. Two years later the same guy hears another knock on the door. He opens the door and sees the very same snail. The snail looks up and says “What the heck did you do that for?!”

 

42 thoughts on “John Cleese on offense and “political correctness””

  2. As the representative of Molluscan-Americans for Dignity, I must ask you to apologize for the implication that snails are slow, rather than humans being too fast.

    1. Soooo … … you of The Offended write, do you, as a representative of the … … wait for it: of the M A D tribe ?

      Blue

  11. I am not surprised that John Cleese would have terrific insight about hypersensitivity about offense. If you followed the arc of Monty Python’s entry onto the American entertainment space, you will remember how concerned people were about the reaction to their comedy (think of Life of Brian, in particular). Skewering authority was always the underlying premise in most of their humor (especially the BBC censors.)

    The fact that they are now warned off campuses speaks horribly about the state of thinking at these institutions.

    1. I think it appropriate that we remember Pat Paulsen as the Presidential primary season kicks off.

  14. Significantly, there’s a lot of humor which either intends to offend no one or only a tiny target. But someone who is not the target chooses to take offense. Whethr “Life of Brian” is offensive to Chistians is a matter of greatly differing opinion. 25 years ago I did Dana Carvey’s church lady at a Unitarian summer camp. It was mostly well received. But one older gal saw it as an agist attack on tbe elderly across the board and petitioned the directors to never let me perform at the skit night again.

    1. IIRC, Carvey based his character on the more busybody members of his own congregation growing up. So its hard to see that as “anti-Christian” except in a self-effacing way, like when the Pythons make fun of the British.

  15. Cruelty to a snail. I don’t like it.

    (And I thought I was proof against being offended by jokes)

    Just shows, Prof CC, you can’t win.

    cr

  16. I laughed at John Cleese’s joke for (evidently) completely the wrong reason.

    “How do you make God laugh?”
    A. “Tell him your plans”

    *I* laughed because, since God is omniscient, he’ll laugh because he knows your plans already so telling him is futile.

    JC’s reason is, since God is prescient, he will laugh because he knows how absurd your plans are.

    Either works.

    cr

  20. Jains might be offended. (Wikipedia: The principle of ahiṃsā (nonviolence) is the most fundamental and well-known aspect of Jainism.[21] Jain texts expound that “killing any living being out of passions is hiṃsā (injury) and abstaining from such act is ahiṃsā (non-injury)”.[22] The everyday implementation of the principle of non-injury is more comprehensive than in other religions and is the hallmark for Jain identity.[23][24] Jains believe in avoiding harm to others through thoughts (mana), speech (vachana) actions (kāya) .[25])

    1. F#$%&ing brilliant!

      Here’s one link (it’s all over Youtube).

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecJUqhm2g08

      If the Forces of Darkness get that one taken down, just google “Feminists love Islamists”

      And by the way, SJW’s, feel free to disinvite me from anything at all. Oh, that’s right, I wasn’t invited anyway [vbeg].

      cr

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