Tell us why you’re such an old fogy, John
John Cleese decided not to continue with a gotcha interview.
“I just did an interview with BBC World Asia. It was to talk about the shows I’m doing in Singapore and Bangkok,” he wrote in a Twitter thread.
“Instead, the interviewer, whose name was, I think, Karishma, started by asking me questions about Cancel Culture.”
I replied courteously and in full I explained that if parents were over protective, it did not prepare children well when they entered the real and often not-very-nice world.
“She then asked a disjointed question, clearly trying to portray me as old-fashioned, uncaring and basically harmful.”
The clip is here:
Is there some context I’m missing about “racist comments being excused as banter”? Like, is that a reference to some well-known (in the UK) incident, such that Cleese could be expected to know what the comments were? Because otherwise, I have to agree with him that it’s a very ill-formed question. She seems to be asking “is it ok to say racist things if you call it ‘banter’?” to which the answer is obviously no. But the real question is usually whether particular comments are, in fact, racists (or sexist, etc.), which often depends on context, in which something being “playful banter” should be taken into account.
Anyway, good for Cleese for politely excusing himself. I might feel differently if the interviewer was asking “tough but fair” questions, but this was just dumb, have-you-stopped-beating-your-wife nonsense.
Not that I know of. And the whole thing is more than a bit…confrontational, hostile, and frankly “John you’re too old so just go away and die.” There’s Vaswani all young and vibrant and showing lots of skin and there’s fuddy duddy Cleese being called “John” and asked if he doesn’t think his views are rawther old-fashioned.
Yeah, I’m struck by the clumsiness more than the hostility. It’s not like there aren’t interesting questions you could ask Cleese in this area. What does he object to specifically? Can people criticize comedians? Can they organize boycotts? Is there humor that should be out of bounds because it’s offensive, or is anything fair as long as it’s funny — and who gets to decide, is the comedian’s judgment final and unquestionable, or does the public get a say? Are there old routines of his that he wouldn’t do today? (Is the Australian Philosophy Professors sketch, with the constant declarations of “no pooftahs” homophobic, or is it making fun of homophobes? And does it even matter?) Would a “Life of Brian” set in Mohammed’s time be appropriate, or is it different because Christianity was the dominant religion in 1970s Britain? Would he advise a young sketch troupe today to have all-male members, and only bring in a woman for the “attractive female” roles?
Your mileage may vary on how interesting any of my example questions would be, but those are just off the top of my head. A professional journalist preparing for an interview ought to be able to do better than that, and certainly better than what Vaswani actually did.
“Hostility” is probably the wrong word. I should have said “condescension.”
Yes there is. The reference is to Yorkshire Cricket Club, where, Azeem Rafiq, a cricketer of Pakistani origin, alleges a long history of racist remarks that were, when he objected, excused as “banter”. E.g. link.
A person in the UK would have been aware of this background. Whether John Cleese was I don’t know (I understand that nowadays he doesn’t live in the UK).
Ah, thank you Coel, I missed that.
A friend recently brought up Richard Dawkins in conversation. The context was in regard to admiring people and their work even if those people have, in other situations, done or said troubling things. Dawkins had been described as being a “crotchety old man”. Without getting into specifics, I said I was aware that Dawkins had read a book, admired it, and defended the author, and I had done the same and agreed with him.
The conversation came to mind reading this topic. I suppose some people are only willing to allow certain opinions to be expressed if they can be called the product of an addled mind. Can’t possibly be a reasoned, thoughtful opinion.
Ah, yes. Women and older people are always fair game. Why don’t they all just go away already??
Coel is right, that’ll be the context. Cleese is a lifelong cricket lover so I’m sure he’d have been aware of it.
Sorry to keep bringing up PZ, but I’m going to anyway. His writeup of this incident is childishly uncharitable, to put it kindly. He says that Cleese should have done an entirely different kind of interview to the one he’d obviously agreed to. Then he does a bit of character assassination and:
Or, just possibly, he’d agreed to do an interview to promote his comedy shows and he was asked, in a condescending tone, about something he didn’t want to talk about instead. So he didn’t talk about it, which is, I think, admirable.
But Cleese doesn’t drool trans so all PZ has is bitter, artless insult. Cleese isn’t the one who got old and harmful, Paul.