How Woke Victim Culture KILLED Free Speech | John Cleese — Transcript

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1. 0:00You and many others,
2. 0:02Rowan Atkinson for example, but I think
3. 0:05Constantine Kissin have had the same
4. 0:06thing. So it is very hard to be funny in
5. 0:08Britain today because people take
6. 0:09offense and the law allows the most
7. 0:12extraordinary
8. 0:14>> Yes, I don't know so much about the law.
9. 0:17I mean the whole thing's a mess.
10. 0:19I think that the gracious
11. 0:23problem has been this business about
12. 0:26offending. I remember you know, Monty
13. 0:29Python used to offend people but the
14. 0:31director general at that time, his name
15. 0:34was Carlton Greene. He was a brother of
16. 0:35Graham Greene the novelist. He was
17. 0:38director general and he said there are
18. 0:39some people one would wish to offend.
19. 0:42Well, that's a wonderful attitude. Just
20. 0:45because I'm offended by something, it
21. 0:48doesn't mean that I'm some poor helpless
22. 0:51victim who's been beaten to a pulp by
23. 0:53somebody's joke. What it
24. 0:55What it What it means is that I'm chosen
25. 0:59to be a victim. That all those great
26. 1:02qualities that the Stoics
27. 1:06tried to inculcate
28. 1:08a past Well, regard and stoicism and
29. 1:10putting up with difficulties without
30. 1:12complaining, that's gone now. We've all
31. 1:14got to be victims and it's very very
32. 1:17easy to be a victim, you know.
33. 1:19Well, I I think there should be a
34. 1:21television show where people compete
35. 1:22against each other to see who has been
36. 1:25victimized the most.
37. 1:29>> [laughter]
38. 1:30>> Um There you go.
39. 1:32Now you Now you've cost me my train of
40. 1:34thought. I'm sorry. Well, it doesn't
41. 1:36matter. We can always edit this bit.
42. 1:38>> [laughter]
43. 1:39>> Um
44. 1:42It does seem to me though that uh this
45. 1:44inability now to laugh at ourselves
46. 1:46because and to take offense
47. 1:49flies in the face of something that if
48. 1:52I'm really honest
49. 1:54there have been times when
50. 1:58I've had to learn something painful
51. 2:01about
52. 2:03I could have said, "Oh, I'm a victim.
53. 2:04You've hurt me. Go away. I'll I'll I'll
54. 2:06I'll shut you down. I'll cancel you.
55. 2:08I'll try and do whatever." Or
56. 2:11Gosh, that hurt but there's an element
57. 2:12of truth in it. Well, that's that's what
58. 2:14a Christian, a real Christian would do.
59. 2:17See, what he instead of immediately
60. 2:19batting the criticism away, he would
61. 2:21think, "Is that true? Is that true of
62. 2:22me? How How true is it?" Not is it true
63. 2:25black or white
64. 2:27true or untrue, but you know, to what
65. 2:29extent is there truth in that? And
66. 2:31people find that very very difficult to
67. 2:33do. They don't really
68. 2:36want to be criticized and what the
69. 2:39mistake that the woke people say is that
70. 2:41all humor is critical. Not puns. Yeah.
71. 2:46They're not critical, but any kind of 40
72. 2:49Towers humor, any kind of film or stage
73. 2:52humor because you don't laugh at perfect
74. 2:55people.
75. 2:57If someone is kind and wise and
76. 2:59generous, there's nothing funny about
77. 3:01them. It's when they fall below that and
78. 3:03become greedy or lustful or spiteful,
79. 3:07that's when they become funny. So all
80. 3:10humor is critical, but the question is
81. 3:12how is the criticism conveyed? If we
82. 3:16tease friends, it's done with affection.
83. 3:19And affectionate teasing is actually a
84. 3:21bonding mechanism because it's saying to
85. 3:24people, particularly like the English
86. 3:25who can't say anything really loving or
87. 3:27affectionate to people without getting
88. 3:29embarrassed. So in England we insult
89. 3:31someone because you're basically saying,
90. 3:33"I could never say this to someone I
91. 3:35didn't love because it would be so rude,
92. 3:37but I can say it to you because I love
93. 3:39you." It's a bonding mechanism. Do you
94. 3:41see what I mean?
95. 3:41>> Oh, well, that's Australians as well.
96. 3:43Yeah. It's Yes, it's the same.
97. 3:44>> That's right. Well, they they say things
98. 3:45to you which is great.
99. 3:46>> And and and sometimes, you know, you
100. 3:48you watch Australians and think they've
101. 3:50got to have a couple of beers at the bar
102. 3:51before they even get to that point.
103. 3:52>> Yeah.
104. 3:53>> But it still happens.
105. 3:53>> Well, then people begin to loosen up and
106. 3:55as they relax, they get more humorous
107. 3:57and they get more creative and
108. 3:58everything everything gets better.
109. 4:00But uh what I wanted to say was because
110. 4:04uh you uh there are people who are
111. 4:08unkind or who become unkind under
112. 4:11certain circumstances and they do nasty
113. 4:15teasing, that's awful.
114. 4:19We don't do that. It's not supposed to
115. 4:21be funny. It's sending it
116. 4:23affectionately. It's actually trying to
117. 4:25hurt people's feelings which is a a
118. 4:27dreadful thing to do. So that kind of
119. 4:30teasing
120. 4:31the mean teasing, the non-humorous,
121. 4:34non-affectionate, that's out.
122. 4:36But the the woke people don't understand
123. 4:38the difference between the two because
124. 4:40it requires understanding of differing
125. 4:43contexts and they can't do that. And so
126. 4:46what happens then is they run for the
127. 4:47law book. They tie the laws.
128. 4:49>> That's right.
129. 4:50>> So then we tie ourselves up in
130. 4:51>> Not a lot of humor in the law. No. And
131. 4:54that can end up restricting
132. 4:56Mhm. humor. Which is as you just really
133. 4:59very effectively put it, is a very
134. 5:01important part of free speech.
135. 5:02>> Huge importance.
136. 5:04>> It shines lights on things.
137. 5:05>> And it And this something in our sayings
138. 5:07and moves us to a better part of
139. 5:09ourselves for a few minutes or half an
140. 5:11hour, maybe an afternoon. I mean, I'm
141. 5:13very touched when I have many people
142. 5:15have told me that when they have a bad
143. 5:17day at the office, they come back and
144. 5:19the first thing they do, make a cup of
145. 5:22tea or coffee and watch an episode of 40
146. 5:24Towers. Half an hour later, well,
147. 5:26they're laughing all right again. So I'm
148. 5:29also a therapist.
149. 5:31I hadn't quite thought of you in that
150. 5:33way, but
151. 5:33>> [laughter]
152. 5:34>> Um but you you know, you raise a really
153. 5:37important and interesting point there, I
154. 5:38think. And that is that we have a
155. 5:40responsibility to think carefully about
156. 5:42how we use and how we express humor. And
157. 5:46you know, the need sometimes to say to
158. 5:48somebody, "Listen, listen, John. You
159. 5:50need to shape up a bit here." That sort
160. 5:52of thing because
161. 5:53the Americans tell me, who Americans who
162. 5:56understand this stuff, you can actually
163. 5:57trace
164. 5:59the decline in support on American
165. 6:01university campuses for free speech.
166. 6:03It sort of kind of tracked social media
167. 6:06and smartphones and then it flipped and
168. 6:09American students now on ballots will
169. 6:11not
170. 6:12say I we support free speech, we support
171. 6:14appropriate speech. Well, who determines
172. 6:17what's appropriate?
173. 6:18>> And so I'm seeing how clumsy the law
174. 6:20gets. But I would posit that that is one
175. 6:22of the downsides of social media. People
176. 6:24used it to insult others and so many of
177. 6:27our students have been so hurt by what
178. 6:29the bullying online that they've said,
179. 6:32"This has got to stop. Find me some laws
180. 6:34to present because people haven't
181. 6:36behaved responsibly in the first place.