YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Monty Python's John Cleese: Cancel the censors!

Monty Python's John Cleese: Cancel the censors! — Transcript

by FIRE · 4,138 words · 588 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:00well I wanted to ask you John what's the
0:01least famous movie you ever
0:04did there were so many which is why they
0:08deservedly are the least famous movies
0:10Pink Panther 2 I adore Steve I think he
0:15is perhaps my favorite comedian in the
0:18last 50 years yeah but that one I didn't
0:21think worked and my daughter was
0:23introduces me to an audience a star of
0:26pink P to Pluto Nash where I played the
0:30voice of the chauffer with Eddie Murphy
0:32who of course you did Pluto Nash oh that
0:34were terrible wasn't it terrible um this
0:37is the great JN who you might know from
0:39such films as Pink Panther 2 and Pluto
0:42[Laughter]
0:44[Music]
0:53Nash so in an interview with with Steven
0:56colar you talked about a lot of your
0:58favorite influences being American comic
1:00absolutely so who were your favorites
1:02well you know when I started all those
1:06years ago Laurel Hardy because Laurel
1:10was English but Hardy was American and
1:13then I think after that I discovered the
1:16Marx Brothers you see who were wonderful
1:20and I started getting Nicholls and
1:22May and um Bob newart and Shelly bman
1:28and all this new stuff late 50s then
1:31there were one or two incredibly
1:33important shows in England that was the
1:35Goon show in the 50s that was the one
1:39when we were 15 we all talked about the
1:41next morning in the playground you know
1:43what about the line way oh you remember
1:45and then he said that that was just like
1:48python years later yeah why I understood
1:51it so well well I mean I was I was a kid
1:53growing up in the ' 80s and what we
1:55talked about just like you talked about
1:56the Goon show was all mon hello
2:04[Laughter]
2:08bny your mother was a hamster and your
2:12father smelt of elderberries I'm not the
2:16Messiah I say you are Lord and I should
2:18know I followed a few H Messiah so um in
2:23terms of some of the backlash to Life of
2:26Brian did you consider that sort of
2:28protoc cancel culture or what did you
2:30think of it at the time well we didn't
2:31have the phrase in those days but there
2:33were always people who would complain it
2:36is quite humbug to say that this is not
2:39a um a ridiculing of the founder of the
2:43Christian religion the problem we that
2:45we have God is is that you think that
2:48we're ridiculing Jesus and we say um
2:51sort of sincerely and truthfully that
2:54that is certainly not what we intended
2:56to do and I believe that we're not um we
2:59we were never that upset by it because
3:02we knew that even if they banned it in
3:05Norway I mean the swedes advertised as
3:08the film was so funny it had to be
3:10banned in
3:12Norway and when we were going to come
3:14here and do um publicity in New York for
3:18the film they they rang us after a week
3:21or so and they said you don't have to
3:22come over the protesters have done it
3:24for you quite literally because they
3:27were protesting outside they had
3:29wonderful placards saying Marty python
3:33is an agent of the
3:35devil that look good on a
3:38T-shirt and it's absolutely
3:39extraordinary because when you look at
3:41that film The Smart Christians realize
3:45it's nothing against the teaching of
3:46Christ the teaching of Christ is a
3:48beautiful thing you don't need to follow
3:52anybody you've got to think for
3:54yourselves so there are people who will
3:57take a religious teaching and turn it on
4:00its head we should be making fun of
4:02those it would be a sin not to and I
4:05think that what happens in a lot of
4:07churches is that you start out with a
4:10genius and and people take the teaching
4:14and then the next Generation maybe have
4:16even seen these people and are in awe of
4:19them and take the teaching really
4:21seriously and then the third generation
4:24come along because they're quite
4:25impressed by the previous generation and
4:27it's becoming very popular and and the
4:30fifth generation of recruits are coming
4:33along because there's a good dental plan
4:36and 5 weeks holiday do you see what I
4:38mean so that you start off with with a
4:41teaching like Christ and you finish up
4:44burning people alive yeah for not
4:48agreeing with some detail of his Gospel
4:50of
4:51love that is insane and we should make
4:55lots of fun of that because I don't
4:58think Jesus would have approved as far
5:00as like all of the incredibly funny
5:02lines in Life of Brian the one moment
5:04that just never stopped tickling me is
5:06when he announces to the entire crowd
5:08that we're all individuals and just one
5:11guy shouts out I'm not and I'm like he
5:15says uh you've got to think for
5:17yourselves yes we got to think for
5:19ourselves you're all individual yes
5:22we're all
5:23individuals I'm not and they all go
5:28sh I'm not
5:31and the funny thing about that joke is
5:33it doesn't actually mean anything if you
5:36to look at it logically you see what I
5:38mean it's completely and that's often
5:41what makes us laugh the most is
5:43something that's completely silly like
5:45in Python you know the fish slapping
5:47dance python fans will know when Michael
5:50runs up with does that and then I hit
5:53him with the big fish he falls into the
5:54C
5:58up
6:09I often say I'm wondering if in years to
6:12come media uh study students will have
6:15to write an essay on what that means it
6:17means completely meaningless and
6:20everybody thinks it's terribly funny but
6:22we didn't take it that seriously we knew
6:24it was being seen and we had one or two
6:28discussions about it and on the whole we
6:30got a lot of support from Christians
6:32almost apologizing for the the
6:35Christians who didn't get the point of
6:37it which is that because you're a
6:39follower of Christ does not mean you're
6:41above any criticism in fact I've got a a
6:45formulation which I I quite like when
6:47people ask me about uh censoring comedy
6:51I say I don't think people without much
6:53of a sense of humor should be allowed to
6:58determine what people with a sense of
7:01humor are allowed to laugh at I mean put
7:04like that it's ridiculous so the only
7:07thing you can ask them to do is if you
7:09don't like something don't watch it
7:12because there's other people who do like
7:15it you know completely agreed so it's
7:18very important that people like me with
7:21my little gathering of friends speak out
7:25because the people can hear there's
7:26other opinions out them when we wrote
7:29Life of Brian we could not find a studio
7:33in England or America that would give us
7:36$3 million2 million P not a lot of money
7:39mhm we could not find a single Studio
7:42that would touch it and so the wonderful
7:45George Harrison got a script from Eric
7:48ID who was a friend read it uh he rang
7:51Eric the next day said he laughed so
7:53much he fallen out of bed and he said I
7:56want put the you and Eric said
7:59what going put get the mortgage for
8:03house and Eric said this is wonder why
8:09and George said I want to see the movie
8:12it's absolutely true and so as a
8:17blasphemer you are to be stoned to
8:21death so why is it so important to have
8:24the right to even puncture beliefs that
8:26people really hold dear maybe you don't
8:29puncture them there's no reason you
8:30shouldn't try to there's a great
8:33difference between solemn and serious
8:36and people don't realize it solemn is
8:39State funeral you're not supposed to go
8:42around before the service putting whoopy
8:45you know that's solemn I think very
8:48pompous people like solemn the thing
8:50about comedy I believe is it's slightly
8:54um subversive if you have a lot of
8:57people laughing together it's hard to
8:59pretend that one is much more important
9:01than another but you can in a very
9:04solemn atmosphere so I think that very
9:06pompous people people very into power
9:09and Status rather dislike Cy and have a
9:13negative view of it because their
9:16pomposity can't exist if there's comedy
9:19around do you know Steven Pinker he's a
9:22friend and he's on our advisory Council
9:24he's brilliant obviously but his whole
9:27theory on how comedy evolved was to take
9:29people down a peg well that was the idea
9:32in the court right the court gesture was
9:36that he was allowed to make Jokes which
9:39if anyone else had made them you know
9:41could be in real trouble but he was
9:44allowed to and that was a kind of safety
9:47V because comedy or humor is a way
9:51sometimes of gently teasing people which
9:53is a way of pointing out something to
9:55them that they might go away and think
9:58about after WS which they couldn't take
10:02on board if it's a frontal attack if you
10:05attack
10:06people yeah inevitably like a
10:11duck inevitably but people are are going
10:14to put all that offenses whereas if you
10:16do it in a gentle and humorous way maybe
10:20their minds may be able to stay open the
10:23I interviewed the Dalai laa was and he
10:25said what he liked about laughter is
10:28that when people people laugh they could
10:30have new
10:31ideas and I think the moment you get the
10:34relaxation that always comes with
10:36laughter then people become more
10:37flexible the more anxious they are the
10:40more they hang on to their beliefs you
10:43know so I think humor are terribly good
10:45way of introducing questions to people
10:48who might otherwise feel very defensive
10:50if they were confronted with the
10:52question so how can comedy liberate
10:55us well I think the best thing I've ever
10:58read on comedy was called laughter
11:03or by Hy bck and he basic says that we
11:09laugh at people whose Behavior has
11:12become mechanical not flexible in other
11:15words if someone is there and is
11:18reacting absolutely appropriately to
11:21what's going on around them there's
11:23nothing funny about them it's where what
11:26they're doing is inappropriate that's
11:28when we start thinking you know this is
11:31funny and so I think it's almost like a
11:34touchstone that if we laugh at someone
11:37there's very probably a good reason why
11:41that person needs to change something MH
11:44now of course it can be nasty laughter
11:47but that isn't intended to be funny
11:50that's only intended to hurt you see
11:53what I mean yeah but when you can make
11:55jokes with friends I mean in England we
11:57find it very hard to say for a man to
12:00say to another man I love you you know
12:03whereas if you say you bastard I
12:06hate your guts he knows that you love
12:08him absolutely because you couldn't
12:09possibly say that to anyone if you
12:11didn't love him absolutely and that's
12:12the sort of subtlety that I think some
12:14of the work people would find different
12:16difficult because they think all hot
12:18comedy is critical and therefore all
12:20comedy is unkind and the answer is no
12:23it's a wonderful guide to how we could
12:25become better human beings provided it's
12:27done with love yeah affection are we the
12:30people's front of Judea brackets
12:32officials in Brackets do hereby convey
12:34our sincere fraternal and sisterly
12:36greetings to you Brian on this the
12:39occasion of your martyrdom what in terms
12:41of what you saw um in response to Life
12:44of Brian and the kind of cancel culture
12:46we've seen over the last 10 years how do
12:48you think these two periods compare I
12:50think what I experience as people who
12:53are upset and offended by things and
12:56once or twice I've done things and
12:58afterwards I thought that cross the line
13:00I shouldn't have done that but people
13:03would get upset and they would complain
13:05to the BBC or something like that or
13:08they might get up and walk out of a show
13:10the thing about cancel culture is it
13:12seems to be very
13:14organized and someone and I think it
13:17might have been you told me that there
13:20have been more
13:22academics fired in the last few years
13:25than in the McCarthy yeah era it was um
13:28it was astounding to me too because we
13:31count cancel cultures beginning in
13:342014 um and in the 9 and a half years
13:37since 2014 because our data comes from
13:39July it's almost 200 professors fired
13:42and McCarthyism from 1947 to
13:451957 the standard estimate from the time
13:48was about 62 communist professors fired
13:51and roughly about a hundred fired for
13:54opinion overall so it's it's one of
13:56those things I'm not trying to say that
13:58it's identical in any way the point is
14:01it's much more
14:03organized and it's not just protest it's
14:07trying to get people fine yeah I don't
14:10want people protesting that's fine fine
14:13you set out to get somebody fired and
14:17what I what I feel is that's very
14:19totalitarian when we were on the
14:21dinosaur which was my show you came on
14:24we decided to do a program of our work
14:27Greg lukanov
14:29um has
14:31co-written the best book on this subject
14:34that I've read you co-wrote it with
14:35Jonathan height wonderful author it's
14:38called the codling of the American mind
14:40and we asked various people you know who
14:43hell woke extreme woke not just the
14:46let's be kind and nice cuz nobody's
14:48going to argue with that and 14 of them
14:52all 14 who were asked refused to do it
14:55and one said the very fact that you're
14:57going to discuss it
14:59is the problem in other words we have a
15:03set of ideas and if you don't agree with
15:08us on everything you hate us and we're
15:13going to try and get you far it's crazy
15:16yeah but what I'm fascinated by is that
15:19it all started with you having a severe
15:22depression yes the thing that grasped me
15:26most strongly was the idea
15:29that you benefited enormously in your
15:32depression from cognitive behavioral
15:35therapy MH where you take feelings and
15:40ideas and you say well is this useful to
15:43you or not or which bits are useful and
15:46which aren't you examine them and I had
15:49been so appalled by one branch of
15:52workery that said that whatever you feel
15:56is that's it it's Inc contest
15:59you cannot look at it or examine it
16:02that's truth and to think that anyone
16:06could say that after 200 years of Sigman
16:10Freud I mean therapy is about looking at
16:14your emotions and trying to see what's
16:18helpful and what isn't helpful how they
16:20break down that's what a Buddhist would
16:23do all the time examine his feelings or
16:25her feelings so what what what what is
16:28this about how much is this about my ego
16:31how much is this about something else
16:33that's the only way you can get any
16:35control over your emotions why do you
16:38think they get to the point of saying if
16:40you have a feeling it must be right I
16:43think it sounds deceptively nice I I
16:46think it sounds at a very shallow level
16:49nice but I do think a lot of what might
16:51be called wokery it it it developed as
16:53ways of winning arguments and
16:55dormitories in the 1990s that's right
16:58it's Tactical more than it's actually
17:00makes any sense as a philosophy and of
17:02course as a philosophy it makes you
17:03miserable exactly it's the complete
17:05opposite of stoicism which I've rather
17:08admired yes it's an extraordinary thing
17:12also the idea that I think some people
17:15say that if you bump into someone by
17:18accident and they experience it that you
17:21did it on purpose then you did it on
17:24purpose one of the things in codling we
17:26talk a lot about and we both come from
17:27this perspective is how much um CBT uh
17:31reflects different things we both learn
17:33from stoicism yes and from Buddhism both
17:36both of which we've studied and the idea
17:39that you think you could make someone
17:41you know happier by saying you know what
17:43life isn't pain no there's no
17:46difficulties it's meant it's meant to be
17:49entirely easy and if it's ever hard
17:51you're doing something wrong yes that's
17:54right it's just terrible advice and if
17:55you're anxious it's
17:57because there's a a real threat out
18:01nobody's ever well when I get anxious I
18:03know perfectly well that it's about
18:06something that happened to me about 70
18:08years you know and I say to myself this
18:11is anxiety yeah it's not anything to do
18:14with what's going on now so it's not
18:17very important and when I say that of
18:19course it slowly just goes away yeah
18:22because I'm not taking it seriously I
18:24think probably what they're saying is
18:26you should take people's feelings
18:27seriously yes seriously enough yeah to
18:32examine them and of course I'm only half
18:34British so when I feel anxious I just
18:36assume I must have said something uh
18:38wrong a month ago about the S about the
18:42S what do you think the threat of
18:44censorship or the threat of being
18:45canceled for that matter does to the
18:47creative
18:48process well what it does is it it the
18:53enemy of creativity is interruptions mhm
18:56and interruptions can come from inside
18:59as well as outside and if the moment you
19:01think of something you think oh will
19:03that offend and when you've interrupted
19:05yourself so will stop the creative flow
19:08those kind of ideas yeah well and if you
19:12look at kind of like the history of the
19:13Soviet Union you know how much how
19:15brutally they Crush humor yes absolutely
19:19cuz that could get you thinking
19:22right
19:24telegram from the
19:27kemin the the Central Committee it
19:31says carry on with the
19:34execution do you think comedians are
19:36afraid of cancel culture oh yeah and I
19:40have been thinking about this a lot the
19:43last few years and I I think it's very
19:46much connected with literal mindedness
19:49MH there are people who are literal
19:52minded if I say something to you
19:55ironically then the words themselves
19:58meaning opposite of what I'm meaning
20:00yeah can't be very nice not to
20:03understand that so they don't like can't
20:06can't cope with irony or sarcasm then if
20:10you have comic exaggeration which most
20:13people know that is exaggeration that
20:15improve they could take that literally
20:18as though it's a statement of fact yeah
20:20you see what I mean they don't get
20:22metaphor yeah I think you have to say to
20:25people look do you want to be on
20:27automatic do you just want to go through
20:29your life basically on timatic you do
20:31certain things on certain days you know
20:33and then you know or you want to find
20:37out a little bit more about what's going
20:39on and and discover a bit more about a
20:41world that really is very interesting
20:44and if they say well I'd like to find
20:47out about you got to say but there's
20:49lots of people trying to stop you having
20:53ideas and looking at stuff that's new MH
20:57you know are all War up moments in my
21:00life that have been important in forming
21:02my personality came when I suddenly had
21:05a realization that something I believed
21:08wasn't the case and once I realize that
21:11it whole changed my way of thinking but
21:13you can't do that if the people around
21:15you are saying you mustn't think like
21:17that so you can stand automatic if you
21:19want but if you think that life might be
21:22more interesting than that then you've
21:23got to ignore the people who are try and
21:26stop you from learning something new can
21:28you believe that all the stud is turned
21:31down life for Bri unfortunately I can we
21:34ever met the funny thing is when it
21:37comes to cancel culture you're allowed
21:39to be as cruel to the people and and say
21:42the most inappropriate things to anyone
21:44you think is deemed worthy of cancelling
21:46so suddenly you know I watch this
21:48sometimes with regards to women is
21:50suddenly like men who like to think of
21:52themselves as being very woke can say
21:54the most
21:55misogynistic things to women who they
21:58think have crossed a line you know and
22:01it's you know stories all the time well
22:04one of the things that I do in my state
22:06show is that I tell jokes that uh I
22:10think are very funny and I say the point
22:13about these jokes is they're being rude
22:15about people but in a very affectionate
22:18way like why do Italian men grow
22:21mustaches it's because they want to look
22:24like their
22:26mothers but it's every everybody loves
22:29the Italians we all love them they can't
22:31run a country but they can run a
22:33restaurant and we love their food and
22:36they great singers and writers you know
22:39there's affection there and then I say
22:41that these two
22:44Mexicans and it's like that and I say
22:49what happened the audience starts
22:52laughing yeah at the fact they're
22:54feeling uncomfortable and what I say to
22:56them is if I can tell J about the swedes
22:59and the Germans and the Canadians
23:01austral and I can't tell jokes about the
23:05Mexicans is that because the Mexicans
23:08are such
23:10weak pointless futile creatures they
23:13can't take a joke a bit condescending is
23:16it don't you think they could take a
23:17joke like everyone else and that is
23:21something that puzzles them very much
23:22indeed which is why so much of their
23:25thinking is completely confused too bad
23:27now let's try with somebody else
23:29Mr Mar Mr Marini and where are you from
23:33na oh you're
23:36Italian so in terms of cancel culture
23:40the future of free speech the future of
23:42Comedy do you have hope for the
23:45future yeah I think so I think it's a
23:48close run
23:50thing a lot of people think the Tide's
23:53just beginning to turn mhm do you think
23:56it is I think it's very hard for me to
23:59know I very seldom meet anybody who
24:02takes it seriously mhm and that's not
24:05because I'm meeting a sort of snotty
24:07academics all my friends are rich or
24:10anything like that I'm just ordinary
24:12people like the guy who was driving me
24:14yesterday to the ComiCon most Ordinary
24:17People don't get it and I think they're
24:20right not to get it a lot of people are
24:23very frightened to getting fired and
24:25that's awful getting fired is good and
24:29bad in all of us and the moment you
24:32think that you're more perfect than you
24:34are you're more morally good than you
24:36are then that's trouble because then you
24:39get Carl yung's denial and projection
24:43right you can't be nasty yourself uh
24:46because you're a lovely person but you
24:48have nastiness in you and you have to
24:50get rid of it so you project it over
24:52there into another person or group and
24:54then attack it in them yeah right that's
24:57the pro anytime there's a paranoid
25:00confrontation that's what's going on so
25:02the moment that people pretend or think
25:04that they're more perfect than they are
25:06and that's why all this virtue signaling
25:09is so phony now you know you can tell
25:11some people it's all they're doing is
25:14trying to show how virtuous they are uh
25:17but they also need to know they've got a
25:19nasty Street too because we all have and
25:21I think that's why if you grow up in the
25:24midwest where most people think the same
25:27way and live the same sort of way you're
25:31not going to be as creative as someone
25:33who moves around I mean they say travel
25:36broadens the Mind why because you see
25:39different ways of living and you think
25:40well I like that bit there but I prefer
25:43this bit here that keeps you thinking
25:45and open to possibilities you can't do
25:48that if you're just in one place I think
25:51that was what happened to some of the
25:53midwesterners who saw Monty Python they
25:55thought oh this is never well this is
26:00silly so since again since you've been
26:02picking on the Midwest so much I demand
26:04you pick on
26:05Glasgow
26:07glas GL well I'm see
26:12glas cuz he
26:16didn't you no idea what they're saying
26:20no not one bit so John that was such a
26:24pleasure thank you so much for chatting
26:26and I look forward to talking to you
26:28again soon
26:29[Laughter]
26:36off I've always wanted to do that my mom
26:39is
26:39[Laughter]
26:46watching beat
26:48[Music]
26:52red

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Monty Python's John Cleese: Cancel the censors! by FIRE, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 4,138 words across 588 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.