John Cleese joins GB News

[Ferris]

"Me; washed up? Oh heavens no: I do an hour a week on GB News"

[Cuellar]

Maybe he can recreate the debate about Life of Brian with that oddball who dresses as a vicar

[Fabian Thomsett]

I can't believe he'll last any longer than Andrew Neill. The sheer tedium of doing hours of low-budget TV, plus the fact that he'll soon find it's not actually a free speech channel (remember how Guto Harri was sacked for opposing racism; I don't think Cleese will do that but he'll probably upset them some other way).

I think you're probably right about this. Also when I've seen him interviewed he's not very soundbitey - he likes getting into the details of something. He doesn't ramble but he tends to talk in Longform. They don't want that on GBNews.

[Mister Six]

Ah, the old "not right wing, just free speech" line.

Funny how these people only ever use their free speech to parrot right-wing shit, though, isn't it?

[phantom_power]

And as if by magic, AT appears. Like a moth to a flame.

Quite apt really that he only turns up to defend right wing things and then claims he is just interested in free speech

[jamm]

Strife of Brian

[neveragain]

Struggling to recall the last decent thing Cleese did. A Fish Called Wanda in 1988?

Around the late nineties or early naughties Cleese was still good value - The Human Face documentary series, a number of fun cameos in things (one of the Shreks, Rat Race, The Out of Towners - not saying the last two are great but he was fun). He did some very good guest appearances on Third Rock From The Sun. I also enjoyed Python Night, Live At Aspen and Fierce Creatures.
Was fun to see him at the O2.

He's done little else lately but I don't hold that against him. His awful opinions are another matter.

[The Mollusk]

The irony!

The fact that you aren't blocked from this site and your transparent shite arguments are given as much space as you want and are intelligently analysed (and subsequently ripped to bits on every single occasion) by other people here - despite the fact you are quite obviously an antagonistic and often deeply unpleasant person - disproves the point you are very smugly trying to make.

[Glebe]

"You're a bit like Mary Whitehouse trying to get Life of Brian cancelled before they'd even seen the script".

He's gone full reactionary loony!

[TheMonk]

Around the late nineties or early naughties Cleese was still good value - The Human Face documentary series, a number of fun cameos in things (one of the Shreks, Rat Race, The Out of Towners - not saying the last two are great but he was fun). He did some very good guest appearances on Third Rock From The Sun. I also enjoyed Python Night, Live At Aspen and Fierce Creatures.
Was fun to see him at the O2.

Most unimpressive list. That O2 thing was probably fun if you were there but was very sloppy and just off the mark to watch on TV.

[Jake Thingray]

And I thought, 20-odd years ago, that his doing lazy cameos and commercials for too much money represented his fall from grace and he couldn't get any more embarrassing...

From having been a widely respected comedy great, he's now on Jim Davidson's level. Depressing that he's working with the sort of journalists he's so often criticised, and who have criticised him for years and called him mad. The latter bit may sadly be true now. Also regrettable, but this forum's former poster Revelator would probably still defend him, can't think of any other fans he now has to be honest.

[Jake Thingray]

Most unimpressive list.

Agreed. Said it before but whatever one makes of it now, after A Fish Called Wanda there was an expectation that he would write and star in a string of similarly successful comedies, becoming a player in the film world the way Peter Sellers had -- we waited, and it didn't happen.

[Thomas]

I was going to say

One thing he's got going for him is that he's probably the only British actor of his generation who won't be described as 'Harry Potter actor' in his obituary.

but I googled and oh yeah he was a funny posh ghost (as he will be when the obit is published).

[Glebe]

And I thought, 20-odd years ago, that his doing lazy cameos and commercials for too much money represented his fall from grace and he couldn't get any more embarrassing...

Culminating in more recent years in doing Fawlty attacking the car with a branch for Specsavers and another ad where he mentions "Faulty showers". Legacy down drain.

[King Gizard]

...

[PlanktonSideburns]

Most unimpressive list. That O2 thing was probably fun if you were there but was very sloppy and just off the mark to watch on TV.

Well OK,  THAT but what's he done for me lately?

[King Gizard]

...

[idunnosomename]

I thought tall people tended not to live so long. What a disappointment

[Fabian Thomsett]

Around the late nineties or early naughties Cleese was still good value - The Human Face documentary series, a number of fun cameos in things (one of the Shreks, Rat Race, The Out of Towners - not saying the last two are great but he was fun). He did some very good guest appearances on Third Rock From The Sun. I also enjoyed Python Night, Live At Aspen and Fierce Creatures.
Was fun to see him at the O2.

I think you're forgetting the laugh riot that was Hold The Sunset.

[Mister Six]

That just isn't true. Cleese has always been a huge critic of right wing Christians, Trump, Murdoch, Putin etc

And yet all he's blathered on about in recent years is the problem of The Wokes™️ restricting free speech (despite Gervais et al continuing to have successful careers and he himself producing a documentary on the subject), and now he's going on a "free speech" station that caters exclusively to the right wing.

I dunno, maybe he'll spend his entire show addressing problems of systemic racism and homophobia, pushing back against mainstream media transphobia and suggesting that we all reconsider the Communist Manifesto as having some very good points, but I think we all know it'll be centrist at best, and with Andrew Lawrence on there, it'll lean towards "I'm just saying" lib-trigger bullshit.

[Kankurette]

For someone who hates the likes of Trump and Murdoch, he sure is happy to take money from their supporters.

[Mister Six]

Hey, what happened to Gervais's free speech app, "Just Saying"? DESTROYED BY THE ACCURSED PURPLE HAIRED MOB, NO DOUBT.

[Jake Thingray]

I've watched lots of his (usually extremely entertaining) interviews over the last ten years or so and he still seems pretty left wing and I remember him campaigning against the Murdoch empire during the hacking scandal and attacking Trump regula. He might be a bit obsessed with "wholeness" but who cares. He'll always be a genius and I hope this is a good outlet for him.

You must be either from outside the UK or incredibly naive -- do you realise what GB News' political outlook is, and what it was set up as the British equivalent of?

[phantom_power]

I think there is a fair bit of space to inhabit between "left wing" and "critical of Trump"

[Jake Thingray]

I think you're forgetting the laugh riot that was Hold The Sunset.

As shown by its ratings, nobody watched it.

[King Gizard]

...

[Captain Z]

and I hope this is a good outlet for him.

GB news wasn't a good outlet even for the people who banked their entire careers on setting it up.

[Famous Mortimer]

Given the number of similar "trojan horse" style attacks on right-wing media outlets is currently sat at zero (all time), I'm going to take a wild guess and say it'll remain at zero after Cleese is finished with his time on GB News.

[Ferris]

GB news wasn't a good outlet even for the people who banked their entire careers on setting it up.

It was a pretty effective outlet: Andrew Neill is out, the finance bloke is out, a load of the presenters and backers are out...

[neveragain]

Most unimpressive list.

Oh frightfully dreadful!

These were all things I enjoyed seeing him in. My point being he was enjoyable back then (even though his best work was clearly behind him) and he isn't now.

Seriously, the first Third Rock episode he was in was brilliant. Fierce Creatures wasn't as bad as many people have said. Python Night was also good quality, I've rewatched it plenty.

Do I really need to say that the Fawlty ad and Hold The Sunset were shite?

I hope you can understand what I have written and if I sound grumpy, I've just spent an hour having an extraction at the dentist. So fuck off.

PS. I hope you get that I was saying fuck off in a Cleesian milieu and not really telling you to fuck off. Now piss off.