so, the trend I'm seeing in these answers would be "is funny? no. was funny? yes.".
― A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 16:09 (four years ago) link
It’s been, what, 30 years since he was even a bit funny? Closer to 40?
― shhh / let peaceful like things (wins), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 16:15 (four years ago) link
A Fish Called Wanda was his last successful fling at funny. Calculate from there.
― A is for (Aimless), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 16:19 (four years ago) link
Fierce Creatures had its moments iirc
― Simon H., Tuesday, 21 May 2019 16:20 (four years ago) link
a fish called wanda hasn't been funny for more than 30 years
― mark s, Tuesday, 21 May 2019 16:22 (four years ago) link
& it’s probably about 10 years since I first noticed him popping up to do weird morrissey-style interviews about how England isn’t England anymore cause all the foreigns are doing white genocide by existing
― shhh / let peaceful like things (wins), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 16:30 (four years ago) link
He is *terrible* at Twitter
Re Waitrose ducklings...I've been digging, and have discovered that the family who first made chocolate in the 15th century, chose to produce white,dark and milk chocolate in order to stir up racial disharmony. They especially abhorred chocolate-coloured peopleApology......— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) April 10, 2019
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 16:33 (four years ago) link
A post that has always stuck with me from this Monty Python thread:
Maybe six or seven years ago, I heard an interview with Cleese in which he more or less said he felt he'd lost his edge in terms of humor. What he said was kind of sad and the gist of it has stayed with me since then, something VERY loosely along the lines of "When you're young, you notice all these little inconsistencies in the world, things that aren't quite right, people who don't quite seem to know what they're doing, and you can derive humor from that. But when you get older, you start to realize that nothing is really right at all, that no one has any idea what they're doing, and then it stops seeming as funny."
― eatandoph (Neue Jesse Schule), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 16:34 (four years ago) link
^^^ funny man
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 16:37 (four years ago) link
he spent the 90s doing corporate video work which was (a) almost certainly not even slightly funny, but (b) possibly a tiny step up* from what they were going to get if he hadn't been in the video
*up as in: "this is great, john cleese is hilarious!" *later, uncertainly* "i must have enjoyed that lots, john cleese was in it!" narrator's voice (etc)
― mark s, Tuesday, 21 May 2019 16:38 (four years ago) link
think cleese has always been the python most likely to be awful in old age
doesnt come across great in palin diaries, and palin is a v kind observer
but hes 80. yknow.
― daenerys baker (darraghmac), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 16:39 (four years ago) link
People who avoid a slow entropic slide into human turdburgerdom in their dotage should get some kind of medal, maybe.
― 5 favrite kind of animal. jaguar. giraffe. (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 16:54 (four years ago) link
― Careless Love Battery (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 17:02 (four years ago) link
I'm sorry they did that to you, Wanda.
― 5 favrite kind of animal. jaguar. giraffe. (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 17:05 (four years ago) link
Lol, thanks
― Careless Love Battery (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 17:18 (four years ago) link
Aristotle was not Belgian.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 17:28 (four years ago) link
It's said he was a bugger for the bottle though.
― Ned Caligari (Tom D.), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 17:29 (four years ago) link
A Fish Called Wanda is unwatchable IMO, I've failed to get past the first 30mins many times as a teenager after being told it was "hilarious", though Cleese is by no means the worst thing in it
― Captain ACAB (Neil S), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 18:34 (four years ago) link
looking at you, Kevin Kline w/ ridiculous moustache
I love it. Cleese is a believable romantic lead too.
― recriminations from the nitpicking woke (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 18:36 (four years ago) link
it seems polarising, and I have time for other Cleese vehicles e.g. Clockwise
― Captain ACAB (Neil S), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 18:38 (four years ago) link
Finest moment imo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUWj8PVRF70
― 5 favrite kind of animal. jaguar. giraffe. (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 18:39 (four years ago) link
Miss Piggy's stunt double steals his thunder imo
― StanM, Tuesday, 21 May 2019 18:50 (four years ago) link
he spent the 90s doing corporate video work
As someone who has had to sit through a number of these training videos, I can confirm that they're mildly amusing in places at best. 'Liable to raise a wry smile every few minutes' would be a generous summary.Basically like this...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UFNCrxWI2M
― just another country (snoball), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 19:10 (four years ago) link
He'd been doing those since the 70s fwiw.
― Ned Caligari (Tom D.), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 19:11 (four years ago) link
The main advantage of these training videos was that Cleese could present to camera without looking awkward like so many Open University lecturers. Here's a good example (although again not from one of the training videos):https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bDIxI8HV8g
― just another country (snoball), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 19:13 (four years ago) link
He was in some embarrassing Sainsbury’s ads in the 90s
― shhh / let peaceful like things (wins), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 19:13 (four years ago) link
I remember a Derek & Clive bit about a public info ad where he told ppl how to send a letter “he said put a stamp and address on, that’s what I’ve been doing since I watched those fucking ads”. So even his contemporaries held him in contempt going way back
― shhh / let peaceful like things (wins), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 19:16 (four years ago) link
"A Fish Called Wanda is unwatchable IMO, I've failed to get past the first 30mins many times as a teenager after being told it was "hilarious", though Cleese is by no means the worst thing in it"
what an incredibly strange opinion
― akm, Tuesday, 21 May 2019 19:24 (four years ago) link
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/ecJvyvh_Ics/maxresdefault.jpg
― 5 favrite kind of animal. jaguar. giraffe. (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 19:26 (four years ago) link
He was always a bit of a hack, wasn't he? Even during the height of Python he and Chapman were writing for The Two Ronnies and Doctor in the House (although he did ditch Python first, which I suppose wasn't hackish). How many comedians have still got it after the age of *plucks at random* 65?
― fetter, Tuesday, 21 May 2019 19:50 (four years ago) link
Eight
― shhh / let peaceful like things (wins), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 19:53 (four years ago) link
JUST ANNOUNCED: @MelBrooks On Broadway at Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on June 17 + 18! Tickets are on sale tomorrow 4/23 at 10am.Get more info here: https://t.co/ZUE965yUoW pic.twitter.com/1bAM8iaLOz— In Residence On Broadway (@inresidencebdwy) April 22, 2019
― mark s, Tuesday, 21 May 2019 19:54 (four years ago) link
As has been pointed out, Cleese was finished well before he was 65.
― Ned Caligari (Tom D.), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 20:02 (four years ago) link
Mel Brooks is entertaining if not funny in public speaking situations at age 90+, which puts him ahead of nearly all of his films
― tfw you are not easily whelmed (sic), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 20:09 (four years ago) link
I saw Clockwise as a kid in the cinema. A much superior movie than Cannon + Ball's Boys In Blue in terms of production and writing obv.. but seriously lacking a chortle as funny as when Bobby Ball jumps chest first onto a cowpat.
― calzino, Tuesday, 21 May 2019 20:13 (four years ago) link
https://gifimage.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/spaceballs-alien-gif-10.gif
― mark s, Tuesday, 21 May 2019 20:18 (four years ago) link
All the Pythons seem to have been in agreement that Cleese was a colossal soft-Tory arsehole his entire life, but very funny and a very hard worker. He combined the deep vein of superiority with his sense for funny in public appearances through the '90s, but Wanda was definitely his last hurrah at writing, aged 45.
(also nb the only solo writing he ever did was probably a few episodes of Doctor At Large in 1971, and possibly his 2014 autobiography:
It’s just that the overall tone of the book is cross and churlish, the story of his life rendered in the voice of an ornery old man who never made it in showbusiness rather than the fully realised genius behind comedies of such towering brilliance as Fawlty Towers, Monty Python’s Flying Circus and The Life of Brian.
― tfw you are not easily whelmed (sic), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 20:24 (four years ago) link
"A Fish Called Wanda is unwatchable IMO, I've failed to get past the first 30mins many times as a teenager after being told it was "hilarious", though Cleese is by no means the worst thing in it"what an incredibly strange opinion― akm, Tuesday, May 21, 2019 7:24 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― akm, Tuesday, May 21, 2019 7:24 PM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
you... think it's a funny film? that's cool, each to their own, it's just not for me
― Captain ACAB (Neil S), Tuesday, 21 May 2019 20:58 (four years ago) link
― fetter, Tuesday, May 21, 2019 7:50 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
And Les Dawson.
Who is a genius, tbf..
― Mark G, Wednesday, 22 May 2019 22:27 (four years ago) link
at least through Young Frankenstein, Mel's films get big laughs when seen properly with a theater audience.
Fawlty is still one of the funniest sitcoms ever, maybe dial back the hate just a tad.
― a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 23 May 2019 02:19 (four years ago) link
Fawlty is unimpeachable yes.
Remember enjoying Clockwise, but I was a child and of unsound opinion
― imago, Thursday, 23 May 2019 06:49 (four years ago) link
It was OK, it had funny.
― Mark G, Thursday, 23 May 2019 07:38 (four years ago) link
The final speech was just bad "Basil Fawlty with concussion", mind.
― Mark G, Thursday, 23 May 2019 07:40 (four years ago) link
Fawlty Towers really not all that, the pompous useless husband + hyper efficient wife who stays with him for no reason set-up has been a bad influence on sitcoms in general and Manuel is the worst fucking character.
― Daniel_Rf, Thursday, 23 May 2019 10:35 (four years ago) link
I saw Cleese perform as part of a comedy gala Maybe 10 years ago? went because of fond childhood memories of Python/Fawlty/Wanda and absolutely regretted it - half an hour of desperately unfunny and bitter material about his ex-wife with generous helpings of misogyny and a light dusting of casual racism
I guess it's just like seeing a past-it rock act, but the nastiness was such that it really soured that any warm feelings I might've once had for his work
Having said that I sat down to watch an episode of The Goodies with my kids the other day, it opened with a woman getting beaten up to a laugh track and then evolved into a fully-fledged anti-Arab laugh riot - so I guess that era's humour has dated pretty shabbily
― umsworth (emsworth), Thursday, 23 May 2019 11:00 (four years ago) link
I was listening to some very old ISIHAC episodes and the calypso songs with comedy accents should really remain buried.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Thursday, 23 May 2019 11:05 (four years ago) link
Every non-Caribbean calypso song ever has been done in a comedy accent.
― Ned Caligari (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 May 2019 11:09 (four years ago) link
If it's good enough for Bill Oddie it's good enough for Van Dyke Parks.
― Ned Caligari (Tom D.), Thursday, 23 May 2019 11:10 (four years ago) link
And Robert Mitchum
― Zeuhl Idol (Matt #2), Thursday, 23 May 2019 11:11 (four years ago) link
Nah, probably extending it and having the characters address the audience with "this is what the wokerati actually believe now!" afterwards.
― Daniel_Rf, Saturday, 20 May 2023 19:39 (eleven months ago) link
Exactly.
― Maggot Bairn (Tom D.), Saturday, 20 May 2023 19:49 (eleven months ago) link
i'll say again if you had told me 30 years ago that I would like Idle more than Cleese I would have really doubted you.
― I? not I! He! He! HIM! (akm), Saturday, 20 May 2023 21:45 (eleven months ago) link