John Cleese to present C4 show 'Cancel Me'

also being patriotic seems to be bad

I too used to like Zoe Williams. I was in my 20s, but it makes me fret about the state of my brain back then

They were all nice and tanned from writing the final draft in Barbados earlier in the year, then filming in Tunisia

The ex-leper was beautiful....

Oh I do enjoy angry 70s Michael Palin. He was quite the hotty

Oh my goodness, how did I not spot the Mark Forstater connection! I have those scripts and letters in book form and know them almost off by heart. Maya’s surname did ring a bell, but I thought it was just one of those names from the past of people you’ve lost touch with.

Maya let slip on Twitter a few weeks ago

Thanks for the link - I missed that at the time. Good to see a response below from Mark Forstater himself!

Zoe Williams has a characteristically spiteful piece about John Cleese in today's Guardian:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/aug/25/what-exactly-do-ian-botham-and-john-cleese-offer-global-britain

"It’s hard to find out when John Cleese was last funny."

And even harder to find out when Zoe Williams last had something interesting to say.

LOL stands for Lots Of Logic, obviously.

You have to start and/or end your posts with it if you want to be taken really seriously.

..... So, after watching LoB yesterday I came to some conclusions...

Reckon I could persuade John Cleese I am not actually stupid for believing in God and reckon he would concede with gentlemanly grace.. If slightly grumpily.

But watching it now, it seems really prophetic. Especially the stoning scene - everyone turning on the person that says the wrong thing. Not being able to say what everyone is thinking. I saw a premonition of Glinner shouting 'worse?! How could it get any worse!? Jehova Jehova!'

I think what really struck me, though, is that as a 46 Yr old, I found Michael Pallion and John Cleese very sexy and that probably changed my opinion rather....

But frankly, the newly discovered fact that Maya Forstater' s dad was involved, and the connection to recent events, just goes to prove to me the existence of an intelligent creator..... Its just too marvellous to be a Coincidence!!

Maya let slip on Twitter a few weeks ago:

twitter.com/MForstater/status/1423210105051533315

On this day in 1974 my dad @markforstater wrote this cracking letter

It turns out standing up for freedom of expression to talk about sex is a family thing

Rabbit, Bore. Maya's dad, Blimey. FWR investigative talents strike again.

"the film itself was funny, and targeted unthinking fundamentalists rather than mainstream believers"

"They almost abandoned the project as there was no source of potential humour, until they realised they could change it to mocking cult followers instead"

@Babdoc really interesting points in this thread by you and Rabbit. I hope we see a better understanding in coming years of the relationship between cancel culture, fundamentalism, cult practices and dogma. And the impact of exposing children to it.

Mark Forstater is Maya's father

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Forstater

By the way, we have now moved onto the Holy Grail....

Which just so happened to have been produced by......

.......

Mark Forstater!!!!!

Coincidence?

Well, probably, yes.....

rabbitwoman, you certainly make a good point about the sneering. I’ve noticed some atheists are prone to very insulting and disrespectful language when criticising Christians.
We explain the tenets of our religion and the basis for faith, and they respond with childish taunts about “sky fairies” etc, making it plain they haven’t even grasped the basics!
I can well believe that Cleese would stoop to that, but I still think the film itself was funny, and targeted unthinking fundamentalists rather than mainstream believers.

Are we all watching life of Brian tonight, then!! :-)!!!

Ha! I had the exact same thought RW and decided that it will be my TV for tonight.
IDK if it's my religious upbringing but I appreciate it more each time I watch.
I'm guaranteed a laugh though, without fail.

'you're astrologers are you? What star sign is he, then?'
'er, capricorn.'
'and what are they like then?'
'he is the messiah, he is the son of God, the saviour of mankind!'
'oh. And that's capricorn, is it?'

Ha!!! Actually watching it on Netflix right now.....

Thank God it was never banned!!

But it's not right to cancel someone else's free speech, is it? Is he discussing gender or discussing what happens to people who disagree with each other?

Right, the show isn't supposed to be about arguing about why gender ideology is bad, it's about why cancellation is problematic. I can't imagine it won't touch on gender issues or even go into some depth within that context. But I doubt he is going to decide that cancel culture is a good thing.

Ha, well, oddly enough I really want to watch life of Brian again now!!! Although I stand by my opinion I concede that Palin at least is a thoughtful and respectful guy who might have been making a quip that didn't land correctly. And John Cleese seems to be one of those grumpy but ultimately nice fellows, much like my father in law, who will get wound up and say something silly he doesn't really mean - he was so reasoned and articulate in his argument with muggeridge. I am sure if he met me - a Christian, I love a bit of Jesus! - and we had a chat, he would not think I am stupid. He would not dare tell me so, anyhoo!!

...... and I have seen John Cleese denounced as a right wing whinger today which is surprising as he famously campaigned for the lib dems, didn't he?

I,hope he's talked to someone about men in women's prisons, especially the situation in California where they have idiotically also started putting pregnancy services in place and will hand out condoms. Because, y'know, those are lady dicks......nothing to see here

Hope he speaks to J.K Rowling, Maya Forstater or someone from the Legal Feminist. Rowling got so much bile for the mildest statements, basically questioning 'menstruators' as word for women. That was before she wrote her essay.

I don't think LoB is offensive to religion, but I do think that some of the things that they said about religion, and religious people, in interviews about LoB, were kind of ignorant and narrow minded. Which does tend to taint my enjoyment of the film a bit as it makes it seem less intelligent. Gives it a bit of a Richard Dawkins vibe.

I think this could be a very good show, anyway, though some people will dismiss it because he is not young, and we all know that the young have some natural connection to the morality of the future which is of course further along the road to Progress. It might speak to some people though who have been more reflexively assuming in good faith that the progressive left are of course on the right side of history.

I do wonder how far he will go in terms of really holding the feet of cancel culture to the fire. It's one thing to talk to people about gender ideology, but what about race, or BLM? What about feminism? What about gay rights? It could be done - Trevor Phillips did that very good little film about race - but if he is too honest he could end up with almost everyone being upset that their special cause has been put under question.

One of the brilliant things about Life of Brian was that it attacked groupthink. So as well as bashing the sheep who uncritically follow religion, it took aim at all those daft left-wing splinter groups, characterised in the film as the People's Front of Judea, the Judean People's Front and so on. Perhaps my favourite bit is when Brian tells the crowd: "You are all individuals" and they chant back: "We are all individuals!"

Very much a film for our time.