John Cleese to present C4 show 'Cancel Me'

Apparently LoB was advertised in Sweden along the lines of "so funny they banned it in Norway".

When LoB came out, I was a regular church goer, every Sunday without fail. Attended Catholic school, the church was run by Jesuits. Large Catholic family, almost all friends Catholic. LoB was banned at our local cinema so we all had to go to the next Council District to see it. Loads of us, all from my Church, my school, my siblings schools. Many of our parents saw it too. The Jesuits at my Church had no objections. The main thought seemed to be that if - IF - the film was mocking Jesus himself as Muggeridge and the Bish insisted, then God was actually big enough to take a bit of poking fun.

When I die, I may well go to Hell as my primary school teacher always predicted, but it won't be for seeing that film.

Incidentally, it has become a family favourite as dd loves it. It is one of our automatic 'go tos'.

Looking forward to this. "Plebity"(has a YouTube channel) also interviews cancelled people the host Sasha White was herself sacked from her job for her GC beliefs. I really like her style.

I hope Helen Stanniland is on this

I'd assume he'd cover a variety of viewpoints. I hope so. I also hope he'll invite some of those who are attempting to do the cancelling.

I hope he interviews both sides as that's the only way to show a balanced account of what the issue is.

.... I absolutely, by the way, would have completly bought all the arguments for LoB, regarding the pythons going through the new testament but unable to find anything in Jesus's teachings to satire; how they were not poking fun at jesus, but at the blind faith of the followers; how they treated the figure of jesus himself with respect and hired an actor and didn't show him on the cross, etc....

But for me it's the sneering way Cleese said, almost as a throwaway line, 'anyone who believes in a 2000 year old book is stupid anyway.....'...... Palin said something similar.....

But hey, its opinions, its comedy, its entertainment, and I can chose not to watch if I wish.

This I will be watching. With interest. And following the twitter discourse, which will undoubtedly be pointing out his age and privilege.....

Will his show focus only on those who have been cancelled for their gender critical views?

Or will he also be covering those who have been cancelled for their views on race, religion, homosexuality, immigration etc?

An intersectional wokey columnist did a hatchet job on him and the show in the Indy. Sticking the knife in because he is a white privately educated middle-class man. I wonder what % of the Indy are black working class people . The sneering vile personal attacks in the comments section was what was to be expected with very few reasoned arguments.

Always loved this as a kid - dad had it on a comedy LP.

And that wasn't even knowing the full background, and original debate. But seeing as it's now on topic.

I was raised Catholic, when LoB first did the rounds I didn't watch it for the obvious eternal hellfire reasons plus my soul.
As Babdoc said though after the first few minutes and the V. Mandy especially, it was obvious the only pisstake was me and my blind faith not Christianity.

It's not John's first rodeo so should be good.

It can be done!!

I should think an 81 year old would know an awful lot about most things.

Do we have a release date yet?

I just read an article about it, and I can't wait to watch it. The man is intelligent, deliciously funny and not afraid. So should be decent.

rabbitwoman, I am also a Christian, but I don’t find LoB offensive.
When the Pythons were writing the script for it, they were in the Caribbean, reading the New Testament to find ways to take the piss out of Jesus. But as they later admitted, they couldn’t find fault with a single thing he said or did.
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. The film makes it plain right at the start, with the Magi’s visit to the wrong stable, that Brian is categorically not Jesus.
Sorry, didn’t mean to divert the thread! And I hope Cleese still has his trademark withering sarcasm to apply to gender woo illogicality.

Looking forward to this.
I think JC will thoroughly enjoy it.
A pertinent LoB clip and my favourite,
m.youtube.com/watch?v=jlo7YZW8vPA

Don't you oppress me!

There you are, gaspode, what an interesting and stimulating conversation could be had! But that's the important thing - it could be had..... Whoever is going to hold these debates about gender identity will need balls of steel....

So he's actually being paid to offer an argument clinic?

... Also, isn't it interesting that in the first clip, Cleese and Palin are the young, sexy, passionate ones fighting the good fight against the stuffy establishment represented by two old men. And now, the biggest insult being thrown at Cleese is that he is old.....

...... I have the very controversial opinion of finding LoB highly offensive - watched it many many times, in fact it was my mum and dad that introduced me to it!

But the last time I watched it was during Channel 4's banned season, and I watched a documentary on the controversy surrounding it beforehand, where Cleese called all Christians stupid, and Michael pallin was quite sneeringly contemptuous of anyone who read the bible. I then watched LoB with fresh eyes, saw it for what it was, a sneering, disrespectful comment on faith by people who looked down on anyone who believed in God and thought they were stupid.

However, still thought it was really funny!! Biggus Dickus and all that.... Bright side of life was one of the first songs I learnt to play on the guitar. I would never try to ban LoB, and John Cleese et Al are entitled to their views and to express them. I would love to talk to him about it, I think it would be an interesting, lively but respectful discourse and we would emerge chuckling....

I always enjoy that LoB clip. Malcolm Muggeridge was insufferable. He probably counted on intimidating most interlocutors but he clearly had no idea of what he was facing when he agreed to take part in this 'debate' - both the huge popularity of the Pythons, but also their intelligence, wit and quick thinking.

I saw some reaction on Twitter to the C4 programme the other day. Depressingly, it seemed to boil down to 'What would he know about anything, he's 81' or whatever age he actually is. As mentioned above, ageism passes totally unnoticed.

Michael Palin is so sexy when he's angry, the little tiger!

I am so looking forward to this

And thank you @SorrelForbes for that link. As well as showing JC's debating skills, we got to see the lovely Michael Palin actually (and quite rightly) getting a bit cross. Also I'd forgotten quite how much of a hottie Paul Jones was