‘Monty Python’ icon John Cleese says ‘wokeness’ has had ‘disastrous’ effect on comedy

Legendary comic John Cleese ripped what many people are calling “wokeness,” saying it has had a negative impact on comedy.

The 82-year-old “Monty Python” star said there have “always been limitations in comedy,” but noted in an interview with Fox News Digital that the current moment is “particularly worrying.”

“A lot of comedians now are sitting there and when they think of something, they say something like, ‘Can I get away with it? I don’t think so. So and so got into trouble, and he said that, oh, she said that.’ You see what I mean? And that’s the death of creativity,” Cleese said.

To avoid being a victim of cancel culture, comedians are discussing topics that they feel are safe areas, according to the British comic.

Young comics, he said, are having the most difficult time.

“You see, my audience is much older and they’re simply not interested in most of the woke attitudes,” Cleese said.

That “wokeness” is having a disastrous impact on comedy, he went on to say.

“If you’re worried about offending people and constantly thinking of that, you are not going to be very creative, so I think it has had a disastrous effect,” Cleese said.

Ricky Gervais and Dave Chappelle are among the comedians who have been scrutinized in the past year over controversial messages in their work. They both received backlash over “transphobic” material in Netflix specials.

Chappelle still continues to sell out shows throughout the United States, according to media reports.

Cleese believes there should never be a time when a comedian is “canceled.”

What have other comedians said recently?

Cleese is certainly not alone in his thoughts about the state of comedy, which are shared by many other comedians.

Rowan Atkinson, known for his roles as Mr. Bean, has often rallied against cancel culture, The Irish Times reported.

“It does seem to me that the job of comedy is to offend, or have the potential to offend, and it cannot be drained of that potential,” Atkinson said in the June interview. “Every joke has a victim. That’s the definition of a joke.”

Jerrod Carmichael, a comedian who hosted “Saturday Night Live” earlier this year, took it a step further. He believes cancel culture is made up, he said in a roundtable discussion with Hollywood Reporter in June.

“If you make art and it causes some contention or it causes some whatever, I mean, that’s part of it, but the cancellation thing, I think that’s just to give boring people something interesting to talk about, like a ghost villain,” Carmichael said.

Steve Harvey has enjoyed a 30-year career in comedy, but he feels he would not be able to do stand-up in the current climate, according to Variety.

“Political correctness has killed comedy. Every joke you tell now, it hurts somebody’s feelings,” he said in January, going on to give a view similar to Atkinson’s. But what people don’t understand about comedians is that a joke has to be about something. It has to be about somebody.”

Stand-up comedian Bill Burr said on “The Pat McAfee Show” in December he has “the right to say whatever I want to say and say it the way I want to say it.”

“If they come up to me, and they have a legitimate thing then I’ll apologize to them,” Burr said. “But I’m not apologizing to a bunch of ... people because I told a joke (at a show) that they weren’t at.”

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