After so many recent instances of woke hand-wringing-grenades going off to expose the insufferable incapacity of Cultural Marxists to appreciate any kind of humor, one might think that the “Equity Brigade” would take stock, and learn the true meaning of “tolerance.”
But, after mindlessly attacking -- and being justifiably exposed as thought-police by – creative people such as Rowan Atkinson, Val McDermid, Tim Allen, and Morrissey, the cancel culture cretins seem hell-bent on embarrassing themselves.
Thus, even after foolishly trying to suppress and criticize members of Monty Python and their most recent projects, U.K.-based wokesters are at it again, this time going after John Cleese for his new West-End “Life of Brian” stage show – and, of course, completely missing the point.
The Telegraph’s Craig Simpson reports that during a read-through in New York, actors warned Mr. Cleese that a classic scene in the script ought to be changed, to protect the sensibilities of insensate woke. Curiously, it’s a decades-old scene that uncannily predicts the childish insistence of today’s mentally unhinged transvestite males and surgically-mutilated men telling people they can be “women.”
In the film, a group of Holy Land revolutionaries chat on the steps of an open-air arena, and Stan – a character portrayed by Eric Idle – tells his friends:
“I want to become a woman. From now on I want you to call me Loretta.”
Cleese’s character, Reg, appears dumbfounded, asking, “What?!”
Stan: “It’s my right as a man. I want to have babies…. It’s every man’s right to have babies if he wants them.”
Reg: ‘You can't have babies!”
Stan: “Don't you oppress me.”
Reg: “I’m not oppressing you, Stan you haven’t got a womb. Where’s the fetus going to gestate? You gonna keep it in a box?’
Evidently, truth is offensive to some people.
Related: Verboten! John Cleese ‘Blacklists’ Himself to Protest Woke Intolerance | MRCTV
God help us if architects and engineers start finding offense with the idea that 2 + 2 = 4.
In this instance, Cleese is reported by the Daily Mail to have noted:
“Cleese told an audience at his one-man show last week that when the scene (co-written with the late Graham Chapman) was performed at a read-through for the new show in New York last year, doubts emerged. 'At the end, I said to the American actors: 'What do you think?' And they said: 'We love the script, but you can't do that stuff about Loretta nowadays.'”
Wow.
This literally is a play that pokes fun at New Testament figures and themes, and yet THIS is a scene that has to be cut or changed?
To be fair, the original film ran into trouble because monied execs found certain elements to be too controversial, and it was Beatles guitarist and solo artist George Harrison who came through with his own partial funding, contributing to a long association with the Python productions.
Writes The Daily Mail’s Alison Boshoff:
“Concerns over its subject matter meant EMI films withdrew funding just a few days before shooting was due to start. Former Beatle George Harrison stepped in and formed HandMade Films to make the movie, putting up £3 million in funding. He can be seen in a cameo role in the film.”
Chortle.co.uk reports that Cleese took the actors’ advice, and he also has changed the ending, removing the crucifixion scene and creating a few new relationship dynamics.
So, after he has stood strong against wokeism, how ought one feel about Mr. Cleese working through the production maze to make concessions with the actors and see his show roll on? The best way to judge is to see the live show. In a way, by speaking up about it, Cleese already has helped folks learn another lesson about how absurd wokeism truly is.
And we can remember that as we laugh at their hysterics and histrionics.