Liberals and the Death of Comedy

Everyone understands that the left is against comedy, because humor punctures their precious earnestness. It is widely understood that Mel Brooks couldn’t make Blazing Saddles today, even if Richard Pryor wrote most of the script again.

But there’s another movie what can’t be made today: Monty Python’s Life of Brian. Although the film is mostly a satire of political extremism, at the time of the film’s release a lot of Christians criticized it for anti-Christian bias. But today the leftist scolds would object to this famous scene:

Now, you know what’s coming. In a recent announcement of new comedy programming on the BBC, the head of programming, Shane Allen, went out of his way to take a sideswipe at the Monty Python troupe, even though they haven’t performed together for almost 40 years now. I guess there’s no statute of limitations on making up for past crimes against leftist sensibilities:

In response to a question about Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Allen said: “If you’re going to assemble a team now, it’s not going to be six Oxbridge white blokes. It’s going to be a diverse range of people who reflect the modern world.”

This has sparked the only sensible reply from Pythonist Terry Gilliam (by far the most bizarre member of the troupe—he’s the one responsible for the clinically-insane cartoon work):

Speaking at a press conference at the Karlovy Vary film festival, where he was presenting his new film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Gilliam said: “It made me cry: the idea that … no longer six white Oxbridge men can make a comedy show. Now we need one of this, one of that, everybody represented… this is bullshit. I no longer want to be a white male, I don’t want to be blamed for everything wrong in the world: I tell the world now I’m a black lesbian… My name is Loretta and I’m a BLT, a black lesbian in transition.”

John Cleese also weighed in:

Gilliam follows fellow Python member John Cleese’s angry response to Allen’s comment, who tweeted: “Unfair! We were remarkably diverse FOR OUR TIME … We had three grammar-school boys, one a poof, and Gilliam, though not actually black, was a Yank. And NO slave-owners.”

Bonus chaser—this scene has always reminded me of every Democratic Party meeting ever:

Can we please extend the terms of Brexit to include getting out of the BBC?

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