Comments on: John Cleese Carefully Considers Your Futile Comments.

John Cleese Carefully Considers Your Futile Comments.

crunchland — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:25:08 -0800

John Cleese Carefully Considers Your Futile Comments.

By: axiom

axiom — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:31:25 -0800

I was honestly expecting that to really be "John Cleese Ignores Your Futile Comments and Talks About Something Else Entirely" -- and was slightly disappointed that it wasn't. But I liked it anyhow.

By: maudlin

maudlin — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:34:15 -0800

Also: Eric Idle Responds to Your Fatuous Comments

By: Fizz

Fizz — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:34:50 -0800

The Jeff Dunham response is just classic, "If that's the sort of entertainment you like...." SNAP!

By: Sing Or Swim

Sing Or Swim — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:35:14 -0800

Yeah, it seemed out-of-character to me that he was respectfully giving straight answers. I think maybe he was coerced somehow.

By: maudlin

maudlin — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:35:15 -0800

Whoops -- link above is part 2. Here's part 1.

By: Harpocrates

Harpocrates — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:35:30 -0800

Michael Palin is a riot.

By: theichibun

theichibun — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:36:03 -0800

I would listen to John Cleese do commentary on grass growing. Or explaining calculus. But not reading the phone book, that still belongs to Morgan Freeman.

By: Winnemac

Winnemac — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:38:16 -0800

Easy to masturbate to.

By: Fizz

Fizz — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:38:24 -0800

But not reading the phone book, that still belongs to Morgan Freeman I understand some of the obsession with Freeman's voice and his narration skills, but give me Jeremy Irons any day of the week and I'd be a happy man.

By: found missing

found missing — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:40:58 -0800

Black knight reference--gore warning needed!

By: Glinn

Glinn — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:40:59 -0800

Had a big crush on him that waxed and waned over the years. But it faded after he appeared on the Graham Hancock show and talked about eating dog in China and was rather dismissive about whether they'd suffered.

By: maudlin

maudlin — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:41:09 -0800

Werner Herzog reading my grocery list.

By: Greg_Ace

Greg_Ace — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:43:21 -0800

... maybe he was coerced somehow. I still see the sharp tongue, but it's more subtle and understated; maybe he's just getting mellower in his old age. It could also be that he managed to exercise out most of the overt sarcasm and snark while making Monty Python and Fawlty Towers shows.

By: The Whelk

The Whelk — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:50:12 -0800

maybe he's just getting mellower in his old age. Cleese has said he resisted therapy for years cause he thought his anger was the only thing fueling his wit.

By: gimonca

gimonca — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:52:47 -0800

The Jeff Dunham response is just classic Indeed. "And I'm sure we'll all hear of him very soon." Hah!

By: charlie don't surf

charlie don't surf — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:54:29 -0800

I was puzzled by the reference to Jeff Dunham and puppets. So in a careful effort to avoid any actual exposure to alleged humor, I looked him up on wikipedia to see what he was all about. My initial instinct to do the research without seeing his act were vindicated.

By: Think_Long

Think_Long — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:56:10 -0800

"I'd rather be a greybeard."

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:57:43 -0800

I would climb 7,000 steps to meet John Cleese.

By: calamari kid

calamari kid — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 10:58:18 -0800

"I'd rather be a Greybeard." Ok, that was just geektastic. The thought of sitting down for a session of Xboxen with John Cleese is just about the coolest thing in the world.

By: alasdair

alasdair — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:02:04 -0800

Wait - you don't have elderberry cordial in the US? It's okay. You're not missing much. Kind of fruity, in a berry kind of way. Not bad at all.

By: Sing Or Swim

Sing Or Swim — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:04:12 -0800

Cleese has said he resisted therapy for years cause he thought his anger was the only thing fueling his wit. It seems to me I read an interview in which he said after undergoing therapy, he really didn't feel the same drive to work--he didn't feel the same need for approval or something that was feeding his comedy. I'm broadly paraphrasing something I read years ago and am probably getting it mostly wrong, but that was the general gist. So... thanks a LOT, therapists.

By: clarknova

clarknova — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:14:55 -0800

Wait. Wasn't this posted three days ago?

By: Obscure Reference

Obscure Reference — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:16:08 -0800

Glad to hear that Michael Palin has addressed sharing a name with the former Alaskan governor.

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:19:33 -0800

Right! Sarah is not Micheal's fault.

By: bonobothegreat

bonobothegreat — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:23:42 -0800

His nearly nude scene in A Fish Called Wanda had me in stitches when I first saw it. A 40 year old man naked! Hilarious! Time changes your perspective.

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:25:27 -0800

Yeah, it seemed out-of-character to me that he was respectfully giving straight answers. I think maybe he was coerced somehow. They didn't seem entirely straight to me, there's quite a bit of low-key wit in there. I agree he wasn't silly, but i think he was the first to get a little bored with silly after python. Anyway, he was once asked to give a talk about humor (probably far more than once, I'm sure) and responded that humor was probably the most boring thing in the world to talk about, and gave the talk on something else instead. Despite which, he does a pretty damn entertaining job of talking about it here.

By: le morte de bea arthur

le morte de bea arthur — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:35:02 -0800

I'm pretty sure he was confusing elderberry with elderflower, which is the light, fragrant one. Elderberry is just fruity, really.

By: le morte de bea arthur

le morte de bea arthur — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:35:52 -0800

And the elder plant as a whole, which I frequently have to rip out of my hedges, smells absolutely foul.

By: smartypantz

smartypantz — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:38:57 -0800

Why does John Cleese introduce himself as Michael Palin? Is this a joke I'm missing?

By: elpapacito

elpapacito — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:41:56 -0800

Ahaha that was great thanks crunchland!

By: found missing

found missing — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:42:40 -0800

Is this a joke I'm missing? Yes

By: elpapacito

elpapacito — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 11:43:14 -0800

Werner Herzog reading my grocery list I tought he masturbated to Zizek's tulips?

By: darkstar

darkstar — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:40:33 -0800

Loved his comments on the Dunning-Kruger effect at the end of this clip! :D

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:41:31 -0800

So here's a paper which seems to relate to the research he mentions by David Dunning at Cornell: Unskilled and Unaware of it: How difficulties in recognizing one's own incompetence lead to inflated self-assessments. Apparently this was awarded an Ig Nobel prize in 1999, which I can only hope is not disparaging of the research but rather of the innate hilarity of its findings.

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 12:42:59 -0800

Or what, darkstar said, sort of, as there is in itself a kind of irony in linking to a Wikipedia article when discussing people's flawed sense of their own competence, which is why I didn't do it.

By: jan murray

jan murray — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:36:53 -0800

John Cleese rant on football was rather amusing I thought. On another note. Having made elderflower cordial every year for the last 40 or so years I can tell you that the charactaristic light, fragrant bouquet is vaguely reminescent of cat piss. Quite nice in fact. Its a summer tradition here, picking the flowers usually a week or so before Midsommar.

By: EatTheWeak

EatTheWeak — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 13:54:53 -0800

As someone who seethes in resentment that Jeff Dunham fills huge theaters, I am cheered beyond measure to discover that he is beneath John Cleese's notice.

By: Splunge

Splunge — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:15:11 -0800

Cranberry: "Right! Sarah is not Micheal's fault." Nor can Sarah take any credit for Michael. Although she would no doubt try.

By: Muddler

Muddler — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:29:01 -0800

"If you're absolutely no good at something at all, then you lack exactly the skills that you need to know that you are absolutely no good at it. And this explains not just Hollywood, but almost the entirety of FOX News." The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual, honor the imaginative — and spur people's interest in science, medicine, and technology. Every year, in a gala ceremony in Harvard's Sanders Theatre, 1200 splendidly eccentric spectators watch the winners step forward to accept their Prizes. These are physically handed out by genuinely bemused genuine Nobel laureates.

By: Decani

Decani — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:56:42 -0800

Yeah, it seemed out-of-character to me that he was respectfully giving straight answers. I think maybe he was coerced somehow. posted by Sing Or Swim at 6:35 PM on February 18 That was absolutely shot through with understated sarcasm, damning with faint praise etc. Proper British humour, chaps. It ain't about Benny Hill. Really.

By: sammyo

sammyo — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 14:57:38 -0800

'twould be eminently appropriate to organize a significant Mifi block/cheering section for the event in the fall. It's free but get tickets early. (in Cambridge Ma)

By: ambrosen

ambrosen — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:09:54 -0800

le morte de bea arthur: "And the elder plant as a whole, which I frequently have to rip out of my hedges, smells absolutely foul." Elderflowers and subsequently elderberries grow on small-medium sized trees. You're probably thinking of ground elder which would grow as a weed in your hedges and smells foul. As far as I can think, elder shrubs would be too woody to smell. But there is a faint hint of wee in the smell of elderflowers, which is not that unpleasant.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 15:19:33 -0800

Having made elderflower cordial every year for the last 40 or so years I can tell you that the charactaristic light, fragrant bouquet is vaguely reminescent of cat piss. Quite nice in fact. I suspect you're infected with T. gondii.

By: Sing Or Swim

Sing Or Swim — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:00:52 -0800

That was absolutely shot through with understated sarcasm, My suggestion that he was being coerced was also meant to be understated humor. I gather from the fact that it's getting me lectured about Benny Hill that it may have been a little TOO understated...

By: alexei

alexei — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:17:42 -0800

If anyone's interested, bottles of elderberry cordial can be purchased at your nearest IKEA. It's pretty good.

By: HotToddy

HotToddy — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:38:14 -0800

Are we talking about elderberry cordial or elderflower cordial? Because they're not the same thing. Elderberry is fine, but it's the elderflower that's so aromatic and . . . well, sort of indescribable. Apparently. But good! I have a bottle going right now. It's delicious in a glass of soda water.

By: sid

sid — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 16:42:27 -0800

I <3 saft

By: ymgve

ymgve — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:01:37 -0800

Werner Herzog reading my grocery list. Someone should make a Werner Herzog GPS navigation voice.

By: eye of newt

eye of newt — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:31:35 -0800

I would listen to John Cleese do commentary on grass growing. Or explaining calculus. --theichibun Long ago at a company I worked for we had to watch these business training tapes. One of them was how to do job interviews, by...John Cleese. It was characteristically hilarious. The one part I remember is him giving a guy an interview, and loving to talk so much that the interviewee can't get a word in edgewise. He apparently made a bunch of things like this. I would love to see them again.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:33:55 -0800

I would love to see them again. Do a Google video search for "john cleese business videos" and you'll find quite a few things on YouTube.

By: Dojie

Dojie — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:43:07 -0800

This elderberry/elderflower/ground elder discussion may be the most bizarre derail I have ever witnessed. I have never seen any elder-plants personally and had no idea of the complexity and depth of elder-botany. But I do like the elder Cleese.

By: charlie don't surf

charlie don't surf — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:55:12 -0800

Long ago at a company I worked for we had to watch these business training tapes. One of them was how to do job interviews, by...John Cleese. Yes, I remember those too. The only one I can specifically remember was a sketch about the perils of setting your own appointments without informing your secretary, thus necessitating two schedule books and avoiding the inevitable disasters if you do not keep them in synchronization. Ever since then, it has been my goal in life, and my biggest failure having not attained it, to achieve a position where I have a secretary to keep my schedule.

By: taff

taff — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:08:48 -0800

John Cleese turned in to a very ugly racist and sexist man in his older years. He says he moved to Bath because he couldn't see any English faces in London. And his misogyny about his exwife...wow. He's just become a disappointing caricature of himself and it's terribly sad. Hrs no longer funny, he's a nasty bigot.

By: the bricabrac man

the bricabrac man — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 19:48:51 -0800

Nope. still funny.

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 20:08:41 -0800

Someone should make a Werner Herzog GPS navigation voice. You have made a choice to go south, a commitment. But the fact is, every day we take such choices and yet we reject the commitment. I think you should commit fully to south, make it not just now but for always. If you really do want to go south then you must declare war on north, disable your steering wheel and the reverse gear in your transmission. I'm quite convinced that south now and forever, with all that entails, is the only choice for someone really dedicated to the modern automobile. Continue ever forward. Off ramp in 300 meters. I hate the highway system with a deep and burning passion. Society has built up this monstrosity of concrete, covering everything, the immense destruction is killing us, it is ridiculous that we have spent such vast monies on slow and lonely suicide. Off ramp in 200 meters. The possibility is here, there are many routes you can explore. But maybe there is an alternative entirely outside the paradigm you've created, and that is walking on foot. These are not only your choices - as I am here in your automobile with you, these decisions become our collective ones. The only difference between you and me is that I can articulate these choices. Please select route on touchscreen. And so it looks already good, the destination is well within our grasp now. Turn right 100 meters. As you have missed your turn, rejected my advice, it is now that we encounter the true difficulties. But as men we must face this situation head on, there is nothing to be done but reconsider, make new decisions, and continue on this new way with the same conviction and drive that was in our hearts as we began the journey. Be ready to show awareness of the problems you have, and be an example to those others who will follow you on this path. Turn right 400 meters. We do not even know where we are standing. It doesn't take great genius to understand it, if our own location is unclear then getting closer to our goal is an insurmountable task. Please wait for GPS satellite reconnection.

By: Twang

Twang — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 20:26:26 -0800

elderberry cordial ... Kind of fruity, in a berry kind of way. Really... hmm. Chuck, Halle or Dingle?

By: quoquo

quoquo — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:06:32 -0800

Meatbomb, I read that out loud with a German accent and Herzogian Gewicht, which I am quite capable of or at least entitled to, being German and also a fan of his films and him being a total Mensch — and I have to say you did very well there. The Idea of the Autobahn has always disturbed me. It was invented by people who do not hold on to life dearly. A kind of reduction of life itself to something quantifiable. Now you may drive as fast as you want to.

By: It's Raining Florence Henderson

It's Raining Florence Henderson — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:16:42 -0800

Holy fuck, Meatbomb. That was awesome!

By: Meatbomb

Meatbomb — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 22:19:13 -0800

Thanks quoquo. Despite my elementary level German I have worked hard to build up my fake "German speaking English" skill. My English teaching and love of Germans and Germany has given me a more attentive ear for the endearing little idiosyncrasies of German English.

By: IAmBroom

IAmBroom — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 09:26:10 -0800

Having made elderflower cordial every year for the last 40 or so years I can tell you that the charactaristic light, fragrant bouquet is vaguely reminescent of cat piss. Quite nice in fact. I suspect you're infected with T. gondii. hippybear, I was busy composing a snappy retort along those lines... vaguely. Instead, I shall sit and sulk in the knowledge that my best could not have matched your wit. I hate you.

By: hippybear

hippybear — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 10:04:26 -0800

I hate you. posted by IAmBroom Well, we'll both have to live with your hate now, because I just MeFi Spoused you.

By: Smedleyman

Smedleyman — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:03:07 -0800

Why does Graham Chapman introduce himself as Michael Palin and apologize for calling the Hitler Channel the "History Channel" on the parrot sketch? Dick Cheney was not in that one. Anyway, Eric Idle sounds like Bilbo Baggins. Stolen the one ring? Well I feel very litigious. "If you're very very stupid, how can you possibly realize that you're very very stupid? You'd have to be relatively intelligent to realize how stupid you are... in order to know how good you are at something, it requires exactly the same skills as it does to be good at that thing in the first place...if you're absolutely no good at something at all then you lack exactly the skills that you need to know that you're absolutely no good at at..." More than Fox or Hollywood. That explains perhaps the fulcrum of human existence. Particularly coupled with Eric Idle's insight that: "I'm not a doctor, but I do have some basic gynecological knowledge."

By: apis mellifera

apis mellifera — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:51:18 -0800

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of ELDERBERRIES!

By: le morte de bea arthur

le morte de bea arthur — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 13:55:15 -0800

Elderflowers and subsequently elderberries grow on small-medium sized trees. You're probably thinking of ground elder which would grow as a weed in your hedges and smells foul. No, it's the elder tree all right. My hedges are 7 feet high, and the elders grow from nothing to the top of the hedge in a year. The birds eat the elderberries, poop out the seeds, and the elder trees spring forth. We've got elder trees (well, shrubs really) everywhere around here.

By: IAmBroom

IAmBroom — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 13:54:25 -0800

Well, we'll both have to live with your hate now, because I just MeFi Spoused you. Kinda perfect, actually, hippybear. Just like mom & dad then!

By: Cold Lurkey

Cold Lurkey — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 19:43:44 -0800

Meatbomb has made a fine contribution to the fine metafilter tradition of imaginary Werner Herzog narrations.

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 20:38:55 -0800

My English teaching and love of Germans and Germany has given me a more attentive ear for the endearing little idiosyncrasies of German English. Ah, but you missed the #1 idiosyncrasy of Gerglish: "if our own location is unclear" would have been spoken by a German as "when our own location is unclear" due to the wenn --> when transliteration error. I honestly haven't met a German yet who doesn't always use "when" for "if".

By: Greg Nog

Greg Nog — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 09:44:39 -0800

The possibility is here, there are many routes you can explore. But maybe there is an alternative entirely outside the paradigm you've created, and that is walking on foot. For anyone that enjoyed this, I heartily recommend Of Walking In Ice, which is Herzog's diary of a walk he took from Munich to Paris in 1974. He walked because he had an inkling that the walk itself might heal his friend, who was very sick. In true Herzogian fashion, he does not explain why he feels this, or what his logic might be, or whether the slow slide into hallucinatory imagery at the end of the diary is real or imagined; like many of his movies, the diary seems entirely unconcerned with defining reality or theorizing about motivations, and much more interested in the careful documentation of the obsessive human soul. It's Herzog at his Herzogiest!

By: Hoopo

Hoopo — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 11:57:07 -0800

A 40 year old man naked! Hilarious! He was almost 50 when A Fish called Wanda came out, but I don't think age was really the point so much as the fact he was a stuck-up pasty white guy.