John Cleese has been slammed for a social media post sharing why ‘Hitler was preferable to Trump’ (Picture: ITV)
John Cleese has come under fire for sharing a post on social media comparing the reasons why ‘Hitler was preferable to Trump’.
The Monty Python and Fawlty Towers star, 83, sparked intense backlash for his post, in which he was slammed for his ‘joke’.
In the post he shared, the comedian and recent GB News host wrote: ‘Five ways that Hitler was preferable to Trump. 1. He fought for his country. 2. He never used a teleprompter. 3. He was nice to dogs. 4. He wrote his own books. 5. He never played golf. 6. He wasn’t a big fat slob.’
He then listed the reasons for ‘Five ways Trump is preferable to Hitler’.
‘1. He doesn’t practice genocide. 2. He has nicer hair. 3. 4. 5.’ Leaving the last three blank.
Unsurprisingly he was quickly flooded with comments by people questioning what he’d decided to share.
His post was met with intense backlash (Picture: John Cleese/ X)
‘It seems like you’re saying that you prefer Hitler to Trump, FYI,’ one user posted.
‘This is not a good take. At all,’ someone else shared.
Another added: ‘John, I love you and your volumes of work, but [am] disappointed in this tweet. It’s low hanging fruit and something a 15 year old keyboard warrior would write not one of the greatest comedic minds of the past 100 years.’
Many others said that Cleese’s days of success for comedic quips may now be behind him.
‘Your best days in comedy are obviously behind you,’ one person commented.
‘I remember when you were funny. So long ago,’ another shared.
The comedian doubled down on his comments after being criticised (Picture: Ken McKay/ ITV/ Shutterstock)
Soon after it appeared John had backed down, sharing: ‘I would like to apologise for my last tweet. It was a very bad joke, especially on Boxing Day.’
However, he quickly doubled down by re-sharing critical comments and taking aim at those who had called him out.
Responding to one, he wrote: ‘The literal minded are always with us. It’s a shame, because they miss so much.’
Then thanking a supporter who had said his original post was ‘meant to be a joke’, John added that ‘we must never forget that the literal-minded have no grasp of context’.
Many said the ‘joke’ was anything but funny (Picture: Reuters)
He then shared that ‘receiving insults from the literal minded is like being booed by a flock of sheep’, before going on to add he ‘never tried to amuse the simple-minded’.
‘There are plenty of comics who do, and you will enjoy them,’ he told one critic.
Back in 2021 Cleese withdrew from an event at the Cambridge Union, saying he was ‘blacklisting’ himself before ‘someone else does’.
The move by the Monty Python and Fawlty Towers star was in protest after the debating society banned art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon for impersonating Adolf Hitler.
Cleese previously did an impression of Adolf Hitler in an episode of Fawlty Towers (Picture: BBC)
He withdrew after referencing the fact he’d also impersonated Hitler in a Monty Python sketch.
‘I was looking forward to talking to students at the Cambridge Union this Friday, but I hear that someone there has been blacklisted for doing an impersonation of Hitler,’ he shared on Twitter at the time.
‘I regret that I did the same on a Monty Python show, so I am blacklisting myself before someone else does.
‘I apologise to anyone at Cambridge who was hoping to talk with me, but perhaps some of you can find a venue where woke rules do not apply.’
Metro.co.uk has contacted representatives for John Cleese for comment.
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‘Your best days in comedy are obviously behind you.’