John Cleese has always been the member of the Monty Python team most keen on a verbal skirmish. At his best he can be quick, biting and vicious. The most famous example of this came in 1979, when he and his fellow Python Michael Palin took part in a late-night TV debate over their film The Life of Brian, a razor-sharp take-down of religious dogma, blind faith and people’s tendency to follow the pack. (“Yes!” a crowd shouts back in unison to Graham Chapman’s Brian in one of film’s most famous scenes. “We are all individuals.”) Cleese and Palin were paired with the evangelical Christian and former satirist Malcolm Muggeridge and the outspoken Bishop of Southwark, Mervyn Stockwood, who felt the film to be distasteful.
To use a contemporary phrase: Cleese absolutely destroyed his opponents. He made them seem out of touch, old fashioned and pompous. And yes, Cleese is no stranger to pomposity himself, but he’s excellent at harnessing…
