Comedian pulls out of Cambridge Union event

John Cleese has pulled out of a Cambridge University event amid a ‘cancel culture’ furore.

The Fawlty Towers star was due to address students at his alma mater this Friday – but has ‘blacklisted himself’.

His move came after art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon was banned from speaking at the Cambridge Union debating society after a discussion of good taste last week.

In it, he caricatured Hitler – and later explained he was ‘briefly paraphrasing his crass and insensitive statements about art and race’ to mock them.

However, the parody proved too much for some students,  and Union president Keir Bradwell said the ‘deplorable remarks’ and ‘thoughtless and grotesque language’ had offended students.

He added that the Union now plans to ‘create a blacklist of speakers never to be invited back, and we will share it with other unions too… Andrew will be on that list’.

Cleese was due to address the society  in an event filmed for his forthcoming documentary series for Channel 4 about ‘woke culture’ entitled – appropriately enough – Cancel Me.

But the 82-year-old comedy veteran tweeted today: ‘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.

‘I regret that I did the same on a Monty Python show, so I am blacklisting myself before someone else does.

In a second tweet, he added: ‘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.’

Published: 10 Nov 2021