John Cleese responds to claim his mic was taken away after slavery joke
nme.coma controversial joke about slavery.The comedian and actor was attending a John Cleese In Conversation event at SXSW in Austin, Texas, on March 11 alongside comedians including Duclé Sloan, Jim Gaffigan and Ricky Velez.The Monty Python and Fawlty Towers star asked his fellow panellists who was more oppressed by colonisation and started discussing “competition” between cultures. “[People] get competitive about this business of being oppressed,” Cleese said. “You do know the British have been slaves twice, right?”According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sloan then took away Cleese’s microphone, saying: “I saved a comic whose career I respect”.
Cleese continued regardless, adding: “I want reparations from Italy.”However, Cleese and moderator Dan Pasternack have now claimed the microphone removal moment was done in a comedic manner, with the latter calling it “inspired and hilarious”.As reports of Cleese having his microphone “confiscated’ began surfacing online, the actor wrote on Twitter: “Next time the Editor of the Hollywood Reporter sends someone to review a Comedy Festival he would do well to send a reporter with a sense of humour.
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