John Cleese has pulled out of a planned appearance at Cambridge University as a show of solidarity with Andrew Graham-Dixon, who was permanently blacklisted after giving a speech in which he impersonated Adolf Hitler. “I apologise to anyone at Cambridge who was hoping to talk with me,” Cleese wrote on Twitter, “but perhaps some of you can find a venue where woke rules do not apply.”
Graham-Dixon is an art historian and television presenter, and on November 9th he participated in a debate at the Cambridge Union with the prompt, “This house believes there is no such thing as good taste.” Via the Campaign Against Antisemitism, Graham-Dixon spoke in opposition of that motion. As part of his argument that good taste exists, he launched into a German accent for what Union President Keir Bradwell called the “longest Hitler impression” in the chamber’s history.
Quoting Hitler, he said, “This modern, horrible art that was promoted by the Jews.. and the modern art, it was cubist – inspired by the art of the negroes. This tribal art, urgh, how horrible is that? We must expunge this from our Deutschland. We are the pure, Aryan people. Our genetics is pure, our hearts must be pure, our tastes must be pure.”
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Graham-Dixon hoped to prove that there is such thing as good taste by offering an example of someone whose taste was not just inartistic, but overtly horrifying. You can decide for yourself whether a fake German accent was necessary to make this point. In his apology, he said he intended to “underline the utterly evil nature of Hitler and his regime”.
“I apologise sincerely to anyone who found my debating tactics and use of Hitler’s own language distressing,” Graham-Dixon said. “On reflection I can see that some of the words I used, even in quotation, are inherently offensive.”
In the aftermath, Bradwell said the Union “will create a blacklist of speakers never to be invited back,” adding that, “Andrew will be on that list.”
Today, November 10th, Cleese defended Graham-Dixon by referencing the fact that he himself had satirically impersonated Hitler on Monty Python’s Flying Circus. “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.” Check out a clip of Cleese playing the very Hitler-esque “Mr. Hilter” below.
Last year, Cleese defended transphobic author J.K. Rowling with his own transphobic tweetstorm, and protested the removal of an episode of his sitcom Fawlty Towers which was meant to satirize racism, and which featured a racist character who used the N-word. He is set to host a forthcoming show about cancel culture called John Cleese: Cancel Me.
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 HitlerI regret that I did the same on a Monty Python show, so I am blacklisting myself before someone else does
Advertisement— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) November 10, 2021
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
— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) November 10, 2021
