UKTV
John Cleese Calls Removal of Fawlty Towers Episode That Uses N-Word “Stupid”
As a wave of media companies are pulling content that could be deemed offensively racist, the BBC-owned UKTV has removed a classic episode of the sitcom Fawlty Towers for its use of racial slurs. The show’s star and writer John Cleese has spoken out against the removal, saying executives trying “to hang onto their jobs” are “too stupid to see that” the episode was mocking the derogatory language, not supporting it. In the episode, entitled “The Germans”, Cleese’s Basil Fawlty has a conversation with Ballard Berkeley’s Major Gowen. The Major recalls a time he took a woman to a cricket game played by an Indian team, during which he uses racial epithets when referring to Indians (“w*gs”) and West Indians (“n*ggers”). While the episode is remembered fondly for its repetition of the phrase “don...
