John Cleese cancelled a scheduled talk at Cambridge University, claiming the school’s “woke rules” were to blame.
The British star was due to appear alongside the Channel 4 team behind his upcoming documentary series “Cancel Me”, about people claiming to be victims of cancel culture.
READ MORE: John Cleese Asks Ontarians For Help Finding A Place To Stay In Huntsville After Airbnb Troubles
Cleese seemingly referenced Andrew Graham-Dixon, a Union speaker, in his tweets Wednesday. According to Cambridge University paper Varsity, Graham-Dixon was blacklisted after impersonating Adolf Hitler and using racial slurs during a meeting last week.
The actor, who admitted he regrets doing a Hitler impersonation on “Monty Python”, posted: “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.”
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
— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) November 10, 2021
Cleese, who also impersonated Hitler while in character as Basil Fawlty in the ’70s sitcom “Fawlty Towers”, 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
— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) November 10, 2021
The Cambridge Union shared a statement on Facebook regarding Graham-Dixon’s speech:
According to Varsity, Graham-Dixon has since claimed that the impersonation was “not an endorsement of Hitler or antisemitism, but rather it was used as an example in his argument and to ‘underline the utterly evil nature of Hitler and his regime.'”
