Comedian John Cleese clarified on Twitter Thursday that he is not cutting the Loretta scene from his stage revival of the 1979 classic Monty Python’s Life of Brian.
“…and that all the actors – several of them Tony winners – had advised me strongly to cut the Loretta scene,” the post read. “I have, of course, no intention of doing so. So someone in the audience had called a journalist and misreported me.”
In response to one Twitter user, Cleese said, “These were absolutely top-class Broadway performers and they were adamant that we would not get away with doing the scene in NYC!” He continued, “I asked them, ‘Are Python fans not going to come because we’re doing a scene they’ve been laughing at for 40 years?’”
“Producers tend to be scaredy-cats, and they don't remember that the protests in NYC when ‘Brian’ was released meant we never needed to do publicity!!” He concluded.
It was reported Wednesday that Cleese was going to cut the joke in which the character Stan claims he “wants to be a woman” to have babies. He said, “It’s every man’s right to have babies if he wants them.” He also responds with “don’t you oppress me” when Cleese’s character Reg says, “But you can't have babies… You don't have a womb.”
Other rumors swirled that Cleese was cutting the “Bright Side” scene as well. He said the allegations were “untrue, for good reason.” He joked, “We don't want to upset Eric and it’s his only contribution to the Life of Brian script.”
Cleese slamed wokeness in 2022, saying that there is a “death of creativity” within the current culture. He said, “I think it's particularly worrying at the moment because you can only create an atmosphere of freedom where you're not checking everything you say critically before you move on.”
In recent years, comedians have been protested if they make jokes about the transgender community. Activists demanded Netflix remove Dave Chappelle from their platform after being accused of “punching down” for making transgender jokes in his 2021 comedy special The Closer.
