In a recent video for Big Think, John Cleese perfectly explains what’s right with political correctness, what’s wrong with it, why we need humor, and why some people should get offended.
First, he takes aim at people’s claim that they are “offended” by something, and the idea that taking offense at something gives them a moral upper-hand somehow. He says:
“The British newspapers offend me every day with their laziness, their nastiness, and their inaccuracy. But I’m not going to expect someone to stop that happening… Sometimes when people are offended they want someone to just come and say, ‘Stop that!’ to whoever is offending them.”
As a member (and de facto leader) of Monty Python, offending people was Cleese’s bread and butter. He says that he was once told by a BBC chairman, “There are some people one would wish to offend.”
Had John Cleese avoided offending people, most of his genre-breaking comedy efforts would have been completely wiped out, and modern comedy would be a completely different landscape. Had it not been for BBC’s willingness to support Cleese and the Pythons, and for their willingness to offend some people who need to be offended, we would be missing some of the best comedy of the past few decades.
Cleese quotes psychiatrist Robin Skynner as saying:
“If people can’t control their own emotions, then they have to start trying to control other people’s behavior.”
This is a problem, especially in light of recent college campus protests by groups seeking to “uninvite” guest speakers or performers. Cleese says he was warned about never performing on a campus for that reason.
He supports the idea of “political correctness” as being “a good idea: let’s not be mean, particularly to those who are not able to look after themselves.”
But he laments that term having been turned into “the idea that any criticism of any individual or group can be labeled cruel.”
He fears that this “ultra-sensitive-political-correctness” will lead to this end:
“Humor’s gone. With humor goes a sense of proportion. And then, as far as I’m concerned, you’re living in 1984.”
