John Cleese has said "literal-minded" viewers cause a problem when creating comedy as he feels they "don't understand metaphor, irony, and comic exaggeration".
The 84-year-old spoke at the media launch of his stage adaptation of Fawlty Towers, the classic 1970s sitcom he co-wrote and starred in as highly-strung hotelier Basil Fawlty.
Cleese explained some of the original dialogue used within the two-hour play, which merges three popular episodes into an overarching storyline, has been edited to remove "racial slurs" due to changing perceptions within society.
"I think there was a scene where Major (Gowen) used a couple of words you can’t use now, racial slurs they would come under, so we took that out", he said at a press event on Thursday.
"You see, there is always a problem with comedy that you deal with the literal-minded."
The play is based on episodes from the sitcom’s two series titled, The Hotel Inspector, Communication Problems and The Germans, which originally features a scene in which Major Gowen uses offensive language about the West Indies cricket team.
In 2020, the episode was briefly removed from UKTV’s streaming service, owned by BBC Studios, due to the "racial slurs" before it was later reinstated with added guidance and warnings highlighting "potentially offensive content and language" featured.
Speaking about the challenges of writing comedy Cleese said: "Whenever you’re doing comedy, you’re up against the literal-minded, and the literal-minded don’t understand irony.
"And that means if you take them seriously, you get rid of a lot of comedy because the literal-minded people don’t understand metaphor, they don’t understand irony, and they don’t understand comic exaggeration.
"The result is, if you listen to them, these are people who are not, as far as understanding what other human beings are saying and doing, they’re not playing with a full deck."
He also defended the central character within the 1960s comedy Til Death Us Do Part, Alf Garnett, who made offensive remarks, saying that viewers were "roaring with laughter at him, not with him" but also acknowledged that some were saying, "Thank God these things are being said at last".
Cast members of the new Fawlty Towers play, which sees Adam Jackson-Smith take on the classic role of Basil, performed two scenes during the launch of the show, which will begin previews at the Apollo Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue in the UK on Saturday.
The play will also see Anna-Jane Casey portray Basil’s wife Sybil, Hemi Yeroham play Spanish waiter Manuel, Victoria Fox as waitress Polly and Paul Nicholas as the Major.
The original TV programme, written by Cleese and his former wife, Connie Booth, ran on BBC Two for two series in 1975 and 1979.
Source: Press Association
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