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Kelly Rissman
US News Reporter
John Cleese has seemingly announced he is leaving X/Twitter, naming Elon Musk in his farewell message.
On Monday (9 September), the Fawlty Towers star, who recently said he is “surprisingly poor” after his successful five-decade career, did not give a clear reason as to why he had decided to leave, but he is the latest in a long line of celebrities who have decided to quit the social media site.
Since Musk’s takeover of the site, Elton John, Stephen Fry Whoopi Goldberg, Gigi Hadid and the Wire creator David Simon have all abandoned ship. It seems Cleese, 84, can now be added to that list following a post that read: “Good bye, Twitter And thanks for dinner, Elon.”
While his fans flooded his replies section with posts expressing sadness that he appeared to be leaving – and gratitude at having got to “interact” with him in recent years – the Monty Python star’s daughter was not so convinced.
Comedian Camilla Cleese, whose mother is Barbara Trentham, wrote: “This won’t age well. See you in the morning!”
John and Camilla are both working on a reboot of Fawlty Towers that will “explore how Cleese’s over-the-top, cynical and misanthropic Basil Fawlty navigates the modern world”.
At the press launch of a West End play based on three episodes of the sitcom, the actor revealed that plans to revive the show were still in motion.
He also told reporters that Fawlty Towers’ racial slurs had been removed from the production in an attempt to avoid offending the “literal minded” who “only have one interpretation of what’s been said”.
Cleese claimed that these “literal-minded” viewers were ruining comedy, arguing that they don’t understand when something is a joke. He then questioned whether any recent sitcoms would stand the test of time, stating: “I don’t know that people can name more than one or two,”
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Elaborating on his point, Cleese said “half the trouble is there’s too much change” in the world, adding: “What stresses people is change. Whether it’s good change or bad change, it doesn’t matter – it’s change, and I think everything’s changing so fast now.
“I think everyone is getting very anxious and when people get anxious, they behave in a more ratty sort of way and are more likely to become more and more literal minded, and I don’t know what you do about it. Uninvent the internet, I suppose.”
