British comedian and actor John Cleese has sparked controversy after comparing Donald Trump to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
In a message posted on X, the Fish Called Wanda, Fawlty Towers and Monty Python actor wrote that there were five ways in which Hitler was preferable to Trump, who is seeking re-election to the White House.
“1. He fought for his country 2. He never used a teleprompter 3. He was nice to dogs 4. He wrote his own books 5. He never played golf 6. He wasn’t a big fat slob,” wrote Cleese.
He continued by listing five ways Trump is preferable to Hitler, writing “1. doesn’t practice genocide 2. He has nicer hair,” and leaving the other three spaces empty.
The message, which has been viewed more than one million times, prompted hundreds of below-the-line responses, with many criticizing comedian Cleese for the comparison, and others writing it was clearly meant in jest.
Cleese later appeared to apologize for the message, sending another saying it was “a very bad joke, especially on Boxing Day.”
However, he then reposted a number of messages supporting the joke, including one saying: “They both have a silly walk”, a reference to the famous Monty Python comedy sketch.
This isn’t the first time Cleese has roasted Trump, who is leading the Republican nomination polls. After the former President tested positive for coronavirus in 2020, Cleese posted: “A doctor friend of mine tells me that Covid19 symptoms include delusions of grandeur, compulsive attention-seeking, extreme narcissism…”
Cleese also called Trump supporters “the stupidest people during an interview on ITV’s short-lived UK chat series The Nightly Show back in 2017. He is a former Santa Barbara resident.
Cleese recently began fronting his own chatshow, The Dinosaur Hour, on UK network GB News. The program made headlines last month when he revealed a man had once laughed so hard at his 1988 comedy heist film A Fish Called Wanda that they had suffered a heart attack and died.
The actor has been attempting to reboot classic comedy Fawlty Towers alongside Rob Reiner’s Castle Rock Entertainment. In February he claimed the show would not return to the BBC, as the UK’s public broadcaster would not give him sufficient editorial freedom. Should the series come to fruition, it would transport the central character of Basil Fawlty from his hotel in Torquay to the Caribbean.
