John Cleese thinks political correctness is "condescending."
The controversial comic has made jokes about a variety of cultural stereotypes during his career, but admits he finds it ridiculous there are certain countries which are off-limits to laugh at.
Talking about political correctness, he said: "It starts as a half way decent idea and then it goes completely wrong and is taken ad absurdum,"
The ‘Monty Python’ star elaborated on his point, by giving an example of a situation when his audiences became outraged by some of his gags.
He continued: "Make jokes about Swedes and Germans and French and English and Canadians and Americans, why can’t we make jokes about Mexicans? Is it because they are so feeble that they can’t look after themselves?
"It’s very very condescending there."
The 75-year-old actor – who married his fourth wife, Jennifer Wade, in 2012 – made the comments when speaking to fellow comedian Bill Mayer on HBO’s ‘Real Time’, with the pair also discussing the risk a comic takes if they joke about Muslims
Bill – who has been criticised for his jokes about Islam in the past – said: "[You can’t joke about] Muslims. Try that, see what your Twitter feed says."
The ‘Fawlty Towers’ star replied: "That’s not saying that you can’t, that’s just saying that they’ll kill you.
"But the problem is, if you are going to make jokes about people who are going to kill you, there is a tendency to hold back a little."
John Cleese slams political correctness
