An Australian TV host had a measured response after John Cleese tried to mock his Arabic name.
On Thursday (20 July), the comedian, 83, was a guest on talk show The Project to promote his forthcoming string of Australian tour dates for his live show An Evening with John Cleese.
As the interview came to an end, host Waleed Aly asked Cleese about his most famous show Fawlty Towers, which he is currently in the process of rebooting.
“We can’t let you go without talking a little bit about Fawlty Towers,” Aly said. “At least I can’t. I think it’s one of the greatest-”
However, he was interrupted by the Monty Python comic, who said: “I don’t want to talk about Fawlty Towers. You can talk about Fawlty Towers,” and jokingly turned his chair around.
Aly and his co-hosts saw the funny side, until Cleese turned back and made a dig at the presenter.
“What kind of name is Waleed, anyway? Is it an anagram?” Cleese said.
While his colleagues laughed, Aly look confused, but quickly responded: “No. It’s just Arabic. I take it your Arabic’s not great.”
“I tried to learn it once,” Cleese said. “There’s about four Hs and two Ks.”
Aly then taught Cleese how to say the name John in Arabic before joking: “This is compelling television.”
“More interesting than Fawlty Towers, anyway,” Cleese remarked.
The Independent has contacted Cleese and Aly’s representatives for further comment.
Fawlty Towers is widely considered to be one of the greatest comedies of all time. Cleese announced in February that he and his daughter Camilla would be bringing back the hit Seventies sitcom.
The actor and comic, who starred in the original Fawlty Towers series as hapless hotel owner Basil Fawlty, is making the new show in collaboration with Spinal Tap filmmaker Rob Reiner. Both Cleese and his daughter will write and star in the revival, which is currently in development.
The news prompted shock from comedy fans, many of whom questioned why the already adored show needed to be revived.
In recent years, Cleese has been known for railing against “political correctness” and “woke culture”, and is due to begin his own show on GB News later this year.
However, he disputed a headline claiming that the new Fawlty Towers show would be an “anti-woke nightmare”, saying: “The idea that it’s all going to be about wokery hadn’t particularly occurred to me.”
The original Fawlty Towers ran for two series of six episodes each, in 1975 and 1979.
