John Cleese - Admiration For Black Humour

Admiration For Black Humour

In his Alimony Tour Cleese explained the origin of his fondness for black humour, the only thing that he inherited from his mother. Examples of it are the Dead Parrot sketch, "The Kipper and the Corpse" episode of Fawlty Towers, his clip for the 1992 BBC2 mockumentary "A Question of Taste", the Undertakers sketch, the Vomit episode in The Meaning of Life and his eulogy at Graham Chapman's memorial service.

Read more about this topic:  John Cleese

Famous quotes containing the words admiration, black and/or humour:

    Unfortunately the laughter of adults too often carries to the ears of the young the ring of ridicule, that annihilating enemy of human dignity. Like grownups, children enjoy participating in a joke and appreciate admiration of their wit and cleverness, but do not enjoy being the butt of the jokes
    Leontine Young (20th century)

    there’s a kind of lust feeds on itself
    Unspoken to, unspeaking; subterranean
    As a black river full of eyeless fish
    Heavy with spawn; with a passion for time
    Longer than the arteries of a cave.
    Allen Tate (1899–1979)

    Humour is the describing the ludicrous as it is in itself; wit is the exposing it, by comparing or contrasting it with something else. Humour is, as it were, the growth of nature and accident; wit is the product of art and fancy.
    William Hazlitt (1778–1830)