John Cleese is looking to team up with Arnold Schwarzenegger for a new TV show.
John Cleese is looking to team up with Arnold Schwarzenegger for a new TV show
The ‘Monty Python’ comic, 84, has written a script for a new sitcom called ‘Lookalikes’, which follows a group of actors who make ends meet by impersonating Hollywood A-listers, and has revealed he is given ‘The Terminator’ star, 76, one of the first looks at the script.
He told BBC Radio 2: “My daughter Camilla and I came up with the idea for ‘Lookalikes’, a show about these people who stand on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles pretending to be famous stars.
“Somebody else then came up with the great idea of getting real superstars to play the lookalikes in the comedy... people like Arnold Schwarzenegger. And the script is with him at the moment.”
John recently revived his ‘Fawlty Towers’ sitcom for a new stage play in London, but admitted he watches “very little comedy” while lamenting at the lack of satirical shows that are available to modern audiences.
He told BANG Showbiz and other media at the press launch for ‘Fawlty Towers The Play’: “I'm watching very little comedy now.
“I was reading something that was written about a month ago when somebody was working out the number of really funny comedies that were on our screens in 1991.
“There was an extraordinary number, there was something like 30 really funny comedies.
“Now, I don't know if people could name more than one or two comedies now.”
The actor also spoke about the decline of comedy due to “literal-minded people” who “don’t understand irony”.
He explained: “Whenever you're doing comedy you're up against the literal-minded, and the literal-minded don't understand irony.
“That means if you take them seriously, you get rid of a lot of comedy.
“The literal-minded don't understand metaphor and don't understand irony and they don't understand comic exaggeration.
“The result is if you listen to them, people who are not understanding of what other human beings are saying and doing, they're not playing with a full deck.”
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