The Ministry of Silly Buggers

Semi-educated tenement Scots unite, our takeover of the English media is almost complete …

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Comments (19)

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  1. Brian says:

    He was taking the piss out of a public school educated Scot (and I dare say pompous, perpetually offended arseholes as Cleese has been doing his entire career- the hilarious thing is that it worked). Get over yourselves you tedious grievance monkeys.

    1. Jim Archibald says:

      I assumed he was being a pompous, perpetually offended arsehole which, you rightly remind us grievance monkeys, is his stock in trade. Public school is a very different appellation in Scotland, but then there is nothing so tedious as a misplaced belief in the hilarity of a ‘long past it’ comic actor. Oh, and public schoolboy. Mustn’t forget that. He patently hasn’t… Back in your box, Brian……

      1. Graham says:

        Whether or not Cleese was genuine is irrelevant to the fact that all this faux outrage at such a minor incident is embarrassing to the Indy cause. It makes us look like petty weak chinned nationalists and a gift to the Yoons.

        ‘The rush to be offended is far far worse than the offence itself. It is the refuge of the fanatic.’

        Zhou Enlai on the Cultural Revolution.

        1. I take your point and it may be minor but its not isolated.

          It is also inconceivable to imagine a similar profile figure saying anything like this about English people (thankfully).

          1. Mary Mac. says:

            Such conceit from a site whose founder publicly stated he thought there should be a ‘social audit’ on English in Scottish public life. You couldn’t make it up.

            I’m English (from Teeside) and have lived in Scotland most of my life, 20+ years – primary, secondary school, university, job and I have no issue with independence. But I get sick of being patted on the head by nationalists and told there is no anti Englishness in Scotland. It is one of the defining aspects of Scottish so called culture, whether it’s the endless anti-englishness in the playground – you stole all the oil?, whether it’s the posh chippy nationalist teacher mocking your flat northern vowel accent in front of the class because you can’t ‘speak scots’ ye ken, or in the pub and everyone is singing in unison ‘if you hate the fucking English clap your hands’ and cheering when England fans get battered by Russian neo-nazi’s. Whether it’s going for a job interview and one of the interviewers has a yes badge on and you know you instantly don’t stand a chance, whether the whole cultural agenda is designed to put alienate English people, because Scottish culture is soooooooo different from the culture Lancashire or Northumberland or whether it’s being endlessly portrayed as effette arseholes as in Braveheart, or whether when someone, who happens to be English John Cleese makes a stupid remark it becomes a national issue and all English are to blame and lumped together.

            I dare say there is anti Scottishness in England also, especially in the South, but get off your high bloody horse.

        2. Jim Archibald says:

          Whose offended, Graham? Such candour, if it is indeed that, is preferable to the patronising rhetoric of the majority of Tories. He’s a grumpy old git,but then aren’t we all…

          1. Pilrig says:

            No……

  2. Big Jock says:

    Ironically all the Scottish media is run by the British establishment. The millionaires own the papers not the tenement Scots. I bet some people in London would pay 1 million pounds for some of our tenements. They are just jealous gazing from their 6 by 4 boxes in Central London! We have hills and air you can breathe!

    1. c rober says:

      Edinburgh , hard pushed to hear a tenement twang even when its naw the season for the friends of dorothy.

      IF Scotland gets a clause for eu membership while part of the Uk , you may well be righter than you jest.

  3. Kenny Mathieson says:

    The nuance of a public school educated twit like Nelson and someone who has worked their way up from a tenement (like many have done and should be commended) to a position of influence, is probably lost on Cleese.

    As for his generalisations, are you surprised some English people think this of us?

    It is pretty obvious the blue and red tories do.

  4. MBC says:

    He’s obviously rented a flat at the Edinburgh Festival.

  5. jake says:

    These former tenement dwellers all now want their detached property in a semi-detached country.

  6. Onwards says:

    Aside from the ‘tenement Scots’ snobbery, Cleese actually has a point about the servile type of toadying Scots who will gladly do their masters bidding.

  7. Wullie says:

    As a “Tenement Scot” myself I never ever found Cleese remotely funny, his is the kind of humour-less humour which pleases the English & used to be panned relentlessly in the old Glasgow “Empire!”

    1. c rober says:

      Proper middle class , middle englander humour – up there with german comedy , hardly unsurprising really as they perhaps have more in common with them than with the Scots.

      They dont get Scots humour , or irish for that matter , which is imo so similar they are perhaps identical to a point. Sure they like to see scots comedy , with subtitles , whether its on the beeb or laughing at some benefits monkey via poverty porn programming or Kyle “who is yer junkie da?” dna testing episode.

      Two doors doon , nuff said. Half staffed by English actors that cant get a job , yet portrayed as Scottish sitcom , yet is more akin to middle class English comedy. Doomed , we are all doomed , tokenism Scots in any other sitcoms , or perhaps “I dont beleeeeeve it”.

      Mrs Browns boys , its popularity was an accident a long drawn hard worked one sure , Still Game cancelled and only reprieved as a result of the former for a filler while the wee irishman tries to knock up some more scripts.. Hardly surprising Still Game ended , or the program that spawned it , as the money train that is BBCS continues to fill the coffers of the south for its programming needs – or is that the cost of the 40 percent wage premium of the London based entertainment help.

  8. Lochside says:

    Ah John Cleese, the man who wrote that side-splitting sketch about some hapless Germans staying in an English hotel and being abused by a middle class English bigot shouting ‘don’t mention the war!’. At least in that episode he had the excuse of having been concussed.

  9. I remain your humble servant etc. says:

    I am confused a little By Mr Cleese.
    I was born and brought up in a tenement (Govan) but got a scholarship to a private school – no need to pay fees as one of the deserving poor.
    I went to University, obtained 2 degrees then a number of professional qualifications and became a Member of Her Majesty’s Overseas Civil Service for a number of years.

    Does this make me half educated or more than half educated or not educated enough for Mr Cleese or am I still too ‘chippy’ to matter?

    I can tell from my education however that he is clearly an obnoxious twat.

  10. Alastair Naughton says:

    As someone who loved the Life of Brian, And Now For Something Completely Different, The Meaning of Life and Fawlty Towers, I find it hard to be angry with John Cleese. Let’s just put it down to a lapse of judgement. We’re all human, we all make them. Now, “always look on the bright side of life………”

  11. Robbie Carroll says:

    A has been trying to fan the fire,he’s not really worth the bother of further description.

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