An Old John Cleese Political Ad Gets a Boost From Joe Rogan

John Cleese’s social media accounts are chock-full of heated political opinions, peppered with the occasional “Ministry of Silly Walks” GIF that his assistants no doubt scheduled for him. Now, one of Cleese’s takes is reaching a lot of eyeballs — but it’s nearly 40 years old, and was shared by the guy who used to host Fear Factor.

Yes, podcaster Joe Rogan recently took to Instagram to praise an archival clip of Cleese from 1987, in which the ex-Python ironically argues for the advantages for “extremism,” which include how it makes you “feel good” because it “provides you with enemies.” Get it?

“If you have a lot of anger and resentment in you anyway, and you therefore enjoy abusing people, then you can pretend that you’re only doing it because these enemies of yours are such very bad persons,” Cleese deadpanned. “And if it wasn’t for them, you’d actually be good-natured and courteous and rational all the time.”

He went on to explain that the “hard left” demonizes police, judges and multinational corporations, while the “hard right” does the same with “noisy minority groups,” unions and Russia. He also suggested that both groups target “moderates,” who are clearly the biggest victims of all!

“John Cleese nailed it 30 years ago. Amazing how little things change,” Rogan claimed in his post. 

Cleese, too, has shared this video multiple times on his social media feeds, similarly arguing that it’s relevant today as it ever was.

Of course, it could be argued that Cleese comparing the scapegoating of minorities and workers to criticisms of corporations and the judicial system is a dangerous false equivalency. It should also be noted that his argument in favor of political centrism was actually an ad for the U.K.’s newly-formed SDP/Liberal Alliance. But it’s especially odd that Rogan would share this clip, considering that he regularly platforms extremists on his show, and just so happened to endorse one in a recent presidential election. You don’t get to pal around with people like Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson and then bemoan the lack of nuance and civility in modern political discourse. 

Not to mention the fact that Cleese himself recently called out Rogan for his unhinged, ill-informed rant about the “communist” hellscape that is Canada, which, it could be argued, is precisely the type of extremist rhetoric that Cleese was attempting to criticize in his ad.

But, as evidenced by his taste in TV shows, self-awareness may not be Rogan’s strong suit.