John Cleese Is Leaving Twitter — Again — In Search of ‘Better Class of Person’
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: John Cleese is leaving Twitter.
If your eyes start rolling to the back of your skull, that’s probably because Cleese has stomped around promising to leave the party before. It was just last September when the high-drama comic huffed a public farewell.
That exit lasted a full eight days before Cleese needed to respond to an eight-month-old tweet from ex-Python mate Eric Idle. Cleese’s own daughter Camilla predicted he wouldn’t be able to stay away for long. Turns out she knows the old man pretty well.
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Now Cleese says he’s had enough of Twitter — again — and he really means it this time. Maybe. “Hello, Twits,” the comic says in his probably-farewell video. “I just want to say to all my beloved Twits that I am moving to Substack because I think I would encounter a better class of person there. And also, it’s not owned by You Know Who.”
And with that final kick to the shin of Elon Musk, Cleese launched his Substack. Hearing Cleese’s future rants will cost you — the price of admission is eight bucks a month (or $6.67 a month if you’re willing to pony up for an entire year). For the price of your email address, Cleese is generously offering one free post. Hey kids, the first taste is free.
The Substack accomplishes two goals at once. First, it’s practically a Monty Python trope for its surviving cast members to cry poor. With 13,000 subscribers so far, Cleese has a chance to make a few bucks (although it’s unclear how many of the 13,000 are paid readers). Secondly, Cleese likely will encounter a better class of person on Substack. A few rich trolls might spend $80 a year to tell Cleese he’s full of shit, but why bother when you can stick it to Ricky Gervais on Twitter for free?
I haven’t turned over my credit card, but Deadline reports that Cleese is already posting on his Cleese Products blog. “I used to like Twitter but always felt very constrained by the 144 limit. This brought problems for the irony-challenged, who misunderstood a lot of what I was trying to say,” he wrote. “I hope that now I am on Substack I can offer ideas of greater subtlety to my ex-Twits, whom I shall refer to henceforth as ‘my followers.’”
One thing that Cleese’s “followers” may miss? His antagonistic social-media fights with folks like Idle and Piers Anthony. Watching Cleese get his starched undershorts in a bundle was one of the most entertaining aspects of his old account. Maybe he can find a way to keep the feuds going on Substack.
Tuck this one away as well: Nowhere in his “I’m leaving!” video does Cleese state definitively that he’s decommissioning his Twitter account. If business gets slow over at Substack, it’s not hard to imagine Cleese firing off a few tirades to entice new customers.
