John Cleese Spars With ‘Idiot’ Fans Angry at His Trump-Hitler Joke: ‘Don’t Follow Me Anymore’

John Cleese is no stranger to getting himself in hot water for some questionable, right-of-center opinions on cancel culture and modern times, but he seems to have upset just about everyone with a tweet Tuesday listing the “five ways that Hitler was preferable to Trump.”

The “Monty Python” cocreator and star held firm in the hours that followed, sparring with “idiot” fans angered by the joke.

“Just don’t follow me anymore,” he told one user who decried the joke was the work of a “15-year-old keyboard warrior.”

“John, I love you and your volumes of work, but disappointed in this tweet,” user @Darkrumwithcoke wrote. “It’s low-hanging fruit and something a 15-year-old keyboard warrior would write, not one of the greatest comedic minds of the past 100 years.”

“Some people thought it was very funny, but they have a sense of context,” Cleese responded in a quote tweet, shown below. “Easily solved.”

That was just one of over 15 quote tweets Cleese shared responding directly to those upset by the joke. He also retweeted 15 users’ show of support.

The original tweet, viewed over 2.1 million times at the time of publishing, draws a direct comparison between former President Donald Trump and German dictator Adolf Hitler.

Listing the five ways Hitler was preferable to Trump, Cleese wrote that “he fought for his country,” “he never used a teleprompter,” “he was nice to dogs,” “he wrote his own books,” “he never played golf” and “he wasn’t a big fat slob.”

Listing the five ways Trump is preferable to Hitler, Cleese only wrote two: “He doesn’t practice genocide” and “he has nicer hair.”

Within the hour of posting, Cleese followed up the joke with what appeared to be a sarcastic apology, writing, “I would like to apologise for my last tweet. It was a very bad joke, especially on Boxing Day.” He then took some responders to task.

“It seems like you’re saying that you prefer Hitler to Trump,” one user said, to which he wrote, “The literal minded are always with us. It’s a shame, because they miss so much.”

“So you prefer Hitler to Trump?” asked another.

“I should have thought that was obvious to any idiot. If not to anyone else,” Cleese wrote.

When another user said that he’s walking on thin ice with that joke, Cleese said that that’s “the jester’s job.” And when another wrote that his “best days in comedy are obviously behind you,” he concluded, “At the age of 84 I should hope so.”

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