John Cleese Rose d'Or Lifetime Achievement Speech

[@yapproger]

I am proud to say I have met John Cleese several times and he is a very unpretentious friendly lovely guy. He has a huge talent & I thank him & his many hours of comedy seen over the years, a great guy!

[@NSResponder]

I can't even begin to describe how much I've loved this man's work over his whole career. Hollywood uses the word "genius" all over the place, but Cleese is the real thing. -jcr

[@MYVIDEO632]

What an amazing backdrop for such an illustrious occasion. Kudos to the stage management.

[@virgilgrissom7753]

I like it, very utilitarian.

[@Andy-lm2zp]

lol funny!

[@OlviMasta77]

Wow such cinematography. Much audio engineering.

[@johndutchman]

haaa ... was about to say the same, and yours was Top comment.

[@ChristianTheChicken]

Skillful gibberish at the beginning

[@ownpetard8379]

Certainly intended gibberish, but I have seen him do it more expansively and clearly. I suspect he wasn't fully on his game - perhaps age or jet-lag. The rest of the remarks was good, but again, not his best. He and Michael Palin are so interesting, that you hope that if you met either of them you could keep his interest for a while. (Same with Terry Jones, but he seems to be more closed off than Cleese and Palin. And no slam on Eric Idle, but have no pretense of keeping his attention.)

[@Arjan5451]

The House of Lords has missed a talent!

[@sim5847]

Its Unwinese - Stanley unwin

[@j_freed]

Alex Lifeson raised this to a high art.

[@LeSpitzbueb]

Genius. He is always in my heart.

[@ScoopexUs]

My left ear thanks you. The other one is on the fence.

[@CheekyFest]

frustrating isn;t it

[@donniecatalano]

LOL

[@j_freed]

What’s a Left Speaker. 📱 ?

[@aikishugyo]

After listening to tons of interviews with John Cleese, I finally grokked what he meant with Mr. Mills giving the group the go-ahead, that he simply understood and recognized creative people, and talent. Something so obviously missing from management in general, exactly for the reasons he mentioned so many times. Awesome!!!!

[@jimmy27paul]

Cleese has the life force, he will live to over 100 like his mother.

[@theresa837008]

jimbob jim I hope so

[@Lucas_Jeffrey]

Palin is going to outlive him by 30 years lol

[@MsJokyo]

Congratulations! You deserve this so much!!!

[@brigittefellendael8440]

Cleese, my very favourite ever :-) I just love him :-)

[@DAW1968]

Legend.

[@PrincessReka]

His 'acceptance speech' (gibberish though it was) by far the most intelligent one I have ever heard :D

[@movielover4244]

True icon

[@37Dionysos]

Thanks! 12:00 to 14:00---"The people in charge have no idea that they have no idea of what they're doing." Moral of the story---Ignore the block-headed businessmen, get your creative product out there any way you can, and when the money starts moving, the critics and business crowd will turn (literally) on a dime. Certainly proved true in my case too.

[@martinstent5339]

The phrase “So full of shit that you don’t even know it” comes to mind 😊

[@37Dionysos]

@@martinstent5339 Spoke from experience. Care to explain your chunk of flung dung?

[@martinstent5339]

@@37Dionysos I was referring to the “they have no idea that they have no idea of what they're doing." Some years ago I read the story of Data General Computers, and in that story (The Soul of a new Machine) one of the engineers is having moments of self-doubt and says to his colleague “I’m often afraid that we are so full of shit that we don’t even know it”. Meaning that they are so ignorant (in their field) that they don’t even realise how ignorant they really are. I was supposing that the phrase “full of shit” meaning ignorant is very prevalent in our culture and so the phrase “so full of shit that they don’t even know it” would be easily understood. Maybe I was wrong.

[@37Dionysos]

@@martinstent5339 Indeed---but it seems anybody can go soft-brained in an enclosed complicated high-pressure field, especially when feedback from the non-professional end is mostly ignored. Must be why, when my browser jams, I get a message: "Chrome Is Not Responding." Well, isn't that a response? If I get that, why not something helpful?

[@j_freed]

@@37Dionysos - oh software designers are bonkers. In the boutique world of Pro Audio the blinkered retardation of functionality and interface runs deep - including those useless notifications you speak of… Worst are the ones you need to Click on every time they decide to waste your time with a useless notification. Like oh, let’s burden the user 1000 times with a useless task rather than letting them hit Return or Esc. Clueless dingbats.

[@bogdanprzekop281]

It's always a distinct pleasure...

[@TheAslakVind]

What a master!

[@mrthingy9072]

"The people in charge who make the decisions have no idea what they're doing." That can be applied to ANY corporation anywhere in the world, in my humble experience. Not just the movies - EVERYTHING.

[@brianjacob8728]

or they have a different agenda from the one you expect them to have...

[@aikishugyo]

When John Cleese is talking about the details of Monty Python from around 2:00 or so, for several minutes, it reminded me of what he said about talking with British PM Harold Wilson at a party, where that windbag tried to impress him with his memory by describing in excruciating detail the 1893 Labour convention or something like that. Just cracked me up so much. I don't know if there is anything John Cleese can say with a straight face, or any other face, that is not in some way related to something so silly or funny that he has said in the past, that is in guaranteed to crack one up simply by association. If anyone should live forever, it is John Cleese (since the other Pythons are not very good, LOL --- I love them all, more so as I understand more about each one's strengths).

[@iwaisman]

Thanks

[@Gravolez]

The audio production guys have not done an amazing job with one channel missing

[@TadRaunch]

Phew, I just thought I had gone deaf in my right ear. No... no wait, I have. Bollocks.

[@brahmburgers]

I've been a song writer for nearly all my 70 yrs. Ages 22 to 34, I was a hermit of sorts, and sent numerous studio demos by mail to A&R people in L.A., CA. A few close calls, but nothing gelled. Cleese's speech crystalized the situation. Uncreative folks in lofty towers aren't capable of gauging talent. It's akin to the NYC music exec who, when cleaning out his desk in 1970, found an early Beatles tape which he had passed on years earlier.

[@timjones6204]

polls, critics and so called knowledgeable studio execs matter not, the audience will always be the real visionaries.

[@dodgedandle8311]

One of the ALL TIME GREATS of Comedy, Writing and Acting, A true genius who Really made and contributed what was funny about The English and Someone we should all be proud of.. God Bless John Cleese 🌞⭐️❤️

[@JonathanChaseHypnotist]

Wonderful observations.

[@jonssonwesslenjonssonwessl1695]

Love it

[@vidalaac]

Just brilliant!

[@frankschrodinger1424]

Half the audio engineers were missing on the day, i assume?

[@megapengmusic]

they have no idea that they have no idea....love it!!

[@runcycleskixc]

people in charge have no idea what they are doing. Thank you.

[@janisthompson9801]

'Seinfeld' is the Amurican show where the talent was respected. The 'little show about nothing'.❤️🇨🇦❤️

[@patriciaotoole5930]

He is a funny man

[@TheNakedWombat]

He's right, you know.

[@admiralpercy]

Definitely thought he was having a stroke for the first seventy seconds.

[@setsappa1]

Same here, no sound.

[@patriciaotoole5930]

He was so funny man

[@ElvarMasson]

Was ?

[@deerhomeent]

I think he got it half right. The goal of an studio executive is to earn more money and secure what has been achieved profit-wise. This collides with the production of something creative and subjective like a comedy movie. The studio can only access and analyse data of movies that have been released. Producing something new and fresh is at the same time risky because there is normally no evidence that this is going to be successful. So, in my opinion the difficulties he described to get the money for one of his extraordinary movies are in the ability to communicate the potential and/or the lack of risk-taking by the studios. By the way, this behaviour can be seen in game development, literature, TV production etc. Making something new and creative is risky because there is no data that it could work-hence there are so many sequels because this is rather save. So, either you can 'infect' someone with your idea in order to help you no matter the chances, or executives are allowed and willing to take risks in a reasonable manner.

[@lpsp442]

The ultimately and crucial thrust of the point Cleese is making is that, to George Harrison and Mike Mills and the other handful of financiers who "got" it, there WAS no risk. They could see, as clear as day, that The Holy Grail, Life of Brian, Fish Called Wanda, Flying Circus and so on were going to triumph. When the six Pythons put forward their pitch to Mills at the BBC, they had no idea what they were going to do. And it didn't *matter* one jot. Six talents like that with their chemistry will make some thing great, whatever form it may take. Fellow creatives can see that. It's only a """""""""risk"""""""""" in the eyes of the supermajority of executives because they can't recognise the brilliance in advance. Dunning-Kruger: they lack the very skills needed to recognise something that sets the soul alight, they cannot tell the difference between people who can and cannot create, because they they selves would be creators if they had that ability. They can only recognise the success of a product after the fact, but they never grasp the reasons why. It's precluded by their own lacking that ability in the first place. Their efforts to "recreate" or even outright "manufacture" creative success are invariably more ghastly and monstrous than their shrugging indifference. What John Cleese is compelling us all to consider is what factor of humans, human civilisation and humanity is it that leads to people who have no ability to make anything creative, and thus no ability to understand creative works and see clearly what will succeed or not succeed, having the incalculably daft privilege of control over creative enterprises. It's a simple case of failed meritocracy, and the answer at the bottom of the riddle has great implications for how our societies treat each other and reassure each other that may be very surprising.

[@lpsp442]

The important thing to understand about executive power is that it's the most boring, staid and predictable occupation in the world. Cleaning lavatories is literally more exciting and engaging. No creative mind, heart, body, brain or soul would ever remotely wish to shackle themselves to the position of executive power. And yet there is a certain crust of humanity that routinely craves just that position. Because power and predictability are a recipe for safety, and if there's one thing that not particularly creative people crave, it's more security. Every comfortable executive power you ever meet, see or know of is a man or woman who can only sleep well at night by calling insane shots they have no right in making during the day, because said calling of shots gives them influence and an outsized revenue stream. Cravers of security dream of power and money, yet they have no dreams for what to do WITH even a single penny of it. They just like the idea of having more and more and more of it, because it makes them feel safer and safer. And so it is that the spirit of the world dies of boredom. For the sake of the behinds of the dispiritedly dull.

[@obliquusfasciculare9963]

You go man!

[@trickcyclists]

No audio !!! ..

[@ianrand9737]

can someone write down the gibberish at the beginning?

[@MrPaulmorris7777]

Is that Jurgen Klopp in the audience? 12:38

[@progressiverockvocal]

OMG what a dead bunch of people in that crowd... The gibberish was brilliant.. it was worth a chuckle... God.. loosen up..!

[@mauricen9688]

What a world this could have been had the reins or at least funding been given to creative people who were masters of their craft. Not just the movie industry but everything. Instead we have a world run by politicians.

[@MarilynCrosbie]

I gather that you have to believe in yourself and your project and be persistent.

[@d.k.1394]

hi all

[@robengelsman6632]

I Hear nothing.

[@ElvarMasson]

My right ear missed most of what was said in in this video👂

[@jessicahyde6758]

FEST & FLAUSCHIG!

[@louisadams7205]

Everthing in Germany looks like the Berlin wall.

[@andypianoman2732]

lol

[@thurianwanderer]

It reminds me of my bunker. You know, the German translation of that particular joke that can kill people, somewhere, it's still out there ^^

[@williamsmith5896]

You'd think a broadcast union would have a sound guy....

[@ElvarMasson]

Exactly

[@Clause828]

"other creative people" for those in BBUS 475

[@eriktempelman2097]

It's the pattern. "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" was also rejected by the suits. Many, many times. It only got published thanks to a publisher of manuals. Go figure.

[@lpsp442]

Slightly annoying that they focus on the audience for several seconds at the beginning and not at the antics of the John Cleese that's making them laugh.

[@ThonColinFilms]

Bloody brilliant. Shame about the plonker at the end.

[@stevecirceo]

Yeah, what the hell was that about? "Me funny too." Not so much.

[@MYVIDEO632]

Did you see the look on Cleese's face there? Well, it gives him another story to tell.

[@yoya4766]

Up his own arse arrogant shite. Just ruined the whole presentation. Bet he was sacked for this.

[@ElvarMasson]

Where in the end ?

[@ThonColinFilms]

@@ElvarMasson The man that comes in at the end- he’s not funny and is actually quite rude! Look at John’s face- he’s trying to tolerate a fool.

[@doghammer1]

Well. Now I know right pronunciation of Monthy Python) Thanks

[@VambeefcoHorzey]

doghammer1 Only Americans pronounce it incorrectly.

[@ElvarMasson]

Monty

[@doghammer1]

Cool. When I die.I wanna be a bit like popular, like him.

[@rerite2]

LOL!

[@j_freed]

I love how he makes the point of the first 40 seconds of predictable blather at awards speeches makes absolutely no difference…

[@petere6162]

There comes a stage in ones life when you must stop describing yourself as “silly” in favour of “irreverent”. Unless you are this man

[@hollyylloh515]

Pm for Pm 🇬🇧

[@PaulRoneClarke]

When none creative people want creative input. I mean buying the equipment, making sure everyone arrives on set, there is catering, everyone gets paid, advertising is sold, the tech works, the creatives have access to all the tools they need etc. That all requires a lot of none creative work to be done. But none creatives thinking they can pre-guess the creative process? "This is not funny"??? Sounds like Don Ohlmeyer firing Norm Macdonald all over again.

[@kelvyquayo]

What British people sound like to most Americans 🤣🤣🤣

[@DyoKasparov]

European Broadcasting Union dpesn't know shit about audio

[@zacktong8105]

Very perceptive; perhaps this explains why there have been no successors over the past 40 plus years to our great loss. Producers simply haven't the understanding or courage to back really good comedy.

[@davidmacey5422]

100pc correct. Shit films being commissioned by incompetent Execs while ignoring the thousands of brilliant scripts/writers outside of their little bubble.

[@OlviMasta77]

How tf does the "European Broadcasting Union" have such shitty production value?

[@keithhedger6227]

.

[@mat9813004]

He must be getting very tired of the Monty Python theme music playing all the time.

[@ElvarMasson]

He's probably used to it

[@johndutchman]

Experts suck ! Bring back the Perts !

[@andypianoman2732]

rotfl

[@MrDavidht]

Never thought Monty Python funny.

[@j_freed]

Most satire isn’t if you really look at it. It’s just a mirror of what we are.

[@Thisnameistaken11]

Boring old racist..