Re: John Cleese (and imperialist humour)

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Although I completely agree that there is racist humor in Fawlty Towers
directed against the Spanish and the Irish, there is little in the show
to suggest the kind of fawning before imperialism that you find in the
novels of Evelyn Waugh or V.S. Naipul.

Basil Fawlty himself is portrayed as one of the biggest fools on the
planet. His own groveling before royalty and power of any sort serves as
a plot in one episode when a "Lord" Somebody comes to the hotel and gets
not only the red carpet but unsecured loans from the credulous Fawlty.
He turns out to be a con man, who takes advantage of Fawlty's belief in
aristocracy. The twist is that the con man is caught by a cop with a
cockney accent, who is regarded by Fawlty as working-class trash.

In an another episode, when Fawlty is complaining to the resident
Colonel Blimp about how all the auto strikes are ruining the country,
the audience guffaws at the obvious joke: Fawlty himself is utterly
incompetent as is the doddering Colonel.

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