John Cleese poked fun at Fox News on Monday after a report from the network unknowingly quoted Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
The Story host Martha MacCallum was covering Seattle’s Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), apparently headed by hip-hop artist Raz Simone, and the segment included claims there was infighting among protesters who have occupied the area for weeks.
In her report, MacCallum pointed to a since-deleted post on Reddit questioning Raz’s appointment, which she used as evidence of group turmoil. The post was a joke that quoted classic lines from 1975’s Holy Grail, reading: “I thought we had an anonymous collective. An anarcho-syndicalist commune at the least, we should take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week.”
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Monty Python troupe co-founder Cleese could not help himself, quipping, “BREAKING: No one @FoxNews has ever seen @montypython & The Holy Grail. #runit #goodjournalism #factchecking,” the actor said via Twitter.
Later in the day, Cleese piled on with an altered picture of himself in a tweet stating, “BREAKING: After much in-house fighting amongst members of #CHAZ they have unanimously elected a strong and capable new leader. Please report @FoxNews And it should be noted he’s quite capable of walking down ramps and drinking water properly.”
In Holy Grail, the lines occur when King Arthur (Graham Chapman) approaches two peasants and announces himself as their king while they are mud-farming. One of the peasants pushes back with the classic dialogue.
BREAKING: No one @FoxNews has ever seen @montypython & The Holy Grail. #runit #goodjournalism #factchecking pic.twitter.com/46sKRh4qQi
— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) June 15, 2020
5:40 p.m.: Updated with a new tweet from Cleese.
