Cleese: I cut racist slur from Fawlty Towers play as people 'don't get irony'

John Cleese said yesterday he decided to cut the N-word from a scene in his West End revival of Fawlty Towers because there were too many "literal-minded people" in contemporary Britain who "don't understand irony".

- Lanre Bakare

Cleese was speaking at the media launch of the theatrical adaptation of the TV comedy, which follows a repressed hotelier trying to control his chaotic staff. The show finished in 1979 after two series that were widely regarded to contain some of the best British sitcom writing ever.

The new two-hour version features scenes from three episodes of the series: The Hotel Inspector, Communication Problems, and The Germans, which originally featured a scene when a character used racial slurs, including the N-word, while discussing a cricket match.

"Whenever you're doing comedy you're up against the literal-minded, and the literal-minded don't understand irony, and if you take them seriously you get rid of a lot of comedy," Cleese said, explaining the reason for altering the script.