Talk:John Cleese

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The English contribution to world cuisine

In the 'attributed' section is "The English contribution to world cuisine - the chip". This is a line of dialogue in "A Fish called Wanda" in which it is said by Otto, played by Kevin Kline, who is torturing Michael Palin's character. Perhaps it has translated itself to the wrong Python. Fys. “Ta fys aym”. 00:59, 9 December 2006 (UTC)

• True, but the film itself was written by John Cleese. IMDB:A Fish Called Wanda

(Also, Kline, while being in a John Cleese movie, is not a member of Monty Python) Padillah 19:33, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Unless there's a compelling source that a specific line came from a specific writer, we tend to quote film and TV lines as being from their characters (with parenthesized actors), just as any cinematic quote compendium does. With Cleese being the only person credited as "writer" (as opposed to story creator, a credit he shares with Charles Crichton), we could infer that he wrote every single line in the film. But the reality of cinema is that plenty of uncredited rewrites, "punch-ups", and ad-libbing goes into the finished product, as one can easily verify by comparing any formal screenplay to its filmed version. The safest route is to attribute a cinematic quote as "Character (Actor), Film (year)". ~ Jeff Q (talk) 21:20, 6 February 2007 (UTC)

Unsourced

• Come to me. I want to plow you like a Calgary driveway at Christmas.

• Comedy always works best when it is mean-spirited.

• Frankly, I haven't the slightest clue who David Lettersby is.
  • #1 reason why he could not appear on the Late Show with David Letterman.

• I find it rather easy to portray a businessman. Being bland, rather cruel, and incompetent comes naturally to me.

• If I can get you to laugh with me, you like me better, which makes you more open to my ideas. And if I can persuade you to laugh at the particular point I make, by laughing at it you acknowledge its truth.

• If life were fair, Dan Quayle would be making a living asking "Do you want fries with that?"

• I used to desire many, many things, but now I have just one desire, and that's to get rid of all my other desires.

• The one thing I remember about Christmas was that my father used to take me out in a boat about ten miles offshore on Christmas Day, and I used to have to swim back. Extraordinary. It was a ritual. Mind you, that wasn't the hard part. The difficult bit was getting out of the sack.

• The three differences between American and British people:
  • We speak English and you don't.
  • When we hold a World Championship for a particular sport, we invite teams from other countries to play, as well.
  • When you meet the head of state in Great Britain, you only have to go down on one knee.

• I would like to give a gift to all of my Canadian fans... (pulls out a gun and shoots Ben Mulroney in the chest)

• If you wish to kill yourself but lack the courage to, I think a visit to Palmerston North will do the trick. (referring to Palmerston North, New Zealand)

• Michael Palin is no longer the funniest Palin.
  • About Sarah Palin.