The Chase’s Paul Sinha has criticised Monty Python star John Cleese for what he considers the “worst speech I’ve ever seen”. The Chase’s ‘The Sinnerman’ recently spoke out about an address given by the Fawlty Towers legend at an awards ceremony.
Paul, who is also a stand-up comic, described Cleese’s speech as a “catalogue of bitterness” which left the audience in “confusion”, according to the Daily Mail. He commented: “It was the worst speech I’ve ever seen. A catalogue of bitterness that nobody in the room could understand. There was increasing confusion in the room as to why anyone so objectively successful could possibly be so unhappy with his lot.”
Cleese has been known for his outspoken nature, having recently made remarks about his former Monty Python colleague Eric Idle. Idle tweeted earlier in 2024 that he hadn’t seen Cleese for “seven years” and felt “happy” about the distance.
When a fan expressed surprise thinking they were friends, Idle explained: “I don’t mind but once they put (Terry) Gilliam’s daughter in as Manager and Cleese fires Jim Beach, well it’s over.”
Cleese retorted that this was an “invention”, clarifying that Jim became the Python manager after the O2 show, but had since developed a health condition.
He added: “About four years ago he suffered a bad stroke and subsequently resigned as our manager. His number 2, Holly Gilliam, automatically took over as Python manager.”
Meanwhile, Chaser Paul Sinha didn’t hold back at the Virgin Atlantic Attitude Awards when poking fun at his fellow quizmasters’ monikers. Paul, who appears with Shaun Wallace, Mark Labbett, Anne Hegerty, Darragh Ennis, and Jenny Ryan on the show since 2011, ridiculed his own alias, The Sinnerman, calling it “s***” and “means nothing”.
He quipped that compared to The Governess, The Vixen, The Menace, The Beast, and The Dark Destroyer, he had “dodged a bullet” as he’s “the only Chaser who’s not named after a sex toy. I have to tell you that hours of research went into that joke”.