John Cleese under fire after making Irish ‘joke’ on Twitter
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John Cleese under fire after making Irish ‘joke’ on Twitter

JOHN CLEESE has sparked fresh controversy online after posting a joke about the Irish on social media.

The Fawlty Towers creator took to Twitter to share the gag, which didn’t go down too well with certain sections of the Twittersphere.

“A man walks into a bar, and asks the barman if he’s heard the latest Irish joke,” he wrote

“The barman says: ‘I should warn you I’m Irish, and so is the owner of the bar over there, and so are Seamus and Sean here, our oldest customers. Now. Are you still going to tell the joke?’

“And the man says: ‘No! No, I don’t want to have to explain it four times’.”

While the gag received a positive reaction in some quarters, it’s fair to say that some of Cleese’s Irish followers were less than amused.

Declan Quinn wrote: “I just don’t approve of anyone encouraging Anti-Irishness! It has a social impact! Britain is the only country where this is done! It was used to justify Occupation! It’s not true, just right and shouldn’t be encouraged!”

He added: “In fact, pretty much the whole world over, the Irish are held in very high regard for their civic, political, sportsman, business, academic, artistic achievements globally - despite such a small country/population! Britain, on the other hand, is NOT held in very high regard......”

Steadfastly refusing to back down over the gag, Cleese returned with two jokes about Australians

It’s not the first time Cleese has made a joke at Ireland’s expense.

Last year he tweeted a gag about how Irish names are “deliberate attempts to mislead innocent people”.

He went on to argue that if “bh” sounded like “v” in Irish, then it should be spelt it as such.