'We should all just love each other, and do it in our own way.' Our former President George Melly interviewing the, shall we say, 'spirited' Python, Graham Chapman. In an otherwise loose interview, this is a rather moving and lucid moment from Chapman on his coming out. Broadcasted in 1972.
"Actually, while we're talking on that particular subject, you're one of the few persons, I think, who have boldly and bravely announced yourself to be homosexual. Well, I am, yes. Yes. And I also found... I'm also heterosexual, but that doesn't matter. Well, then let's just say you're bisexual, or ACDC is the more common term. Isn't everybody? Well, it is a debatable point. I personally believe that probably most people are a bit, but a great many people do tend not only to disguise the fact or to hide it, but to become totally enraged at the suggestion that there's anything gay about them, especially of people like retired colonels and schoolmasters. They're missing out on an awful lot, aren't they? I mean, you just love people, don't you? Well, I think so. You see, I thought you were actually pulling faces for the first time. Yeah. Yeah. Good. I'm glad about that. I'm glad that I did. I'm glad you did. I'm glad you did. Do you think it's very important for someone, I mean, I do personally, to continuously attack prejudice in the way you have done? Yes, it is. Yes. I think it is very important. So do I. There's so much... I mean, I was in a pub the other day, and I overheard a conversation between some laborers. Okay, and then they were fine. But they were talking about how they'd beaten up this poof in a pub. Now, what does that mean to them? What is the credit to them for doing that? It was pure prejudice. Do you think it's a bit like sparrows attacking an albino sparrow? I mean, it's noticeably different, a different person attacking that way. It's fear. It's fear. It's like white people have a fear of black people, like heterosexual people have a fear of homosexual people. There's no point in it. We should all just love each other and do it in our own way. And that's the only thing that's important. And you actually stood up, stood on the line and said that many times, which I think is good, really, and remarkable, because you are a person very much in the public eye. And have you discovered any... Have you found any violent reaction to that? People say as soon as I see Monty Python, I turn it off because that foul poof to Graham's on? No, no. There's been a lot of reaction in that people might turn it off because they don't understand it or they hate it. But when I'm in pubs, they don't turn it off because I'm quite tall and large as well."
π¬ Discussion
'We should all just love each other, and do it in our own way.' Our former President George Melly interviewing the, shall we say, 'spirited' Python, Graham Chapman. In an otherwise loose interview, this is a rather moving and lucid moment from Chapman on his coming out. Broadcasted in 1972.