Terry Gilliam

Things We Saw Today: Terry Gilliam Calls Himself a “Black Lesbian,” Is Actually a Piece of Trash

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Director Terry Gilliam is full of bad takes on the current state of society, but this one deposits him firmly in the trash bin. Or should we say the trash heap of history?

Gilliam, whose last good movie was ??????, is feeling mega-oppressed these days as a famous wealthy white man, as you do. You see, diversity is everywhere, and it makes him want to cry! I mean, can you imagine Monty Python not being comprised of six white guys? Neither can Terry Gilliam. But he points out that Monty Python was super-diverse anyway because it contained, among its white British men, one white gay man and one white American. OK, OK, cool.

Asked at a film festival about a comment from former BBC comedy exec Shane Allen that if Monty Python were to be put together today, “it’s not going to be six Oxbridge white blokes […] It’s going to be a diverse range of people who reflect the modern world and have got something to say that’s different and we haven’t seen before,” Terry Gilliam leaped headfirst into a dumpster fire, “joking”:

“I’m no longer a white man, I’m a black lesbian,” Gilliam said. “But seriously, it’s really crazy. In the BBC, it is true that every little group of people on this planet must be represented in everything they broadcast. In fact, we actually met the diversity, of the six Monty Python members one was gay and one American. Only later did I accept British citizenship, fortunately before Brexit.”

“It almost made me cry and angry that comedians and six white men from Britain can not be together, we needed one from there, one from there, we needed everyone to be represented,” Gilliam said. “That is bullshit. And I have to say: I do not want to be white anymore, a white man, I do not want to be blamed for everything wrong in the world. I now tell the world that I am a black lesbian.”

Hmm. Maybe if white men weren’t largely responsible for many things wrong in the world they would stop being blamed for it. Just a thought!

(via IndieWire, image: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

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  • “6 LGBTQ+ shows that just got it … wrong” (via DigitalSpy)

What’d you see today, friendos?

dumpster fire

Live footage of Terry Gilliam’s new home

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Kaila Hale-Stern
Kaila Hale-Stern (she/her) is a content director, editor, and writer who has been working in digital media for more than fifteen years. She started at TMS in 2016. She loves to write about TV—especially science fiction, fantasy, and mystery shows—and movies, with an emphasis on Marvel. Talk to her about fandom, queer representation, and Captain Kirk. Kaila has written for io9, Gizmodo, New York Magazine, The Awl, Wired, Cosmopolitan, and once published a Harlequin novel you'll never find.