"Wine is wonderful stuff. But so many people are put off by the snobbery of it"
About this Quote
Cleese is doing what he’s always done best: puncturing the self-importance of a tribe by praising the thing they’ve turned into a status ritual. The first sentence is almost childlike in its blunt pleasure - wine is “wonderful stuff” - a deliberately unsophisticated phrasing that strips away tasting notes, terroir lectures, and the performance of expertise. Then he swivels to the real target: not wine, but the social theater built around it.
The line works because it identifies a familiar cultural bait-and-switch. A product that’s basically about enjoyment gets recoded as a test: can you pronounce the region, detect “leather,” pretend you aren’t worried about ordering the wrong bottle? “Put off” is key; it’s the language of everyday consumers, not connoisseurs. Cleese frames snobbery as an access barrier, a kind of soft exclusion that doesn’t need a bouncer because people police themselves with embarrassment.
Coming from an actor-comedian whose brand is skewering pomp (from Monty Python’s bureaucrats to Fawlty’s class panic), the remark lands as populist without being anti-intellectual. It’s not saying expertise is worthless; it’s saying the performance of expertise often matters more than the experience itself. Underneath is a critique of how taste becomes identity: wine stops being a drink and starts being a credential. Cleese’s intent is to give people permission to like what they like, and to laugh at the gatekeepers who turned a glass into a hierarchy.
The line works because it identifies a familiar cultural bait-and-switch. A product that’s basically about enjoyment gets recoded as a test: can you pronounce the region, detect “leather,” pretend you aren’t worried about ordering the wrong bottle? “Put off” is key; it’s the language of everyday consumers, not connoisseurs. Cleese frames snobbery as an access barrier, a kind of soft exclusion that doesn’t need a bouncer because people police themselves with embarrassment.
Coming from an actor-comedian whose brand is skewering pomp (from Monty Python’s bureaucrats to Fawlty’s class panic), the remark lands as populist without being anti-intellectual. It’s not saying expertise is worthless; it’s saying the performance of expertise often matters more than the experience itself. Underneath is a critique of how taste becomes identity: wine stops being a drink and starts being a credential. Cleese’s intent is to give people permission to like what they like, and to laugh at the gatekeepers who turned a glass into a hierarchy.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wine |
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