Fox News has been the butt of several jokes over the weekend after the conservative news channel reported a quote from Monty Python and the Holy Grail as the actual words of a protester inside the Seattle “Capital Hill Autonomous Zone” (also known as “CHAZ”).
After finding the quote on Reddit, the network’s first mistake, The Story host Martha MacCallum was completely oblivious to the fact that she was reading a movie quote, and instead, tried to paint the Monty Python joke as the actual thoughts of protesters turning against hip-hop artist Raz Simone who lead the effort to form CHAZ. Via The Hollywood Reporter:
In her report, MacCallum pointed to a since deleted post on Reddit questioning Raz’s appointment, which she used as evidence of group turmoil. The post was a joke which quoted classic lines from 1975’s Holy Grail, reading: “I thought we had an anonymous collective. An anarcho-syndicalist commune at the least, we should take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week.”
The Fox faux-pas has been getting brutally mocked on social media, and now Monty Python member John Cleese is getting in on the act. In a new tweet posted Monday morning, the British comedian trolled Fox News for its lack of fact-checking and journalistic standards. “BREAKING: No one @FoxNews has ever seen @montypython & The Holy Grail. #runit #goodjournalism #factchecking,” Cleese wrote.
You can see Cleese’s tweet along with a video of Fox very seriously reporting on the Monty Python joke below:
BREAKING: No one @FoxNews has ever seen @montypython & The Holy Grail. 😂 #runit #goodjournalism #factchecking pic.twitter.com/46sKRh4qQi
— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) June 15, 2020
