The veteran comedian doesn’t really know what a YouTube channel is, but he’s gone and launched one anyway.

And now for something completely different: legendary comic John Cleese has launched his own YouTube channel – “whatever that may be”, as he puts it in his introductory clip. “I have a young friend called Andy who does this IT social media rubbish for me,” he says.

In a welcome message, the 76-year-old comedian, renowned for Monty Python and Fawlty Towers, introduces himself as being “famous for complaining about parrots, reciting Russian in the nude, suffering mere flesh wounds, arming James Bond, employing waiters from Barcelona and being divorced, ah… at least three times.”

Cleese has made no secret in the past of his need to earn a crust, calling a 2010 solo tour of the UK The Alimony Tour. He signs off from his first video by saying: “I’m delighted to welcome you to this so I can benefit from the advertising revenue.” Wearing a mask of himself, he says that subscribers to the channel will “be able to watch hour after hour of me ranting about the other Pythons, recounting tales of the good old days, showing you pictures of cats and discussing the latest Daily Mail hatchet job on me or my friends.”

In the second clip he appears in a red and gold bishop’s mitre as the founder of the Church of JC Capitalist, who wants to save souls and gain “huge tax advantages”. In subsequent clips he plays an African explorer in fake moustache and pith helmet and a nerdy astronomer going to great pains to explain the dimensions of a little known star called Regella.

It may not be vintage Cleese, but it should be bonkers enough to please fans. A week after being launched, the channel has just over 19,000 subscribers. The Church of JC Capitalist has had over 61,000 views and Regella around 9,000.

Cleese arrives in Sydney next week for the final rehearsals and opening of Fawlty Towers – Live on Stage, which he has adapted from three episodes of the iconic BBC comedy series, which he co-wrote with his then-wife Connie Booth. The show has its official opening at Sydney’s Roslyn Packer Theatre on August 20 ahead of a national tour. On August 15, Cleese will discuss life and comedy with ABC host James Valentine on stage at the Sydney Opera House Drama Theatre.

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