He wants to cancel, cancel the culture.
“Sir. Actor Rowan Atkinson, of Bean” and “Johnny English”, is the latest comedian to attack the culture of cancellation, equating social justice warriors with a “medieval crowd.” The comic dropped the bomb in a long interview for the UK Radio Times.
“It is important that we are exposed to a wide range of opinions, but what we have now is the digital equivalent of the medieval mafia, wandering the streets in search of someone to burn,” lamented the creator of the “Blackadder” series. “So it is scary for anyone who is a victim of this mob, and it fears me about the future.”
Atkinson blamed online lynching on the spread of social media, which he says operates on “an algorithm” that “decides what we want to see” and “ends up creating a simplistic and binary view of society”.
“It becomes a case of whether you are with us or against us,” said the BAFTA winner on the phenomenon. “And if you are against us, you deserve to be ‘canceled’.”
His criticism comes after a year in which a plethora of celebrities – and civilians alike – had opportunities torpedoed by allegations of racist and otherwise prejudiced comments and actions. In one memorable example, JK Rowling’s career was declared “dead” on social media after the “Harry Potter” author made a series of transphobic comments.