Rowan Atkinson Reckons Cancel Culture Is Like 'Medieval Mob Looking For Someone To Burn'

Rowan Atkinson has joined fellow British entertainers like John Cleese, Ricky Gervais and Dawn French in barracking against cancel culture.

The concept has been popular in the past few years where everyone from regular folk to celebrities are made into social pariahs and 'cancelled' due to things they've said or done.

Those things could have been done or said years ago and resurfaced in front of a more socially conscious public.

But Rowan Atkinson reckons it's all a bit much.

The Mr Bean actor told the Radio Times: "The problem we have online is that an algorithm decides what we want to see, which ends up creating a simplistic, binary view of society.

"It becomes a case of either you're with us or against us. And if you're against us, you deserve to be 'cancelled'.

"It's important that we're exposed to a wide spectrum of opinion, but what we have now is the digital equivalent of the medieval mob roaming the streets looking for someone to burn.

"So it is scary for anyone who's a victim of that mob and it fills me with fear about the future."

During the same interview he provided simultaneously exciting and devastating news.

He revealed that he won't be playing his incredible Mr Bean character anymore because he finds it 'stressful and exhausting'.

The 65-year-old actor, writer and comedian, first played Mr Bean - a clown-like character - in 1990, when he had his own show, but he has appeared less and less in recent years.

He told the Radio Times: "It's easier for me to perform the character vocally than visually. I don't much enjoy playing him. The weight of responsibility is not pleasant."

But Atkinson said the only one of his characters that he would like to bring back would be Blackadder, but he didn't seem confident it would happen, saying it wouldn't be 'impossible'.

He told the news outlet: "That's about as optimistic as I can be and I'd rather not speculate on when it could be set. But Blackadder represented the creative energy we all had in the 80s. To try to replicate that 30 years on wouldn't be easy."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Entertainment, Celebrity

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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