Veteran Monty Python star and filmmaker Terry Gilliam says President Trump’s re-election has freed people to laugh again after years of woke activists suffocating comedy with fear and self-righteous outrage. In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 84-year-old Gilliam explained how Trump “turned the world upside down” and emboldened people who were afraid to joke because of cancel culture, despite Gilliam personally calling Trump an “idiot” in the past.

Gilliam noted that humorless activists with a “narrow, self-righteous point of view” had been intimidating comedians for years, insisting that jokes about human nature were “punching down.” This fear, he argued, left many afraid to find humor in life’s absurdities, and it stifled the creative freedom that made comedy great. But Trump’s bold style and refusal to bow to the woke mob changed the environment, Gilliam said, and whether people liked it or not, they were now less frightened to laugh.

“Trump has changed things considerably. I don’t know if people are going to be laughing more, but they’re probably less frightened to laugh,” Gilliam explained. He said Trump’s presidency disrupted his own film, “The Carnival at the End of Days,” a satire mocking woke culture, because Trump “became the carnival” and turned the world upside down, forcing him to rework his story that had originally targeted the “wonderful world of woke.”

Gilliam lamented that “Trump destroyed satire” because “how can you be satirical about what’s going on in the way he’s doing the world?” The Monty Python legend even joked that he might have to add a disclaimer to the film labeling it as part of the “Trump lost years,” referencing the time before Trump’s return when woke activists felt unchallenged.

His commentary on the state of comedy echoes past statements where he condemned the suffocating fear within the entertainment industry. In 2023, Gilliam criticized the culture of fear that executives and comedians were forced to navigate, saying it made the industry “a very nervous world.” In 2020, he blasted the tendency to blame white men for everything and rejected identity politics, joking that when he claimed to be a “Black lesbian in transition,” activists were offended, proving his point about the absurdity of modern outrage culture.

Despite personally disliking Trump, Gilliam’s acknowledgment that Trump’s return to power had the unintended consequence of freeing people from woke intimidation is a reminder of how cultural shifts often happen in unexpected ways. Trump’s presidency, marked by a direct challenge to media narratives and political correctness, created a climate where comedians could once again take risks without fear of immediate cancellation.

This candid admission from a Hollywood veteran underscores how deeply the entertainment industry was constrained by cancel culture, and how Trump’s unapologetic presence is forcing a rebalancing. As comedy and the broader creative world begin to regain courage, it’s clear that the American spirit of humor and satire is making a comeback in the face of years of fear-driven censorship.

For conservatives and freedom-minded Americans, Gilliam’s remarks are a reminder that winning cultural battles is just as important as political victories. As Trump continues to dismantle the woke censorship regime, the return of laughter and fearless comedy may be one of the most powerful signs that the tide is turning.