The Project's Waleed Aly stunned after John Cleese makes joke about his name

John Cleese appeared on The Project on Thursday night, with the conversation taking an awkward turn when the legendary actor refused to talk about his TV show Fawlty Towers, instead turning his attention to Waleed Aly, making a strange comment about the host's name.

The 83-year-old was on the show to promote his new tour, An Evening With The Late John Cleese, when Waleed attempted to ask about Fawlty Towers.

"We can't let you go without talking a little bit about Fawlty Towers," Waleed began. "At least I can't, I think it's one of the greatest –"

"I don't want to talk about Fawlty Towers," John quickly responded. "You can talk about Fawlty Towers," he added, turning his chair around to face away from the desk.

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When he did turn back, John made the strange comment about Waleed's name, asking, "What kind of name is Waleed, anyway? Is it an anagram?"

Groans were heard from the audience as Sarah Harris laughed with the actor, who appeared to find his own joke rather funny.

"No. It's just Arabic. I take it your Arabic's not great," Waleed responded, poking fun at the actor.

"No, I tried to learn it once," John said, much to Waleed's surprise.

"Really?" Waleed said.

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"Well, there's about four H's and two K's or something, there are so many sounds!" John responded.

Waleed proceeded to try to teach John how to say his name in Arabic, sarcastically joking with the audience, "This is compelling television."

"It's more interesting than Fawlty Towers," John teased.

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