John Cleese makes himself look chilled and laid back to make it look like he doesn’t care about what the others are saying. He is using a paralinguistic feature. If he looks like he doesn’t care he will make the opposition’s arguments look weak. If the opposition look weak the audience will be on his side. If the audience is on his side then he has won the debate. John Cleese is a comedian and wants people to watch his show, the more rating he gets the more money he makes. Through being laid back he looks like he doesn’t care and therefore make him look funny. If he is funny on the debate then more people will want to watch Monty Python. He also wants people to look at the film in a comical view but not in a religious one. Finally he wants to humiliate Malcolm Muggeridge and Mervyn Stockwood. He can humiliate these two people by looking as if he doesn’t care what they think and winning the debate.
John Cleese interrupts Malcolm Muggeridge’s utterance a lot. He is trying to use dominance. In a conversation, the person that talks the most normally looks right. If he looks right then the audience will be on his side. If the audience are on his sides then he has won, the debate. If John Cleese can continue to interrupt Malcolm Muggeridge, Malcolm will look less powerful in the debate and therefore look weak. John interrupts him four times during Malcolm Muggeridge’s utterance, and on the first three of them he asks a question. He is trying to make Malcolm Muggeridge think for
