John Cleese brands Belgians ‘fat, lazy, beer-sodden, pseudo-French b******’ in Twitter rant

John Cleese is not a fan of Belgians.

The comic, 78, branded them “fat” and “beer-sodden” among other insults in a Twitter rant which saw him rank the cities on his recent The Last Time To See Me Before I Die tour.

Cleese listed the best places he had visited before describing the Belgian city of Hasselt as one of the "worst" he had performed in.

He tweeted: “Just finished 35th show of 35. Best audiences: Helsinki, Reykjavik, Bergen, Copenhagen, Zwolle, Hamburg, Cologne, Breda, Haarlem, Zurich, Frankfurt, Vienna and Zagreb.

“Worst: Lazy, fat, beer-sodden, pseudo-French Belgian b******* in Hasselt. Like reading Moby Dick to nomads.”

He later followed it up with an apology, posting: “An apology to the citizens of Hasselt. It was quite wrong of me to describe them as pseudo-French. They are, of course, pseudo-Dutch.”

The remark riled some Belgians with a spokeswoman for the Ethias Arena where he performed, saying they had been left “shocked”.

“Lazy, fat and beer-sodden? Those are really not our visitors,” she told the Daily Mirror.

“And it is certainly not that people from Hasselt and surroundings cannot behave themselves as opposed to those in other European cities.”

But others saw the funny side with one Twitter user saying they were “honoured and proud” while another was thankful to Cleese for putting Hasselt on the map, tweeting: “Hurray! You mentioned us! :D *best day ever*.”

One user posted: “I take this as a compliment!”

Another wrote: “As a true Belgian, I've always liked your legendary sense of humour ... I knew you are a fan of Belgian beer culture!”

Cleese has previously targeted Belgians in his comedy, with Michael Palin branding them “miserable fat Belgian b*******” in a Monty Python sketch.