The passage given below is followed by four alternate summaries. Choose the option that best captures the essence of the passage.

John Cleese told Fox News Digital that comedians do not have the freedom to be funny in 2022. “There’s always been limitations on what they’re allowed to say,” Cleese said. “I think it’s particularly worrying at the moment because you can only create in an atmosphere of freedom, where you’re not checking everything you say critically before you move on. What you have to be able to do is to build without knowing where you’re going because you’ve never been there before. That’s what creativity is — you have to be allowed to build. And a lot of comedians now are sitting there and when they think of something, they say something like, ‘Can I get away with it? I don’t think so. So and so got into trouble, and he said that, oh, she said that.’ You see what I mean? And that’s the death of creativity.”

Option D best captures the essence of the passage.

John Cleese argues that comedians need freedom to be creative and that fear of offending people or worrying about the consequences of what they say hinders their ability to be original. He highlights how modern comedians often second-guess themselves, which stifles their creativity. This option directly reflects the main idea of the passage, which stresses the importance of freedom and creativity in comedy, while warning against the fear that stifles innovation.

Option A: While Cleese advocates for freedom in comedy, he doesn't say that comedians "must go where no one has gone before," which is more of an extreme interpretation than the essence of the passage.

Option B: This option focuses too much on the relationship between creativity and critical thinking. The passage is more about how fear of offending hinders creativity, not about creativity being incompatible with critical thinking.

Option C: This focuses on the "death of the art form," but Cleese's main point is about how fear of repercussions impacts creativity, not about the art form dying as such.