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Police investigate Joe Lycett standup joke after complaint

Comedian says he will keep gag in his show after he was asked to explain context of gag to investigating officers

British comedian Joe Lycett said he was investigated by police after an audience member made a complaint about a joke in one of his shows. Photograph: Matt Crockett

Tom Ambrose
Wed Jun 22 2022 - 08:17

The British comedian Joe Lycett has said he was investigated by police after an audience member made a complaint about a joke in one of his shows. In a post on Instagram, he revealed that he was asked to explain the context of the gag and that the authorities have now closed the case. The 33-year-old standup said he hoped the joke amused the investigating officers and that it would stay in his standup routine for the remainder of his tour of Britain and Ireland.

Sharing a photograph of the police’s message confirming the matter was closed, he wrote: “So someone came to my tour show a few weeks back and was offended by one of the jokes. And their perfectly understandable response to this was … to call the f****** police.

“To be fair to them the fuzz were very nice about it all but felt they had a duty to investigate. This involved me writing a statement explaining the context of the joke for them; I particularly enjoyed putting the words ‘giant donkey d**k’ into a message to a police detective. Charmed, and hopefully amused, the rozzers have since closed the matter.”

He added: “You’ll be pleased to know that the joke — which I consider to be one of the best I’ve ever written — remains firmly and proudly in the show. The tour continues until September, unless I am jailed.”

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The Birmingham-born comic, who has appeared on comedy shows including Taskmaster and QI, has been behind several public stunts in recent years. He previously attempted to raise awareness of single-use plastics by storming off the set of the Channel 4 show Steph’s Packed Lunch after the host pointed out a photo of him using a plastic bottle, despite him claiming to have given up using them.

Lycett also made headlines in March 2020 when he temporarily changed his name by deed poll to Hugo Boss, after the German luxury designer used trademark claims to target small businesses and charities who use “boss” in their branding. — Guardian

Joe Lycett is at Vicar Street, Dublin, from Thursday, August 4th, until Sunday, August 7th

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