Audience member offended by Joe Lycett joke. Calls the police

[Don Barzini]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-61882384

Comedian Joe Lycett has said an audience member complained to police about a joke in one of his shows.
In an Instagram post he wrote: "To be fair to them the fuzz were very nice about it all but felt they had a duty to investigate."
Lycett, 33, who is from Birmingham, said he was asked to explain the context of the joke in a statement and the case was now closed.
He said the joke would remain in his routine.
Lycett added he considered it "one of the best I've ever written" and hoped the police were "charmed and hopefully amused" by his response.
"The tour continues until September, unless I am jailed," he wrote.

So a few months ago there was uproar because lots of people who hadn't even heard it got very upset about a joke Jimmy Carr made during one of his stand up routines. Now, an audience member has called the police because she was offended by a Joe Lycett joke. Utterly crazy in my opinion.

Have things finally gone too far, or are the terminally offended in the right with stuff like this? Should we all stop making jokes on the basis that someone, somewhere, will likely be offended by it?!

PS. At the current time, the actual joke that Joe Lycett made hasn't been revealed. If anyone finds out, please do post it here!

 

[theoneandonly]

This isn't s new phenomena, just you hear about it more and Joe is using it to his advantage for PR purposes.

 

[bobmac]

She should be charged with wasting police time.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I do like Joe Lycett and it sounds as though he dealt with this quite brilliantly and is turning it in his favour, thus annoying the person even more. The police have a duty to investigate but thankfully had the intelligence to knock it back nice and early.

"This involved me writing a statement explaining the context of the joke for them; I particularly enjoyed putting the words 'giant donkey d***' into a message to a police detective."

He is not mentioning the joke in full as it is part of his tour and he still has lots of dates to run. Once it's out there he can't use it. I'm not sure how the line above brought such moral outrage but it doesn't seem to be along the lines of the Carr gag

 

[Deleted member 29109]

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this is nothing more than a publicity stunt.

But then again, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it wasn’t.

 

[Bdill93]

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this is nothing more than a publicity stunt.

But then again, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it wasn’t.

Life in 2022 summed up in a nutshell

 

[Dando]

there are some proper bedwetters out there

 

[Orikoru]

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this is nothing more than a publicity stunt.

But then again, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it wasn’t.

I'm thinking this too, it almost goes beyond the realm of believability for me. Perhaps ticket sales were low for the rest of his tour, who knows.

Why is anyone going to stand-up comedy if they're easily offended?? Just stick to Michael McIntyre on the Beeb.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this is nothing more than a publicity stunt.

But then again, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it wasn’t.

Joe Lycett is clever enough to get publicity without involving the police, and possibly then getting into genuine trouble. He is really very smart and sharp on social media.

 

[Foxholer]

I'm thinking this too, it almost goes beyond the realm of believability for me. Perhaps ticket sales were low for the rest of his tour, who knows.

Why is anyone going to stand-up comedy if they're easily offended?? Just stick to Michael McIntyre on the Beeb.

It could well have been a 'joke' about a situation that was very close to the offendee's own situation that she'd gone to a comedy show for some relief from!
Stand-Up Comedy often treads a fine line and can unwittingly (or even deliberately) cross 'taste' boundaries at times.

 

[Blue in Munich]

Have things gone too far? Without knowing what the joke was I couldn’t say. Normally I thought I’ve pretty much not got a filter where humour is concerned, but Jimmy Carr found it for me with a joke about genocide. That, for me, did go too far.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

It could well have been a 'joke' about a situation that was very close to the offendee's own situation that she'd gone to a comedy show for some relief from!
Stand-Up Comedy often treads a fine line and can unwittingly (or even deliberately) cross 'taste' boundaries at times.

But to report it to the police..........

One thing you have to accept in life, the world keeps revolving. You might have an illness, someone close may have died, the worries of the world may be upon you, everyone else carries on. Accept that and all that goes with it.

 

[Beezerk]

It was in Belfast, maybe they have some sort of specific phobia against Donkey’s gonads ?

 

[Lord Tyrion]

It was in Belfast, maybe they have some sort of specific phobia against Donkey’s gonads ?

That's a disturbing thought

 

[Foxholer]

But to report it to the police..........

Depends on how offensive she found it! It's up to the police to determine what subsequent action, if any, they should take and they obviously decided that they needed to investigate further. There are many ways such complaints can be handled, and there may not have been much policing cost involved. A telephone call and interview of Lycett at a station, for example.

 

[Orikoru]

But to report it to the police..........

One thing you have to accept in life, the world keeps revolving. You might have an illness, someone close may have died, the worries of the world may be upon you, everyone else carries on. Accept that and all that goes with it.

How can you be so braindead as to think a poor taste joke at a show you paid to see is a crime? I blame the education system.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

Depends on how offensive she found it! It's up to the police to determine what subsequent action, if any, they should take and they obviously decided that they needed to investigate further. There are many ways such complaints can be handled, and there may not have been much policing cost involved. A telephone call and interview of Lycett at a station, for example.

They asked him what the joke was and the context of it. He explained, they closed the case. It's time taken, time better spent elsewhere imo but I understand that is not the fault of the police.

Without knowing the full details of the joke it is hard to judge but if you are easily offended, stay at home and listen to The Archers.

 

[Beezerk]

Depends on how offensive she found it! It's up to the police to determine what subsequent action, if any, they should take and they obviously decided that they needed to investigate further.

Didn’t they investigate it as a matter of duty and conclude no further investigation was necessary aka the person who called the police needs to give their head a wobble.

 

[Foxholer]

Didn’t they investigate it as a matter of duty and conclude no further investigation was necessary...

Definitely! I have no idea how/what resources/the cost was.

...aka the person who called the police needs to give their head a wobble

That's an opinion I'm in no position to comment on. And I doubt anyone on this forum is either - at least not with appropriate authority/knowledge!

 

[Hobbit]

Pretty much everyone knows the guy’s humour. If you’re that straight laced, don’t go.

As an aside, he, along with his peers, are soft targets. How many burglaries etc do the Police not attend? Aren’t those crimes a “matter of duty?”