Now Frankie Boyle ‘jokes’ about raping Holly Willoughby
CONTROVERSIAL comic Frankie Boyle has been slammed for making a ‘rape joke’ about TV presenter Holly Willoughby.
The Scottish comedian described a game about ‘killing and sh***ing’ people – which included Miss Willoughby – during a set at the Latitude Festival in Suffolk last weekend. Sources recalled Boyle saying: ‘I’d obviously kill her and rape her afterwards. I’m joking – I’d rape her first.’
Boyle, 49, defended the remarks on Friday when questioned by an audience member at a Waterstones launch event for his new novel.
‘Can I just say, my routine about raping and f ***** g Holly Willoughby was part of a very long routine about whether or not it’s OK to do a joke about that, and I look at it from both sides, there are pluses and minuses,’ he said.
Boyle added that comedy was in ‘the eye of the beholder’ and that he considered himself to be a ‘mainstream’ comedian.
Miss Willoughby, 41, has previously defended sexual abuse victims and spoken about her own ‘humiliating’ experience of ‘upskirting’ when paparazzi crouched to take pictures of her underwear.
Yesterday Boyle’s joke was heavily criticised by Conservative MP Caroline Nokes, chairman of the Women and Equalities Committee. Ms Nokes, who attended the University of Sussex at the same time as the comic, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The Frankie Boyle I was at university with wouldn’t have found rape funny. It never is, and I’m disappointed that anyone would try to make a joke out of male sexual violence.’
A spokeswoman for the feminist campaign group FiLiA said: ‘We are horrified that some men in the entertainment industry continue to consider the abuse of women to be comedy material.
‘Seeking cheap applause at the expense of traumatising women speaks of low-quality material.
‘There is nothing funny about male violence. Women and girls around the country are not laughing. Instead, women are angry and scared for their safety.’ She added: ‘We are grappling with a national crisis in which the police and the courts fail rape victims who are brave enough to come forward seeking justice.
‘We know from research that fewer than two per cent of reported rapes in England and Wales end in prosecution.’
It is not the first time the Glasgowborn comedian has made a rape joke. In 2012 he posted a tweet referring to Olympic cyclist Victoria Pendleton in which he said: ‘Victoria can lift twice her own bodyweight. Sexy, as it means she still wouldn’t be able to throw me off.’
At the time, the End Violence Against Women Coalition said: ‘His tweet trivialises the experience of rape victims and sends a signal to those who might commit rape that it is not a serious crime. Revolting.’
Elsewhere in his Latitude set, Boyle defended people’s right to be offended by jokes but admitted he had stopped posting gags on Twitter to avoid repercussions.
He told the audience he had ‘never been so overwhelmed with the feeling that [his] work has been misunderstood,’ before making a series of dark jokes about Prince Andrew.
The comic, who has previously made jokes about the Queen and Katie Price’s disabled son Harvey, acknowledged that his new material might get him into trouble at the forthcoming Edinburgh Festival.
The MoS contacted Boyle and Miss Willoughby for comment.