Joe Lycett has police called on him after audience member found ‘donkey d***’ joke ‘offensive’

Of all the talent on the UK comedy circuit, we’d argue the cunning complainer Joe Lycett – with his vehement dislike of parking fines - is one of the least offensive comedians going.

Nevertheless, one audience member who recently saw his new tour in Belfast – the brilliantly titled More, More, More: How Do You Lycett, How Do You Lycett – didn’t find one joke particularly funny.

Fair enough. Comedy is, after all, subjective.

Yet they decided the best course of action to escalate the issue was to report the comedian formerly known as Hugo Boss to the Actual Police.

Sharing the story to social media on Tuesday, the Got Your Back presenter 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***ing 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***’ into a message to a police detective.”

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No further context to the joke was given by Lycett, but honestly? We kind of prefer it that way.

It isn’t the first time he’s relished being silly in times of formality. Earlier this year the comedian managed to get “I’ve got a smelly bum bum” into parliamentary records when he gave evidence to a House of Lords select committee.

Lycett continued: “Charmed, and hopefully amused, the rozzers have since closed the matter. 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.”

He also attached an email to the social media post, appearing to be from the local police force, which read they “consider this matter closed”.

The incident has left some fans excited to see the show, others shocked by the audience member’s sensitivities, and a few Twitter users keen to know what the full joke was:

Lycett has confirmed his tour is currently running until September “unless I am jailed”.

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