Dapper Laughs thinks society has failed him, is to blame for his rape jokes

Ladies and gentlemen, please ready your tiny violins: Dapper Laughs thinks society has failed him.

In a lengthy, self-pitying interview in the Sunday Times Magazine (£) with the former editor of lads mag Loaded, Dapper (real name Daniel O'Reilly) said that his objectifying jokes about women were actually aimed at mens' insecurities, rather than the fact that, you know, sexual violence is funny or something.

I’m taking the piss out of insecurities of men – that’s the basis for the comedy. Women hold all the power.

Yes, Dapper, women hold all the power. That must be why only six per cent of rape cases where a woman is the victim end in conviction and thousands of rapes go unreported every year.

Dapper's ITV2 show was cancelled last year after he was recorded at a live gig telling an audience member she looked like she was "gagging for a rape".

The comedian said he publicly apologised for the joke on Newsnight because of the strain the attention was putting on his family and he had "had enough" - but also that society was to blame, rather than himself, for the fallout:

Not once was I invited to learn more about sexual violence, rape and sexism and the problem with the attitude of men. Instead of attacking me, why not educate me?... But I haven't been, instead I'm told to f__k off and stop my comedy.

The idea that Dapper was somehow owed an education (because he couldn't possibly manage it himself) doesn't really tally with his previous statement about the subjects of his jokes actually being men rather than women.

But either way, Dapper appears to have changed his tune when it comes to working on new material: in the interview he says that the misogynistic lad humour "was a type of comedy that I should not have been doing" and "it was a shame that it went so far."

More: Professional comedians tell Dapper Laughs: you're not actually funny