After one person takes offence at Boyle

The Daily Mail is spreading a sick joke about Cumbrian gunman Derrick Bird with millions of its unsuspecting readers.

The newspaper repeated a Frankie Boyle gag in which someone told him that after talking to plenty of taxi drivers, he could understand why someone would want to shoot them in the head.

The joke was intended for the 3,300 people who willingly brought tickets to his stand-up show in the Hammersmith Apollo, London, knowing that it would contain near-the-knuckle humour.

However, the Mail has disseminated the gag to millions of people in ‘Middle England’ liable to be offended by such material, including some of those directly affected by the tragedy..

The newspaper found one of the 3,300 people in the audience who didn’t much like Boyle’s gag. ‘I was shocked,’ said 49-year-old Tim Weaver, who brought tickets to the show despite Boyle’s reputation.

Amid the jokes about Baby P, Madeleine McCann and people with Down’s Syndrome, Mr Weaver said the line about killer Derrick Bird – who had gone on his rampage the day before Boyle’s gig – had ‘gone too far’.

He said 'The joke was something along the lines of, “I’ve had so many conversations with taxi drivers that I knew what it feels like to want to shoot them in the head." There wasn’t much laughter.'

However, Boyle said: 'It seems amazing someone claims to be outraged by a joke they confess to not quite remembering.

'As always when my jokes pop up in the papers, this is a complete misquote. It's a routine that starts with a true story about a remark someone gave me about the shootings, the thrust of which the guy making the joke was a complete insensitive idiot. Everyone laughed.'

The Daily Mail sells 2million copies a day, while its website claims 26million readers.

Published: 11 Jun 2010