Dapper Laughs on THAT controversy

Dapper Laughs says he should have been ‘educated’ about rape, rather than losing his TV series over offensive comments he made at a gig.

The professional ‘lad’ was dropped from his ITV2 show On The Pull when footage emerged of him telling a fan at a gig she was ‘gagging for a rape’.

It was the final straw in an outrage over his sexist jokes, which led creator Daniel O’Reilly to announce the end of his controversial alter-ego in a contrite Newsnight interview – a promise he later went back on.

However in a major interview with the Sunday Times magazine yesterday, he tried to justify himself over the comment.

He argued: ‘Not once was I invited to learn more about sexual violence, rape and sexism and the problem is the attitude toward men.

‘Instead of attacking me, why not educate me? I would happily accept it and then help and educated the millions of men who watch my stuff. I haven’t been instead I’m told the fuck off and stop my comedy.

‘This could be a great opportunity to get something positive out there on social media, yet people label me and make me the target of a hate campaign.’

But his comments, to former Loaded magazine editor Martin Daubney, did not go down well on Twitter. Typical was a user called Eager Beaver who posted: ’Awww poor Dapper Laughs isn’t to blame for encouraging rape, apparently it’s everyone else’s fault for not telling him it’s wrong.’

O’Reilly also claims he was the victim of unfair editing in the notorious cup. He said: ’As for the “gagging for a rape” comment, I was repeating what a woman in the audience said.

‘She shouted, “My friend Lisa loves you, she’s gagging for a rape”. I then reply over the microphone with, ‘What? She’s gagging for a rape?’ Now looking back, I should have stayed away from saying anything about rape.

‘There’s nothing in my sets about rape now. Lesson learnt.’

And he described the backlash against him as ‘bullying’.

Dapper Laughs is attempting to rebuild his career with tour, Theory of Nothing, and a forthcoming DVD release.

Published: 27 Jul 2015