Suspiciously timed move hits Prince Andrew Is A Sweaty Nonce campaign

Comedy punk band The Kunts have been banned from YouTube – just as they planned an assault on the charts with their song Prince Andrew Is A Sweaty Nonce.

The group had planned to get the track high in the charts over the jubilee weekend, but in a suspiciously timed move, the Google-owned tech giant pulled the plug on their channel just hours before the release of the accompanying video.

Although YouTube plays make only a negligible contribution to chart rankings, the platform plays a key publicity role – with Kunt’s channel having built up more than 200,000 subscribers over the past 11 years.

Lead singer Kunt, who never reveals his real name, received notice that the channel was being pulled on Thursday, the day before the video’s release ahead of a chart campaign kicking off this Friday.

The band are known for their expletive-riddled tracks including one about Boris Johnson which made No5 in the Christmas charts in both 2020 and 2021, with a slight variation, despite getting no airplay because of its title.

‘If you went through the videos I have uploaded to my channel over the last 11 years you could make a strong case that I had flouted some of the YouTube laws,’ Kunt admitted to Chortle. ‘It is the timing of it that is the most unusual thing - the channel was removed on the eve of the video for Prince Andrew Is A Sweaty Nonce being released onto YouTube.

He appealed but within half an hour received a reply saying the decision was being upheld.

‘It is a big loss in terms of being able to get the message out to people,’ he said. ‘What's most annoying is after getting no radio or TV coverage from the Boris Johnson songs, apparently because of all the F and C words, this time round we made a song and a video that doesn't contain any swearwords or explicit content (apart from an arse but we've covered that up with a Pizza Express logo).’

However he has made the video available in the public domain so people can help spread the word by uploading it to their own social media channels.

The song starts with the lyrics: ‘The grand old Duke of York / He said he didn't sweat / So why did he pay 12 million quid / To a girl he'd never met?’

Sales open at one minute past midnight on Friday – timed to have most impact on chart position – and with ten different versions available at 59p a time, each one counting towards the sales figures.

Kunt will also set up 24/7 streaming playlists that fans can leave running, with 100 streams on a premium streaming service equivalent to one sale.

His campaign does not seek to get Prince Andrew Is A Sweaty Nonce to No1, but has the slightly more modest aim of getting to No2, with Kunt believing the figures would be rigged to keep it off the top slot even if it outsold all competitors. In 1977, the way the chart was compiled was changed in Silver Jubilee week, with the effect of keeping the Sex Pistols’ God Save The Queen off No1.

Now Kunt suspects similar dirty tricks with the YouTube ban, linked to a song he says 'is intended to re-open the conversation around Prince Andrew's conduct at this time when the Establishment appear to want it swept under the carpet, particularly the Prince's friendship with convicted paedophile and sex-trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, and his cloak-and-dagger out-of-court settlement of the alleged historic sexual assault civil case brought about by Virginia Giuffre'.

The platform told him: ‘We have reviewed your content and found severe or repeated violations of our Community Guidelines. Because of this, we have removed your channel from YouTube.

‘We know that this is probably very upsetting news, but it's our job to make sure that YouTube is a safe place for all. If we think that a channel severely violates our policies, we take it down to protect other users on the platform - but if you believe that we've made the wrong call, you can appeal this decision.’

Kunt’s YouTube channel was removed once before, in 2011, when he released another song about the Royal Family's misdemeanours: Fucksticks (The Royal Wedding Version).

After working on the comedy circuit since 2003 under the name Kunt & The Gang, Kunt formed the band in 2019 alongside Carsehole on guitar, plus twin brothers Rubber Johnny and Fucksticks on bass and drums respectively.

Based in Basildon in Essex,  he won the Malcolm Hardee Cunning Stunt Award at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe for handing out stickers of a crudely drawn penis to his audience each night and encouraging them to stick them on other comedians' posters on their way home.

The prank backfired when many comics failed to see the funny side, and culminated in Kunt and his promoter Laughing Horse Comedy having to withdraw their cocks after being threatened with legal action.

His new show, Shannon Matthews: The Musical, a comedy musical based on the story of the nine-year-old Yorkshire girl's disappearance, premieres at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe at Just The Tonic at The Caves.

Full details of the Prince Andrew Is A Sweaty Nonce campaign, including the video to download, are available at the official website.

Published: 23 May 2022