ITV have announced that comedian Dapper Laughs will not have his TV show, Dapper Laughs: On The Pull, renewed for a second series after he was recorded on stage telling an audience member that a woman was ‘gagging for a rape’.
Dapper Laughs, whose real name is Daniel O’Reilly, was performing at a sell-out gig at London’s Scala last month when he was recorded by an audience member denying that his ITV show promoted sexual assault.
“I filmed six episodes, half an hour each, if it was a guide to rape, I would have done one five-minute episode, come on and go ‘Oi Oi, I’m Dapper Laughs, go down the shops, get some rope, bit of duct tape, rape the bitch, well done, see you later.”
He then added: “You can’t rape women. No you can’t rape women.”
As if to support the accusations about his show and what it promotes, an audience member then replied: “Yes you can!”
And instead of shooting the member of the audience down, the comedian turned to an unidentified female and said: “She’s gagging for rape. Yep we’ll have a chat afterwards. She’s having a chat about ‘yeah, I get quite tight but I get a bit… poor girl.
“Do you want to come backstage after? Bring two of your mates, you’ll need them.”
A week of scandal
The video of the incident only came to light this weekend after Dapper Laughs had endured a week of scandal over a music single which he hoped to sell to raise money for a homeless charity.
The single came from a Christmas album, however when journalists from usvsth3m reviewed the album they found that unsurprisingly it was a travesty to music but furthermore, on one track Dapper Laughs tells a homeless man ‘he smells like shit.’
This is of course caused outrage, and homeless charity Shelter refused to take any money raised by the sale or stream of the album. Dapper Laughs, who had already endured criticism for his sexist show in which hapless guys employ his help to chat up ladies, using the most offensive and degrading lines possible, then turned his attention on the two UsvsTh3m journalists who wrote the album review.
His adoring fans (there are few other words I could use) then began using Twitter to abuse and insult the pair of journalists – Abi Wilkinson and Natt Tapley. Abi, received particularly harrowing abuse from many of Dapper Laughs 350,000 plus followers after he tweeted her name instructing her to ‘fuck off’.
Most of the abusive tweets how now been deleted but if you want to you can see some of them here.
ITV had refrained from cancelling Dapper Laughs’ show despite increasing pressure over the weekend which escalated with a petition signed by 50,000 people, who demanded the show be removed.
ITV initially released a statement which said “Comedy is subjective and we appreciate the content of the show might not be to everyone’s taste” but that it had been “deemed suitable for broadcast.”
Not so suitable any more
However the company quickly changed its mind after the footage of ‘Laughs’ on stage making the offensive comments emerged.
On Monday an ITV spokesman said: “We have given careful thought to the recent criticism of the character Dapper Laughs, which has focused on his activities outside of the ITV2 programme, whose content was carefully considered and complied. We have taken the decision that we will not be considering this show for a second series.”
Was the show really that bad?
In a word. Yes. The show was offensive, sexist and degrading to women. I watched two episodes simply because I couldn’t believe how misogynistic it was. The second episode simply confirmed that Dapper Laughs: On The Pull deserved to be cancelled sooner rather than later.
If you haven’t seen it, then you’re lucky. The format basically revolves around one hapless lad who doesn’t understand why he’s not a hit with the ladies. Instead of Mr Laughs telling this guy that he might be struggling because of the use of offensive chat up lines or an astonishing expectation that the first woman he sees will jump into bed with him, he simply encourages them to act like a sexist pig.
It’s not actually the advice he gives in the bar, encouraging the lad to ask questions about the woman and listen is all good advice, we could all do with some help attracting the opposite sex, couldn’t we? And let’s not pretend that some women just as much as men want a one-night stand and nothing more.
That’s fine, what isn’t is the promotion that women are nothing more than subjects who will bow to your every word, and even worse, is the misgiving that they are inferior subjects simply to be ridden, where you get off in the morning and simply catch the next one a few hours later.
That’s what the show paints. Right from offer, the introduction to the show sets its stall out.
“Basically, I want you guys to find Mr and Mrs Right. Do I bollocks. What I’m going to do is show you guys how to fucking pull. Oi oi!”
And the show just goes downhill from there but it’s the skits that in my opinion cause the most offense – simply labelled as ‘pulling tips’. These range from ‘If you want to make her moist, remember, don’t treat her like your mate’ to what men are really thinking when they ask a woman a question. Apparently, it equates to ‘I wanna fuck you?’ I must have missed that memo.
Other things such as describing students as ‘easy pickings’ and telling a guy how to get ‘gash’ – really didn’t help the appeal of this show. In one episode he travels to Pontefract and opens with ‘I’m here to see Callum who is getting the girls proper dry, so I thought it was time I came down here to see if I can help him get them proper wet.’
If you need an explanation to what’s wrong with that sentence, then Dapper Laughs: On The Pull is the show for you.
Dapper Laughs found his fame through Vine videos, and admittedly, one or two are quite amusing and he prides himself on breaking boundaries. However, his dating show went too far and it was quite astonishing that ITV were still considering a second series despite poor reviews and viewing figures of on average 119,000 not to mention the general attitude of the show.
With the publicity Dapper Laughs has gained in the last week – ITV may have weathered the storm and commissioned a second series, the comedian himself is reported to have tweeted that there was an agreement for two new series but this tweet was later deleted – but the emergence of his rape joke while on tour, has cost a new series and we’ll all be better for it.
