Frankie Boyle Responds After He's Accused Of Making 'Offensive' Joke About Holly Willoughby

Warning: Contains references to sexual abuse

Comedian Frankie Boyle has hit back at criticism after he allegedly made a joke about abusing and killing ITV presenter Holly Willoughby.

Reports about Boyle's joke emerged over the weekend following his appearance at Latitude Festival in Suffolk; a performance for which he received mixed responses online.

One fan described his set as 'unbelievable good' and said Boyle was a 'master of the dark art', but another claimed Boyle made 'plenty of rape jokes'.

One such controversial joke is said to have related to Willoughby, with a report in the Daily Mail claiming Boyle had said: "I’d obviously kill her and rape her afterwards. I’m joking – I’d rape her first."

The report about the comment sparked backlash from members of the public, but Boyle has since taken to Twitter to defend himself and claim the article was an example of 'more grief from the Daily Mail'.

He continued: "The joke they “quote” is garbled nonsense, a concept and wording no comic would ever use. There is a very long routine in my current show which concludes that certain jokes are probably a product of toxic masculinity. You’d struggle to be offended."

Boyle went on to accuse the Daily Mail of twisting his words to create clickbait, writing: "Papers like the Daily Mail are outraged by “safe space” comedy and all for free speech, until it’s routines reflecting on things like stereotyping and toxic masculinity, or taking ideas into places where they can’t be used to churn out clickbait.

"Anyway, standup is still the silliest, riskiest, most surprising art form," he continued. "If you’re up in Edinburgh this year, take a punt on a new act or two and keep this madness going."

Prior to his response on Twitter, Boyle reportedly defended his comment about Willoughby when questioned about it at a Waterstones event promoting his new book.

The comedian allegedly replied: "Can I just say, my routine about raping and f*cking Holly Willoughby was part of a very long routine about whether or not it’s OK to do a joke about that, and I look at it from both sides, there are pluses and minuses."

After hearing reports about Boyle's comment at Latitude, a spokesperson for the feminist campaign group FiLiA told the Daily Mail they were 'horrified' that the abuse of women was being used as comedy material.

"Seeking cheap applause at the expense of traumatising women speaks of low-quality material. There is nothing funny about male violence. Women and girls around the country are not laughing," they added.

LADbible has reached out to representatives for Frankie Boyle and Holly Willoughby for further comment.

Featured Image Credit: Getty/PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo

Topics: UK News, Holly Willoughby, TV and Film, Twitter, Viral

Emily Brown

Emily Brown is the Community Desk Lead at LADbible Group. Emily first began delivering news when she was just 11 years old - with a paper route. She went on to graduate with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University before contributing to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems. She joined UNILAD in 2018 to cover breaking news, trending stories and longer form features, and now works as Community Desk Lead to commission and write human interest stories from across the globe.