A BRITISH comedian has sparked fury after posting an inappropriate joke about 18-year-old environmental activist Greta Thunberg on Twitter.
Lee Hurst, 57, came in for strong criticism after tweeting: “As soon as Greta discovers c***, she’ll stop complaining about the single use plastic it’s wrapped in.”
The stand-up's tweet was subsequently reported with Hurst temporarily suspended from Twitter as a result.
Hurst, who is best known for his stint on the BBC comedy panel series They Think It’s All Over back in the 1990s, appealed the temporary ban which has since been lifted.
Speaking in an interview with the Daily Star, the controversial comic showed little in the way of contrition for sending the offending tweet.
“If I’m binned permanently then I suppose I’m glad I was binned for writing a gag rather than for having a rant,” Hurst said. “No regrets. It got laughs.”
According to the comedian, he was suspended by Twitter after being found in breach of the social media platform’s rules on abuse and harassment.
He has since returned to the platform to hit back at those who criticised his joke.
What ban? Keep up. I am sorry. I’m sorry there are so many po faced, humourless losers who have all, at some point in their dreary lives, told a joke that someone somewhere took offence to and are then hypocritical enough to join in a pile on like the sad poseurs they are. https://t.co/eKf566u2Qz
— Lee Hurst - 30.1K 15/3/22 ian 14 odi 33 2835 (@LeeHurstComic) March 22, 2021
“I am sorry,” he began.
“I’m sorry there are so many po faced, humourless losers who have all, at some point in their dreary lives, told a joke that someone somewhere took offence to and are then hypocritical enough to join in a pile on like the sad poseurs they are.”
Fellow comic Davd Baddiel was among those to hit out at Hurst’s joke.
He tweeted: “The reason that Lee Hurst is problematic isn’t because it carries underneath it a sense that women, as individuals, with political opinions, are erased by male sexual power. It’s problematic because it’s a s*** gag."
Baddiel later rephrased the tweet to explain that the joke was both.
See More: Comedian, Greta Thunberg, Twitter
