Dapper Laughs Comeback - Don’t Bother

Regular Zelo Street readers may recall the brief interlude last November when one Daniel O’Reilly, who styles himself Dapper Laughs, was notorious, before ITV2 decided not to commission another series of his “Lad Comedy” show On The Pull, in which he gave out advice to young men, who were not as proficient in getting forward as he, on how to make themselves rather better received by young women. As it were.

Funny. So he says

The reason his show was pulled may have been the lame torrent of misogynist drivel that emanated from his North And South, it may have been comments he made during his stand-up show, but it was indeed pulled. Now, Dapper Laughs wants a way back, and has secured a feature in the Sunday Times magazine, where Martin Daubney has given him the benefit of the doubt - and concluded he quite likes the bloke.

As the Indy has noted, “When O’Reilly was filmed at a gig making a rape joke last October, before telling the audience that a woman in the crowd was ‘gagging for a rape’, he lost his TV show and cancelled his tour due to the backlash, in which 68,000 people had signed a petition calling for him to be taken off TV. He later claimed in an interview with Newsnight that he had killed off the Dapper Laughs character”.

Though it seems O’Reilly spoke with forked tongue: “But O’Reilly has begun gigging again, and in an interview with the Sunday Times Magazine this weekend he has attempted to defend the jokes he made that night, while seeking to assure people that ‘I have never said I condone rape’”. No, it’s nothing more than PROPER LAD BANTER.

I mean, next he’ll be coming on all Reformed New Man … oh hang on a minute, will you look at that Twitter feed: “My point was, with 2 million followers why not ask me to put a message across to young lads, instead of trying to ban me. Stay tuned”. Actually, it’s less than 400K on Twitter, but do go on. “As a son, brother, and boyfriend to some amazing woman id [sic] love to use my position to educate men on sexism”.

Has he turned over a new leaf? “I didn't make ‘rape jokes’ I don't joke about rape. Or find it funny...I spoke about it. Unlike any other comic ever”. Is this reformed character also going to cut out his, shall we say, creative use of Twitter to have critics monstered? Sadly, as Mic Wright has discovered, no he isn’t: “I see Dapper Laughs is up to his old trick of quote tweeting people who criticise him so his followers monster them. Classy as ever”.

Wright has weighed the evidence, considered his words carefully, and concluded of Dapper Laughs that “he's a scumbag as is Daubney. And The Sunday Times should be ashamed of giving them the platform”. One thing is for certain: this is a thinly veiled attempt by Daniel O’Reilly to get himself another fifteen minutes. And he does not merit it, whether he gets himself into the ST Magazine or anywhere else.

So O’Reilly can draw an audience for his stand-up show. Fine. Just don’t anyone pretend that he’s any kind of phenomenon other than one worth ignoring.