If you've never heard of the supposed comedian who goes by the name Dapper Laughs, well, count yourself lucky.
Dapper Laughs is the on screen persona of Daniel O'Reilly, who came to fame via Vine videos before being given his own show, Dapper Laughs: On The Pull by ITV2. This show basically consists of him encouraging hapless men to sexually harass women.
Of course, he doesn't see his habits of making creepy remarks at strangers, or smirking "she knows" (his loathsome catchphrase) as they walk by, as sexual harassment. According to one of his tweets, "it's only sexual harassment if she's more attractive than you." Because that's the sort of classy guy he is.
Anyway, the whole thing is gobsmackingly revolting. A writer for Chortle, one of the UK's biggest comedy websites, recently denounced ITV2 for "basically help[ing] create a rapists’ almanac." In his passionate and - you have been warned - sweary piece, Lee Kern wrote:
You've made a show that contributes to a society that already doesn't treat women by default as human beings with brains and imaginations and thoughts and ideas and humour and anger and beliefs and flaws as is the birthright of men - but you have reduced them to pussy. In doing so you despise your mums. You despise your daughters. You despise your sisters. You despise your wives. You despise women everywhere if you have helped play a part in allowing this rat-tousled, fuck-spiv to have a platform to pump shit into British society. I understand you have to pay the rent but for fuck's sake.
You could argue that Dapper Laughs's act is so outrageously horrible that no one could think he was cool or positive. However, the response from his actual fans to any critique of their idol shows this isn't true. When a writer for the website Us Vs Th3m criticised Dapper and his album, she was inundated with horrible, often sexual tweets. One (female, depressingly) fan wrote "shut up u fool if it was harassment he wouldn't have his own TV show", which shows that ITV are literally validating Dapper's creepy antics by putting them on telly. There are clearly young people who think if it was really wrong, it wouldn't be shown. Other fans showed that they were literally copying Dapper's moves, with one tweeting "Been watching Dapper Laughs to[sic] much, walking round Telford with my mate just going, she knows."
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But the backlash was on its way. A Dapper Laugh live show at Cardiff University's student union was called off after more than 700 students protested. Homelessness charity Shelter refused to take money from O'Reilly's charity album, which featured songs mocking what O'Reilly charmingly called "tramps". And a petition was launched which was ultimately signed by over 60,000 people. The petition stated:
O’Reilly’s work frequently depicts real-life harassment of women and in his new show he offers dating tips to members of the public inspired by his misogynistic views, all under the guise of harmless comedy.O’Reilly’s attitudes towards women, and ITV’s backing in particular, are far from harmless however: because ITV has granted O’Reilly the massive exposure and credibility of its platform, everyday sexism is being normalised for both young men and women...
This has to stop. Sexual harassment and borderline threatening behaviour towards women must never be defended as either comedy or “harmless banter”, nor should young men and women be encouraged to regard sexist behaviour as socially acceptable. It is time for ITV to follow its own responsibility policy and recognize that it has a duty not to aid the spread of sexism as seen in “Dapper Laughs: On The Pull”. This insight should lead to the show’s cancellation and should also be applied to all future content decisions.”
It wasn't certain that this would make any difference, but ITV finally seemed to realise that enough was enough after the Mirror reported that O'Reilly had made jokes about raping an audience member in a recent live show. Earlier this week, ITV announced that it will not be renewing Dapper Laughs: On The Pull for another series.
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.
While it shouldn't have taken their star making hilarious rape threats to make ITV reconsider broadcasting a sexual harassment how to, I'm glad that they finally ditched him. But in an attempt to do a "you can't fire me, I quit", O'Reilly appeared on Newsnight, where he was interviewed by an brilliantly unimpressed Emily Matliss, and tried to distance himself from basically everything he's ever said in public, blaming it on a "character" that he's now killing off. And as Stuart Heritage wrote in the Guardian, the whole thing might even boost his careerin the long run.
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So are you relieved that this horrible show is off the air, or do you think the fuss just gave more publicity to a dreadful comedian? And is he the only person on TV with such attitudes? Have TV bosses been turning a blind eye to too much explicit sexism?
