Comedian Joe Lycett has made headlines again for planting a number of false stories across UK media recently. The stories were covered by outlets including the BBC and Sky News. Lycett revealed the four stories he planted on the second series of his Channel 4 show, Late Night Lycett. He joked that the aim was to take up space that the media would otherwise use to spread “hate, misery and pictures of Amanda Holden”.
The stories included a Birmingham five-a-side footballer having a bruise resembling Prince Harry, H from Steps getting a statue in his honour in his hometown of Cowbridge, research saying men from Birmingham have the longest penises, and a supposed Banksy mural of The Wizard of Oz‘s Dorothy in Birmingham. Responding to the hoax, H told BBC Wales that he’s great friends with Joe and praised the fake news for shining a light on joy and something funny.
This is not the first time Lycett has made the news with his media stunts. Last year, he teased the release of a supposed podcast called ‘Turdcast’, which was actually a stunt to promote his Joe Lycett vs Poo documentary about the UK’s sewage spill problem. In 2022, Lycett threatened to shred £10k in an effort to push David Beckham to stop working with Qatar during the World Cup amid its homophobic policies. The shredding was later revealed to be fake, and the money was donated to charity.
Lycett’s hoaxes aim to create fun fake news to deflect attention from real problems and headlines. The comedian’s stunts often go unnoticed and tend to only hit the news once they have been revealed as false. Lycett has been praised for using his platform to raise awareness of political issues and providing some comic relief amid challenging times
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