BBC slam Mock The Week star Frankie Boyle for Rebecca Adlington joke
October 20, 2009 9:02am by Such Small Portions
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BBC chiefs have rapped Mock the Week star Frankie Boyle for his joke about Olympic gold medallist Rebecca Adlington.
The BBC Trust has upheld complaints from viewers after the outspoken comic commented on Adlington's appearance and sexual prowess on air during the comedy panel show.
"The thing that nobody really said about Rebecca Adlington is that she looks pretty weird," Boyle said. "She looks like someone who’s looking at themselves in the back of a spoon.
"And then, when she arrived back on the flight she met her boyfriend. Did you see her boyfriend? He was really attractive. He was like a male model. So from that I have deduced that Rebecca Adlington is very dirty – I mean if you just take into account how long she can hold her breath…"
The programme recieved a record 75 complaints after the show was broadcast, with one particularly outraged viewer taking the complaint to the BBC Trust.
The quip was also picked up by the Daily Mail who lambasted the Scottish comic as an example of 'how far the BBC has fallen'.
In Boyle's defence, Mock The Week's producer said: "The jokes were not outrageously offensive and were wholly consistent with Frankie’s hugely popular comedy persona in the show as both a perpetually negative voice and someone whose “seedy lifestyle” is reflected in his inability to view celebrities by any yardstick other than their physical attractiveness."
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