Joe Lycett is asking fans to spot the various fake news stories he has planted.
The comedian has confessed to planting a number of “silly” made-up reports over the past month to see how many would be picked up by national news. He told his 1.4m followers: “FAKE NEWS! Can you spot the stories I’ve been seeding in the press? Multiple silly stories have been in the news over the last month, and they were all coordinated by me. Send them my way, with the hashtag #IsThisJoe?”
Lycett, 35, revealed he has successfully planted fake news in The Daily Mail, The Sun newspaper, BBC news, Sky news, Metro, The Independent and LAD Bible. He will confirm which stories are his on his Channel 4 show Late Night Lycett when it returns on Friday Night. But in the meantime he is asking fans to guess which news stories might be made up by him and his team, by sending them to him with the hashtag #IsThisJoe?
He has already confirmed several stories which were reported by national news but were actually made up by him. Here are the confirmed #IsThisJoe? fake news stories so far:
Alan Titchmarsh’s trousers
Lycett has confirmed he was behind a fake news story which claimed Alan Titchmarsh‘s trousers had been censored by North Korean state television. The story was reported by Sky News, BBC News, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Times, The Independent, The Daily Express and The Guardian, among many others.
The gardener and TV presenter even read out the story himself on his Classic FM radio show. Although Lycett hinted Titchmarsh may have been in on the joke, teasing: “What an unusual and funny news story! But this statement feels almost… scripted?”
Titchmarsh told listeners: “You might have seen I made the news last week, as was the centre of a controversy, not something I’m generally familiar with. I doubt you missed it since it made all the national news bulletins. It turns out that Kim Jong Un took exception to my gardening trousers. I thought they were rather nice, slim-fit, narrow leg and all. But when North Korean State TV broadcast one of my old gardening shows they blurred out my jeans. Censorship of blue jeans on the grounds that they were subversive and representative of imperialist capitalist culture! I don’t know what they were on about!” He then played the theme tune to Wallace and Grommet’s The Wrong Trousers.
Paul McCartney sculpture
Another news story Lycett is taking credit for was centered around Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney banning a sculpture of himself being auctioned for charity because he thought it “too unflattering”. The artists shared the claim on Instagram along with a picture of the ceramic likeness. The story ran on various music magazine and radio websites including NME, Guitar.com, Far Out Magazine and American Songwriter. It was also picked up by BBC news quiz show Have I Got News For You.
Lycett shared a clip of himself watching the show chuckling: “I do love the stories on Have I Got News For You…”
Crude ketchup
But Lycett is even teasing fans with his fake news confessions. He claimed responsibility for a story bearing the headline “I used Marks & Spencer vine tomatoes as anal beads and now I’m s***ting ketchup!”. However this story was published in the Sunday Sport newspaper in 2016. Lycett joked: “Can confirm this is me #isthisjoe?”
Lycett said: “The world’s been turned upside down by fake news, and I hate it!” He added: “For the last month, me and my team have been planting stupid, silly fake news stories, about things that never actually happened in the hope that they would take up space that more hateful or polarising fake news might otherwise have used.”
Lycett’s past political protests
The comedian is as famous for his political protests as he is for his comedy. In 2022 he called out David Beckham’s support of the Qatar World Cup by pretending to shred £10,000 in protest – although he later revealed he had donated the money to LGBTQ+ charities.
And in 2020 he changed his name to Hugo Boss in an act of protest against the fashion brand. Lycett shared the official deed poll changing his name to match that of the German fashion brand’s treatment of small business who use the word ‘boss’ on social media.
In January 2022 he sparked panic among some government figures when he published a fake version of the Sue Gray report. He later revealed he lost his best friend to cancer during lockdown and was unable to be with them when they died because he was following COVID rules.
Recently he presented new Channel 4 documentary Joe Lycett Vs Sewage, highlighting the thousands of sewage spillages into UK rivers and the sea that happen every year.
Late Night Lycett returns to Channel 4 on Friday 12 April at 10pm.
Read more: Joe Lycett
Watch: Joe Lycett defends Qatar shows after his David Beckham criticism
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email [email protected] Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
