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Dapper Laughs is still trying to defend that controversial rape joke

Daniel O’Reilly claims he was only repeating what an audience member said to him.

HE’S NOT GONE away you know.

Dapper Laughs (AKA Daniel O’Reilly) has said he regrets joking about rape – but also said the backlash that followed was entirely “generated by the media”.

Age of Kill screening - London Dominic Lipinski / PA Wire Dominic Lipinski / PA Wire / PA Wire

O’Reilly ‘retired’ his Dapper Laughs alter ego in an interview on BBC’s Newsnight in November 2014 – but the character reappeared on Twitter earlier this year.

A ‘warts and all’ interview in today’s Sunday Times Magazine reveals that O’Reilly is still touring with some success.

He says he regrets the ‘gagging for a rape’ joke that sparked the backlash against him – but claims he was merely repeating what someone in the audience shouted at him.

Of course I’m sorry if people were offended by the implication that I think rape is funny. I have never said I condone rape… [A woman in the audience] shouted “My friend Lisa loves you, she’s gagging for a rape.” I then reply over the microphone with, “What? She’s gagging for a rape?”

“Now, looking back, I should have stayed away from saying anything about rape,” he said. “There’s nothing in my sets about rape now. Lesson learnt.”

BBC Newsnight / YouTube

O’Reilly said the backlash threw him into self-destruct mode – he went on Newsnight, he said, because he had “had enough” of of the negative attention:

I lost a six-figure sum in three days on my tour; my TV show that I’d spent months writing was cancelled, years of work were taken away from me. But because of my family I was apologising for something the media had generated. It was horrible.

Critics of Dapper Laughs have been largely sceptical about O’Reilly’s sincerity in the Sunday Times interview:

Fans and O’Reilly himself, however, seem pleased with how he is being portrayed:

O’Reilly begins a UK tour in October and has a DVD (called Res-Erection) coming out in the same month.

Previously: ‘Dapper Laughs is gone’ – Comedian scraps character after backlash>

Dapper Laughs returned to Twitter today, but how did the internet react?>

Author
Valerie Loftus
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