A controversial Clapham comedian was banned from performing at a Welsh university this week following a protest.
Cardiff University students launched a campaign against the internet star Dapper Laughs, saying that his show trivialised rape and unprotected sex.
Ban Dapper Laughs Show called on the student union to cancel his gig, and received more than 700 petition signatures.
The petition said his appearance would be ‘a soap box for his misogyny inside the walls of an academic establishment that claims to protect the rights of its students’.
The student senate upheld the motion, agreeing that the performance would be in breach of their ‘anti-lad culture’ policy.
Dapper Laughs, whose real name is Daniel O’Reilly, had planned to visit the Welsh university in February as part of his Socially Unacceptable tour.
He first found fame as an internet sensation on Vine, and more recently had his own series on ITV2 called Dapper Laughs: On the Pull.
Best known for his ‘cheeky’ humour, his videos offer up ‘lad advice on romancing the ladies and being a geeza’.
He regularly features in his own videos harassing women on the street, approaching girls and telling them that they are ‘proper moist’.
Words of wisdom include: “How do you know if she’s interested? It’s easy, there’s only one thing you’ve got to do – just show her your penis, if she cries, she’s just playing hard to get.”
It’s not the first time the former cruise-ship entertainer’s brand of comedy has faced criticism.
Comedian Lee Kern wrote an open letter to ITV2 last month saying that it had helped create a ‘rapist’s almanac’.
It read: “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 p***y.
“In doing so you despise your mums. You despise your daughters. You despise your sisters. You despise your wives.”
TV critic Michael Hogan wrote in the Telegraph: “He’s also downright dangerous: legitimising cat-calling, street harassment, manipulative ‘pick-up artist’ misogyny and the predatory pursuit of ‘banging fit birds’ to ‘ruin them’.
“Dapper’s no laughing matter. He’s deeply offensive to women and doing all men a disservice.”
Image courtesy of FRP Motion Pictures via Vimeo, with thanks
