RTÉ received a number of complaints after Brendan O’Carroll issued an apology on the Late Late Show over a ‘clumsy’ racial joke on Mrs Brown’s Boys.
Some 14 people contacted the national broadcaster to share their distaste at the interview, while one individual emailed to share their support for the comedian.
On Friday evening, O’Carroll appeared on the show with host Patrick Kielty and guests including Paul Mescal, U2’s Adam Clayton, Glamour Global Editor-in-Chief Samantha Barry, and Graham Norton.
Discussing his previous remarks, Mr O’Carroll said he felt ‘disgusted’ with himself for implying a racial joke during a recent read-through for the Christmas special.
While no formal complaints were lodged, the Irish Mirror reports that RTÉ confirmed that a number of people had gotten in touch to air their grievances.
The national broadcaster confirmed that they received feedback comprising of four voicemails and 10 emails regarding the segment, plus one email backing him.
Addressing the issue on air, Brendan began; ‘I like to poke fun at particular people who marginalise other people. When Mrs Brown found out her son was gay, I showed how she didn’t understand it. She now knows her son is gay and accepts it, but she doesn’t know what gay is.’
The comedian admits he had attempted to tackle ‘intergenerational racism’ through his character, Mrs Brown’s.
He said: ‘I wanted to poke fun at intergenerational racism, and how Mrs Brown doesn’t get racism. She doesn’t know what racism is. [The joke] was kinda like, “Eenie meenie minie mo catch a -,” and then Kathy interrupts and says, “Mammy you can’t say that’. We went on with the rest of the read through.”‘
Reflecting on the backlash, O’Carroll said: ‘The next day we went into rehearsals and got a note from the director about the runner who was at the read through. The read throughs are about finding out what you can and can’t say, there’s always a BBC executive there. Everyone laughed and at the end of it we clapped.’
‘Yeah, that’s why I apologised. I completely get it.’
Asked by Patrick if he could see ‘why he was offended’, Brendan replied: ‘That’s why I apologised, otherwise I wouldn’t have apologised. If I thought he was spoofing I would have gone “f*** him”. I completely get it…
‘Comedians use this, it’s a thing we do, if Mrs Brown says “blowjob”, Cathy will stop her… I know the audience will finish that in their head. That’s what happened here. I actually expected them to finish it in their head and realise “she doesn’t get it”.
‘It was a gag that backfired, it landed on its arse, I landed on my arse. You have Ukraine, Gaza, an American election, but I ended up on the front page of the English papers for a week. I obviously deserved it.’
