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Katherine Ryan Defends Mock The Week Joke That Got Her 'Cancelled'

Katherine Ryan Defends Mock The Week Joke That Got Her 'Cancelled'

The 38-year-old said she was making a much deeper point than people realised at the time

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers

Katherine Ryan has defended herself after a controversial joke she once made on Mock The Week resurfaced.

The comedian appeared on the show in 2013 and found herself in hot water when she joked about animal testing.

The 38-year-old was responding to the prompt 'Unlikely lines from a cosmetics commercial', when she made the remark.

She said: "We don't test any of our products on animals. We use Filipino children."

But the joke didn't seem to go down too well at the time, with people protesting outside the BBC.

However, speaking to the Radio Times recently, the mum said she didn't regret her joke and she was actually trying to make a much bigger point that people perhaps didn't realise at the time.

BBC

She told the publication: "What I was saying with that joke was that Western cultures present this pious image where they're like oh, we don't test products on animals.

"But if you dig deeper they're doing something much worse, they have underpaid workers or child workers in places like the Philippines.

"It was taken out of context and it really blew up.

"There were demonstrations outside the BBC, and that was my first foray into being cancelled.

"It went away and then teenagers find comedy online from years ago and they just can't believe it and then I get cancelled all over again!"

PA

And Ryan said she isn't really bothered what people or critics think of her.

"I don't spend loads of time or energy trying to change their mind," she said.

Last year, Ryan came out in defence of fellow comedian Rosie Jones after she was criticised for making a joke about climate change activist Greta Thunberg.

Jones faced a backlash after she made a joke about Thunberg while appearing on The Last Leg.

Jones said: "Greta's amazing and what she's doing is brilliant. But don't do it now. She needs to live a little, she's only 16."

She added: "She should be doing two things - drinking Lambrini and getting fingered."

After the joke went out a number of people took to social media to slam Jones, branding the quip 'disgusting', 'vile' and 'sickening'.

PA

Ryan later spoke out to show her support for Jones over the controversial joke.

She told the Metro: "I think they don't have a position to be outraged.

"She was just relating her own experience. The truth is what a lot of us were doing when we were 16.

"It's just getting off with boys behind the bins - we weren't fighting climate change. That was the joke. People just misunderstood.

"A lot of the time when people get offended, it's not the joke, it's the fact that they're too thick to understand the joke. I absolutely think that's what happened."

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: Viral, joke, UK News, Funny, comedian