Unfortunately Lee had been the only comedian quoted in a piece by The Telegraph which discussed McIntyre’s appearance on Desert Island Discs in which the Comedy Roadshow star described some of the ridicule he has faced from other comedians.
Published on Chortle, Lee explains that the quote about Michael McIntyre spoon-feeding his audience warm diarrhoea was taken out of context from his 2009 stand up show If You Prefer a Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One, specifically ‘2,673 words in to a 27,190 word, 105 minute show.’
RELATED: Stewart Lee’s If You Prefer a Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One wins Chortle Award.
‘The case is overstated, for comic effect,’ he said. ‘I’m not going to pretend I like McIntyre’s work in of itself, and would hate this piece to be misconstrued as an apology, though I do find much to admire in him as a comedian, and the phenomena of the stadium-sized observational stand-up is, to me, both a fascinating and an amusing oddity.
‘But the way the diarrhoea line was presented to him, shorn of set and setting, does make it read rather differently.’
On whether he was actually at the British Comedy Awards he added: ‘I wasn’t at the British Comedy Awards, as I say, but by now the story seems to suggest that, in the moment of McIntyre’s triumph, I jumped up, banged the table with my fists, shouted something about diarrhoea, and tore his wife’s dress.’
Now that would have made headlines.
Read Stewart Lee’s full rebuttal over at Chortle.
Too see for yourself Stewart Lee’s effort at a Michael McIntyre routine If You Prefer a Milder Comedian, Please Ask For One is out now to buy on DVD from HMV, Amazon or Play.com.
Copyright : Comedy Central UK