If you’re from outside the UK you may not have heard of the comedian Dapper Laughs, real name Daniel O’Reilly, but he is well-known throughout Britain for his hilarious Vine videos, stand-up tour, and recent TV show.
Having been a fan of his since he first entered the comedy scene I, like many others, have always viewed him as a likable character with humour that is both light-hearted and amusing. These features of his persona were reflected by his rapid rise in popularity, adoration by various members of the British public, and his remarkable climb from making short videos on Vine to hosting sell-out comedy shows and his own TV series, all within the space of a year.
During this time he has also offered genuine dating advice for men which, perhaps surprisingly, incorporated red pill philosophies and known game techniques. His Facebook page attracted almost 2 million “likes” and, up until now, the majority of responses to his comedy have been overwhelmingly positive.
So what went wrong?
In the past couple of weeks, despite the range of far more important issues going on in the world, feminists and SJWs decided that Daniel should be the focus of their negative energy. Through the use of petitions and Twitter attacks (as always), he was first forced to cancel his stand-up tour after the student union at Cardiff University stated that his comedy “trivialized rape, unprotected sex, and dehumanizing of women.”
The British channel ITV then decided to axe his TV series and remove all trace of them from their catch-up service. This was then followed by a media storm that grossly exaggerated his comedy, calling it “sexual harassment” and him “misogynistic.” It is shocking how a person can be so meticulously harassed and hounded that, in the space of almost a week, their livelihood is all but destroyed.
The effect this witch-hunt has had on O’Reilly was particularly noticeable when he appeared on the BBC’s Newsnight program in an attempt to calm his critics and detach himself from the “character” of Dapper Laughs. His solemn appearance and demeanour on the show was a far cry from the flamboyant, joyful character seen before.
In many ways it was extremely sad to see how his personality and character had been stripped bare – a visual representation, perhaps, of the suppressive censorship of his disapprovers. At the end of the show he stated that that the controversy had “wrecked” his life and that “Dapper Laughs is gone.” With that, his career, character, and fan base that he had spent countless hours developing were also destroyed.
If you spent a mere five minutes looking at O’Reilly’s Vine page you would instantly see that his humor is undoubtedly light-hearted. One would have to be extremely simple-minded, or even deluded, to look at his comedy and think that it really advocates rape or sexual harassment.
The world of comedy is littered with racial slurs, inappropriate jokes, and demeaning references to the disabled. Fellow British comedian Frankie Boyle previously named and made jokes about a 10-year-old autistic child and then said that society has a problem if we’re not allowed to “laugh with the disabled.” Yet are comedians like Boyle attacked like Dapper Laughs was? No. Are there shows cancelled and their livelihoods destroyed? No.
Is this the start of comedy censorship? Who’s next? Who will risk having their livelihoods destroyed by saying anything that could be deemed offensive by a minority? Despite the hundreds of thousands of people that O’Reilly made laugh, there was a much smaller group that didn’t find it funny and eventually ruined his life. They have successfully removed Dapper Laughs from the public sphere. And for what gain?
Read More: Did British Blogger Sara C Nelson Commit Libel?
