Comedian Lee Hurst ‘doesn’t regret’ vile Greta Thurnberg tweet that saw him suspended from Twitter

Comedian Lee Hurst has said he ‘doesn’t regret’ posting a vile joke about Greta Thurnberg online that later saw him suspended from Twitter.

The stand-up star, 57, who is known for being a panellist on They Think It’s All Over, took aim at the 18-year-old environmental activist in a gag he tweeted over the weekend and it didn’t go down well with fans.

Hurst had tweeted: ‘As soon as Greta discovers c***, she’ll stop complaining about the single use plastic it’s wrapped in.’

His tweet was then reported and the joke saw him suspended from Twitter.

Addressing the incident in an interview with Daily Star, Hurst said he has appealed his suspension, but doesn’t regret sending out the crude tweet in the first place.

‘I’ve appealed, but heard nothing yet,’ he revealed. ‘If I’m binned permanently then I suppose I’m glad I was binned for writing a gag rather than for having a rant.’

Hurst added: ‘No regrets. It got laughs.’

The comic explained that he was informed by Twitter that his tweet had been reported, but was told by the social media platform that no action was being taken.

Hurst then received a second email stating that his account had been suspended as he had gone against Twitter’s rules on abuse and harassment.

His tweet hadn’t gone unnoticed with Jeremy Vine among the celebs seen reacting to it on social media.

Jeremy tweeted: ‘I really wish I hadn’t looked to see why Lee Hurst is trending.’

Fellow comedian David Baddiel called Hurst’s joke a ‘sh*t gag’, as he wrote in a now-deleted tweet: ‘The reason that Lee Hurst is problematic isn’t because it carries underneath it a sense that women, as individuals, with political opinions, are erased by male sexual power. It’s problematic because it’s a s*** gag.’

‘I know it’s not either/or. Perhaps a better tweet structure would have been ‘You could say it’s problematic because etc etc or you could say it’s a s*** gag.’ Always happy to workshop these things. Which perhaps is advice Lee should take,’ he added.

Baddiel, however, came under fire from other Twitter users, who called him out for suggesting misogyny isn’t problematic – prompting him to delete his tweets.

‘That wasn’t my intention,’ he responded to one user. ‘Which is why I tried an alternative phrasing. And then deleted it anyway. Apologies.’

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