Andrew Lawrence's controversies after disgraceful Liverpool parade crash 'joke'
Andrew Lawrence sent out a string of vile and racist tweets after England lost the Euro 2020 tournament, as he comes under fire again for joking about the Liverpool parade crash that left 65 people injured on Monday
Andrew Lawrence has hit headlines yet again for his jokes that have been branded "disgraceful" - and has now had his show cancelled following social media backlash. Andrew Lawrence, 37, said he would "drive through crowds of people" to get out of Liverpool in a post that has prompted more than 7,000 responses on X.
As a result, the comic has had his show in Caddies, Southend, cancelled as the venue say it did not "condone or support" the comment. He responded by saying he was disappointed the venue had "lost their courage after being bombarded with abuse and threats of violence from online trolls".
It's not the first time that the stand-up has shocked people with his views. The comedian sent out a string of "vile and racist" tweets after England lost the Euro 2020 tournament, resulting in more of his shows being cancelled at the time.
Despite him admitting that he has "some right-wing views" on a blog post on his website in October 2020, he added that he "just as many that are not" before claiming he doesn't "subscribe to any political ideology." He added in the lengthy message: "Because I am critical of left-wing hysteria on the internet, and the left-wing establishment in comedy, does not automatically mean I am right-wing."
Standing by his jokes, he added: "I have never said at any time that I am a 'right wing' comedian and I reject that label" before continuing that he is "just interested in finding new and interesting ways to make people laugh." Here is a look at Andrew's controversial views over the years.
Racist slurs to England football stars
In 2021, Andrew's account targeted the black football players on the England squad after a nail-biting penalty shoot out against Italy. His account took aim at Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho failed to score during the penalty shootout.
"All I'm saying is, the white guys scored," one of the tweets read, with another post adding: "Equality, diversity, s*** penalties."
Another post shared read: "I can see that this has offended a lot of people, and I'm sorry that black guys are bad at penalties." The social media posts were met with a swift backlash from a number of people. It wasn't long before representatives for the venues Andrew was due to perform at confirmed on social media that they had removed his upcoming shows.
Joking about killing a woman
During one of his 2005 stand-up routines, Andrew performed a song where he joked about killing a woman after she suggested he performed oral sex on her. In an unearthed clip of the performance, he can be seen strumming a guitar to the crowd and singing the tune he wrote titled "The b**** in the lake."
In a bid to get a laugh, he sang lyrics about choking the woman he was on a date. Andrew can be heard belting out in the footage: "Her filthy suggestions filled me with hate it was too late.
"I saw the terror in her eyes as I held down her face and watched her blue, blue eyes as she choked in the lake. The very next day they dragged her out with a rake, 18-hours too late. She was dead 'oh sh*' for a year and a day she kept me awake she would haunt me and say 'I am the bitch from the lake you, left me floating there like a chunk of fish bait.''
Mocking suicide
In 2015, Andrew caused a stir when he penned a Tweet mocking suicide. He took to the micro-blogging site to write: "Given that about 80% of suicides in the UK last year were committed by men, if feminists truly wanted equality, they'd kill themselves ;)"
After people began condemning him for the message, he hit back with another tweet reading: "Currently being dogpiled by feminazis. I think I like it ;p." Following this, a petition was launched on the website change.org calling on the BBC - who Andrew has often worked on TV and radio for - to "stop giving airtime to Andrew Lawrence who jokes about women committing suicide."
An open letter alongside the petition read: "Whilst humour can take many forms and is a matter of subjective taste it is a crossed boundary to incite others to take their own lives.
"Some feminists declare themselves such as retaliation to having experienced male violence. This might sometimes lead to suicidal feelings. That is not a matter of fun. Dead women are not funny. Raped women are not funny.
"Two women a week are killed at the hands of men, some of whom say they love them. Those women may have suffered feelings of suicide as they fought to stay alive.
"78,000 women are raped. Some of them will have suffered suicidal feelings as they fought to survive the trauma.
"The men Lawrence mentions are not a source of humour. Whilst mental health services are being cut as a result of austerity this figure can only rise.
"The BBC has a duty to respect it's listeners with poor mental health and should refuse to give airtime to Andrew Lawrence."
Sympathy for Ukip and blasting "ethnic comedians and women-posing-as-comedians"
In 2014, Andrew posted an essay on Facebook expressing sympathy for Ukip - which gained him praise from Nigel Farage. During the post, he also blasted the BBC and claimed the channel has "liberal bias".
He added that there were too many TV comedians cracking jokes at the party's expense and then accused them of hypocrisy. Andrew said: "Particularly too much moronic, liberal back-slapping on panel shows like Mock The Week where ageing, balding, fat men, ethnic comedians and women-posing-as-comedians, sit congratulating themselves on how enlightened they are about the fact that Ukip are ridiculous and pathetic."
He also wrote: "The upshot of all that is that there are still many women coming across incredibly badly on panel shows, which is helping to perpetuate the myth that women aren't funny."
After the backlash at the time, he did not stop and followed up with more posts online. "Perhaps I'll spend some time polishing my Nazi memorabilia today, and I really should alphabetise my page 3 cuttings," was one of his flippant comments.
Others he added read: "Must remember never to say anything remotely critical of any woman at all ever, as it means I'm a 'misogynist'" and "Just waiting now for the police to come and arrest me for my 'racism'. Don't know what's keeping them.'"
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