Clary Lamont Joke
Clary Lamont Joke:- After comparing the awards’ stage set area to Hampstead Heath – a famous homosexual cruising spot — gay TV comedian Julian Clary made a crude joke about the then UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont.
“I simply fisted Norman Lamont,” Clary said. “A red box.” Piers Morgan’s ITV1 Life Stories interview with Julian Clary was seen by David.
He claimed he couldn’t watch because of Piers Morgan’s personal participation in the 1993 Comedy Awards. He blamed the ‘public uproar’ on Piers Morgan, the Sun’s Showbiz Editor at the time.
David was at the London Studios press room for the British Comedy Awards. He sat in the same room as Piers Morgan. This was being transmitted to a tiny neighboring room.
David reminded out that when Norman Lamont went on stage to give an award at the Comedy Awards, he was booed by the crowd.
Everyone in the room chuckled when Julian Clary said “fisting” and Piers Morgan said most viewers – especially Sun readers – wouldn’t know what it meant.
Viewers did object to a joke about (David thought) a dog. No one objected to the booing of Lamont or the Julian Clary “fisting” joke.
However, towards the conclusion of the Awards ceremony, famous comedian Michael Barrymore referenced Julian Clary’s joke with a fist mime.
“Now we must run!” Piers Morgan raced off to call the Sun newsroom, David recalls.
The following morning, the Sun had the Julian Clary article on the top page.
Piers Morgan subsequently became the News Of The World’s youngest editor.
Piers Morgan, the man who had caused Julian Clary’s anguish, now seemed to empathise with his victim on ITV in 2013.
Lamont and Rosemary were in the audience at the 1993 British Comedy Awards, and the following presenter, Michael Barrymore, illustrated the statement vividly.
As a consequence of the joke, many major publications started a campaign to get him banned from television.
Clary was pulled from a Radio Scotland Christmas programme and LWT had to apologise on live.
Clary subsequently claimed the incident was “blown out of proportion”. “You have 15 seconds to be hilarious. I ventured to say that while waiting to perform. I believed it was near the knuckle, but I wouldn’t have bothered if I’d realised how much trouble it would cause. That’s it.”
“No, I don’t regret anything! It was a well-crafted joke that I enjoyed, so… Taxi drivers still mention that night. “I know people will cite that when I die.”
“I mean, occasionally, if I’m talking in detail about a homosexual sex act or whatever, and we’re performing in the home counties, it may create a gasp – but when I started out in the 80s, and it was Margaret Thatcher, I was sort of furious and it felt appropriate,” he added. You can’t keep being furious. “I’m addicted to the chuckle now.”
Watch the video below and consider the impact on your career if you joked about ‘fisting’ a renowned politician at an industry gathering. You’d be unlikely to be asked to speak at an awards night for many years, as Julian Clary was.