Joe Lycett

Stage

Early in his career as a 22-year-old comedian, Lycett appeared on stage alongside Jim Davidson, who is known for his offensive jokes, which have been described as both racist and homophobic, and Lycett complained about Davidson's use of the racial slur "chink" in one of his jokes (which Davidson later removed). The two became friends while touring together (with Davidson's only complaint to Lycett being that he swore too much). "[Jim Davidson's] views on race are incredibly misguided but he is very educated about it. He has read the Quran, and at one point told me in detail about the origins of Rastafarianism", Lycett told the Birmingham Mail in 2011.^[18]

In 2015, while performing in York, Lycett was issued with a parking ticket for parking illegally in a taxi rank. The ensuing paper trail of correspondence, between him and City of York Council, was recounted as an anecdote on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and later becoming the basis for one of his best-known stand-up routines.^[19]

In June 2022, a member of the audience at a Belfast show called the PSNI to complain about a joke that referenced a donkey.^[20] Lycett bemoaned being investigated by the police over a joke, but was happy to recount his enjoyment from repeating the joke, which he regarded as one of his best, in his messages to the police. The investigation was subsequently closed.^[21]

Television and video

Lycett has appeared on television in Live at the Apollo, 8 Out of 10 Cats, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Celebrity Juice, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Spicks and Specks, Would I Lie to You?, Insert Name Here, Virtually Famous, and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, and was a regular panellist on the E4 show Dirty Digest. He has co-written narration on ITV2 shows The Magaluf Weekender and Ibiza Weekender. Lycett featured on Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled Christmas Special with Jason Manford, Rev Richard Coles, and Jo Joyner. Lycett starred as one of the contestants in the fourth series of Taskmaster with Mel Giedroyc, Hugh Dennis, Lolly Adefope and Noel Fielding and has made several guest appearances on Sunday Brunch in the absence of one of the regular hosts.

On 12 February 2019, Joe Lycett took over as the new presenter^[22] on the fifth series of BBC Two's The Great British Sewing Bee.

Lycett started presenting his consumer show Joe Lycett's Got Your Back, which was branded a "sexy Watchdog"^[23] in 2019 with help from various guests and Mark Silcox.^[24] The show takes on big corporations, such as airlines and banks, to provide justice for consumers with a humorous spin.^[25] The series was renewed for a second series.^[26] Lycett describes the show as "a cross between Rogue Traders and RuPaul's Drag Race".^[27]

In 2021, Lycett presented the television documentary Joe Lycett vs the Oil Giant.

On 4 September 2022, Lycett appeared as a panellist on the début issue of Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. The show featured an interview with Liz Truss, who at the time was considered highly likely to win, which she later did, the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election and therefore become Prime Minister. The cost-of-living crisis, caused in part by high energy bills, was a current significant issue. Truss had given few interviews since the start of the election campaign to elect the Leader of the Conservative Party. On the show, Truss endeavoured to give assurances. When asked for comment by Kuenssberg, Lycett said with deadpan delivery that he was "very Right-wing"^[28] and that he loved the clarity and was reassured by Truss's statements about the proposed measures to address the crisis. Deploying apophasis, he suggested that he would not say that from dregs Truss was the "backwash of available MPs". This was met with incredulity from Kuenssberg and titters from other guests. In a similar vein, Lycett went on to state Truss was right to ignore economists' stark predictions.^[29][30] Several days later, MP Steve Brine asked BBC Director-General Tim Davie about "the Joe Lycett débacle" when Davie appeared before the parliamentary Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.^[31][32]

In March 2023 Lycett began hosting the comedy variety show Late Night Lycett that includes brief interviews with celebrity guests and comedy segments.^[33] One comedy segment includes a celebrity minding Lycett's local corner shop in Kings Heath because the owner is in the studio audience^[34][35][36] with Lycett crossing over live to the celebrity in the shop to chat to them about how things are going or asking the guests if there is anything they want from the shop.^[33] There was also a recurring segment that as part of Lycett's scheme to hire trainees with no previous experience, Linda Biscuits, portrayed by Chilli the labrador, is shown appearing with the production team.^[37] Linda is shown operating a camera whilst vision of cats playing in a field comes across the live feed for the show as well as being shown to have urinated on the set beside the stage where Lycett is speaking to guests.

Radio and podcasts

On the radio Lycett has been a guest on Scott Mills, Greg James and Nick Grimshaw's programmes on BBC Radio 1 and on Richard Bacon's programme on BBC Radio 5 Live. In August 2011, he wrote and performed the short story "Spooky and the Van" which was broadcast in the Afternoon Reading slot on BBC Radio 4.^[38] In August 2013, he made his début on Just a Minute on BBC Radio 4. In September 2016, he took over from Miles Jupp as the host of It's Not What You Know, also on BBC Radio 4.^[39] Lycett was known as "the resident news hound" on Josh Widdicombe's XFM radio show, which was broadcast on Saturday (and later Sunday) mornings.^[40]

In addition to his appearances on various radio stations, Lycett has featured as a guest on numerous podcasts, including My Dad Wrote a Porno,^[41] SoundCheck Podcast,^[42] The Comedian's Comedian with Stuart Goldsmith,^[43] and Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast.

From July 2018, there were two series of Joe Lycett's Obsessions on BBC Radio 4.

On 17 August 2019 and 26 October 2019, Lycett stood in for Rylan Clark-Neal on Rylan on Saturday on BBC Radio 2. In December 2019 he returned to Radio 2 covering Sara Cox's drive-time show over the Christmas and New Year period.

In late November 2023, Lycett launched a "fake" podcast, Turdcast, about "celebrities talking shit," and recorded an episode with Gary Lineker. He set up an inflatable toilet dubbed "the Turdis" at Liverpool's Royal Albert Dock for the launch, though this was cancelled seemingly "due to a technical issue," with the alleged waste from the toilet spilling into the Mersey. Lycett later released a statement revealing that "it was fake sewage, from a fake toilet, to promote a fake podcast". He criticised water companies in England for discarding "billions of litres of real sewage" into bodies of water, and announced an hour-long Channel 4 special, Joe Lycett vs Poo (later retitled Joe Lycett vs Sewage), about the water companies.^[44][45]

Name change

In February 2020, in response to a legal dispute between fashion company Hugo Boss and the Swansea-based Boss Brewing, he changed his name by deed poll from "Joe Lycett" to "Hugo Boss".^[10] Boss said that he was drawing attention to the company's use of legal action and cease and desist letters relating to alleged copyright violations against numerous small businesses, including Boss Brewing, for use of the word Boss.^[10][46] In the second series of Joe Lycett's Got Your Back, the comedian launched a fake fashion show celebrating the release of a wrist brace under the name Hugo Boss outside the flagship store of the fashion company with the same name in Regent Street, London.^[47] Lycett asserts that Hugo Boss, the company, reported the incident to the Metropolitan Police.^[48] In April 2020, he changed his name back to Joe Lycett.^[11]

Qatar controversy

On 13 November 2022, Lycett released a video criticising David Beckham for his multimillion-pound sponsorship deal promoting the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar due to the Gulf state's stance on LGBT rights. In the video, he said he would give £10,000 to charities that support queer people in football if Beckham pulled out of the deal. If Beckham did not pull out of the deal, he promised to shred the money during a livestream on 20 November, just before the World Cup opening ceremony.^[49] By 20 November, Beckham had not pulled out of the deal, so Lycett livestreamed himself appearing to shred the money on the website www.benderslikebeckham.com.^[50][51] The next day, Lycett revealed that he had faked the shredding and had already donated £10,000 to LGBTQ+ charities.^[52][13]

In December 2022, against the backdrop of his criticising David Beckham's sponsorship deal, the tabloid newspaper The Sun published an article detailing the fact that Lycett had himself previously performed at Doha, Qatar, in 2015.^[53] The paper suggested that Lycett had engaged in "hypocrisy" by performing in Qatar. Lycett responded on Twitter, admitting that he had accepted a fee to perform in Doha adding that he does not "have the perfect hindsight and spotless morality of, to pick a completely random example, The Sun newspaper".^[54]

Painting

Lycett is also a self-taught painter and has had his artwork exhibited.^[55][56] In 2018, a sculpture of his, CHRIS, was accepted by Royal Academy and listed for sale as being worth £12,500,000. CHRIS is still for sale on Lycett's website for the same asking price.^[57][58]

Charity work

Following comments in early November 2023 from then-Home Secretary Suella Braverman that homelessness was a "lifestyle choice," Lycett used a stock image of pot-pourri to raise over £50,000 for homelessness charity Crisis.^[59]

Television