UNDER-FIRE comic Jo Brand joked that Brits often inflame problems into scandals – just hours before her “acid throwing” controversy.
Brand, 61, complained on a BBC radio show that the nation loves to blow up negative issues, before having to apologise over her poor taste gag.
The star told Saturday Live on Radio 4: “I have always loved the way British people always turn something bad into something worse.
“We are never always trying to see the good side. We are like going: ‘Oh that is much worse than I initially thought’. I think that is kind of recognised.
“And I think that is why sometimes certain types of comedy don’t translate across really. I just think sort of self-deprecating humour is great.”
During the radio show, Brand also declared she felt there are taboo matters in comedy that were too much to raise as humour.
When asked by host Richard Coles on whether “laughing in the face of stuff that is difficult or stuff that is threatening” was good, she responded: “It is.
“I do think we can’t absolutely talk about everything as if it is not a taboo anymore. I think that we do need to use humour.”
Her comments came just 72 hours before she joked about throwing battery acid over politicians on BBC show Heresy to Victoria Coren Mitchell.
Scotland Yard examined her conduct but said she would face no further action.
In her prior comments to the BBC, she also boasted of building up “armour” over her four-decade career.
And she told how she would fend off scandals – adding that she no longer socialises in publicly on Friday and Saturday nights for fear of abuse.
She said: “I think armour is really important. It is actually really important for all women as well. I think women still get a raw deal out in public.
“People just feel at liberty to comment on your looks, your weight, your race, whatever it is they feel like.
“The drunker they are, the worse they are, which is why I do not go to pubs or go out on a Friday or Saturday night.
“And people do appalling things when they drunk that they would not do when they are sober.”
During her interview, to promote her new book Born Lippy, she also spoke of how bullying has impacted her two daughters’ lives and her siblings.
Though she was branded a verbal bully herself after the acid comments, Brand told the show: “Generally people’s personalities and the way they deal with the world haven’t changed at all.
“If we want to bully someone you have got so many more options and different media to do it through, but the end result is the same.”
Brand’s Saturday Live interview remains on the iPlayer, but the BBC removed the Brand joke about throwing acid from its catch-up service after the suggestion it condoned violence.
The comedian made the joke during a broadcast of Radio 4 satirical show Heresy on Tuesday night.
She was accused by Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage, who has had milkshakes thrown at him by protesters, of “inciting violence”.
In a statement, the BBC said it regretted “any offence we have caused”.
In the episode, Brand told presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell that people who attacked Mr Farage and far-right political figures with milkshakes were “pathetic”.
Appearing later at Henley Literary Festival, Brand said: “Looking back on it I think it was a somewhat crass and an ill-judged joke.”
