A comedian and finalist on Britain’s Got Talent has received death threats after his standup sets skewered race relations in the UK and prompted 3,000 complaints to Ofcom.
Nabil Abdulrashid finished fourth in the ITV reality show with his acerbic brand of satirical comedy, which won him thousands of new fans, including Jimmy Carr’s agent who signed him up after his appearances.
But in the wake of his performances, where he publicly supported Black Lives Matter and made fun of people who had written in to complain about his “political” routine, the comic said he received death threats.
“The hate has been vile. I’ve had death threats. I’ve had racist abuse from people, all kinds of stuff. I was ready for it, I was warned about it. It’s not surprising because in this country, somebody got shit just for marrying a prince,” he said, referring to Prince Harry and Meghan.
“So I’m out here making fun of people and doing all these jokes. Of course, I expected it.”
The complaints over his act on ITV were rejected by the regulatory body which said that the comic’s satirical take on his life experiences as a black Muslim was “likely to have been within audience expectations”.
“They complained because we said Black Lives Matter – thousands of complaints,” he said on stage during the final. “To be honest I’m shocked that many of them know how to write.”
The Croydon-based comic told the Guardian that he knew his brand of comedy would rile sections of the TV audience but that he had been taken aback by how much it was embraced by others. “What surprised me wasn’t the hate, it was actually the positivity,” he said. “I’ve had such an outpouring of support from people.”
His success has made him one of the country’s most talked about comics, taking him from relative obscurity to signing with the same agent as British comedy heavyweights including Carr, Sarah Millican, Aisling Bea and Joe Lycett.
Abdulrashid was born in the UK but moved to Kaduna in northern Nigeria as a child and came back to the UK, settling in Croydon when he was 17. He originally planned to work as a psychologist or a psychiatrist before trying standup and becoming a regular on the London comedy circuit.
He said that Britain’s Got Talent was a launchpad for him to reach a wider audience after years of struggling to progress through the British comedy world, which he said is effectively segregated with so-called “black acts” being marginalised.
Abdulrashid said: “There are comedy promoters who will say: ‘Sorry, we had a black act last week, so we can’t have you on this week.’ And the other black act is actually nothing like you. There are comedy promoters like that to this day.”
He said he had been inspired to apply for BGT after seeing his friend and fellow comedian Daliso Chaponda become a finalist in 2017.
After Chaponda’s success, Abdulrashid, who was a fan of Richard Pryor and Rowan Atkinson as a child, said he saw the show as a “cheat code” for diverse comics who were being ignored in traditional comedy circles.
He said: “If you go the traditional route, which is Edinburgh, unless you’re a middle-class white dude talking about how your cat had cancer or something you’re not going to get nominated. At best it’s one black guy who gets nominated and that’s it for all of us.”
Abdulrashid said he was so used to not winning competitions that at the audition, where he was selected by Alesha Dixon, he initially thought he had been rejected despite getting huge audience support.
The comic had had some success before BGT. He was finalist in the New Act Of The Year and Laughing Horse standup competitions and toured his show BRAP (Black Racist And Proud), while co-hosting his own podcast, I Am Not Your Bilal, about life as a black British Muslim.
Abdulrashid’s routine was the latest in a string of high-profile Ofcom complaints this year linked to moments on BGT.
Judge Alesha Dixon prompted 1,800 complaints after she wore a Black Lives Matter necklace, while Ashley Banjo’s dance troupe Diversity saw more than 20,000 after its BLM themed routine.
