Jason Manford has laughed off an accusation he's bigoted after ruffling feathers with a joke about anti-maskers.
The Stockport comic hosted last night's Live at the Apollo Christmas special on the BBC.
But he raised hackles when he told a gag about medics and scientists the world over saying Covid was dangerous while 'your brother's friend from the gym says it isn't'.
He joked: "It happened to me in the middle of the pandemic. I was walking in my village and my brother's mate from the gym, Dean, saw me.
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'Hey Jay, alright mate. I see you're wearing your mask, like a sheep'.
"I said 'Yeah, yeah, I am yeah'.
"'What you wearing that for mate? They don't do nowt.
"I said 'Well I don't know if I'm honest Dean, I just figure if I'm wrong I just accidentally wore a mask for a year, whereas if you're wrong someone's nana died'."
After the show Milesy tweeted: "How on earth is this considered comedy? Manford claims not wearing a mask could kill someone’s nan. What an absolute moron."
And Wez posted: "Your radio show is funny but the Apollo was woeful, bigoted views about people you don't know for a few claps (not laughs) from the audience. Stick to absolute radio."
Manford replied: "Hahaha 'bigoted' just gets better. #LiveAtTheApollo."
He'd earlier tweeted: "I can admit that I don’t know but the anti maskers/vaxxers etc just can’t even fathom a world where they’re wrong."
Manford also divided opinion when joked he feared being 'cancelled' because he thinks Christmas dinners are 's***'.
"It's a jumped up Sunday dinner and you know it," he said.
Katie Bancroft tweeted: "Christmas dinners ARE s*** - bang on."
But Kay Aitch wasn't having any of it, tweeting: "Christmas dinners are s***" What?? I'm not having that. My mother's Christmas Dinner is the best."
