Frankie Boyle has hit out at the Guardian after the newspaper deleted parts of his latest column which described media mogul Rupert Murdoch struggling "to sire another generation... by squeezing out his sperm like stale toothpaste".
The graphic, imaginary depiction of Murdoch's sex life appears to have caused Guardian editors to splutter, as they ordered its deletion hours after the column was published online.
Boyle immediately reacted to their decision by re-publishing the offending paragraph, while asking: "Who can say why the Guardian removed a paragraph I wrote about Rupert Murdoch after it went up?"
He quickly launched a #JeSuisFrankie campaign, musing: "I think that the Guardian should at least have enough of a sense of irony not to censor a column about media bias."
As the hashtag began to trend across the UK, fans of the controversial comedian and now burgeoning political commentator chimed in with their support.
Boyle's column, published on Tuesday under the headline "Who doesn't want to see Jeremy Corbyn elected? It would be a glorious six-day reign," analysed Corbyn's recent performance under the scrutiny of the media.
He writes of Corbyn's wide-ranging Andrew Marr Show interview on Sunday which saw the Labour leader speak honestly about his views on the Trident nuclear defence programme.
Touching on the theme of media bias, Boyle wrote: "There’s been a thread of coverage implying that Corbyn is a decent guy but he clearly doesn’t understand how the world works. Ignoring the fact that for the majority of people, it doesn’t."
Boyle speaks of special interests guiding much of the media and politics, writing: "Of course, the representation of Labour in corporate media is going to be everything Cameron could hope for because he, Murdoch and pretty much everybody they know works for the same boss: financial and corporate interests.
"Cameron is middle management and Murdoch is more senior, something high up in their PR department."
The paragraph imagining Murdoch's trysts with new fiancé Jerry Hall was removed post publication.
Boyle later confirmed that his copy had been "agreed and published" before it was amended.
A spokesperson for the Guardian told HuffPost UK: "Frankie is always near the knuckle. On this occasion, however, we felt that some of his piece went a bit too far."