Well, well, well. Many of you thought the sudden cancellation of Joe Lycett’s new podcast – the Turdcast, in which the comedian was set to interview celebrities about their best poo stories – was a bit suspect.
For those of you catching up, yesterday the 35-year-old invited members of the public in Liverpool to “spend a penny/drop a plop” (his words, not ours) before being interviewed about their horrific toilet stories for the podcast.
Or, at least, that was the plan. Because, sadly for Joe, that’s not quite how things turned out.
He confirmed on X that a “mechanical fault occurred” with the public toilet, leading to a “small spillage” and the eventual cancellation of the event – and the INDEFINITE CANCELLATION OF TURDCAST.
Now, this morning, Lycett has confirmed that the whole thing has been a total ruse.
Taking to social media this morning (in a video titled ‘A Statement From Miss Sue Idge’ he revealed: “I thought I would record a little video to explain what’s been going on over the last few days and give my side of the story.
“You might have seen there was a little incident in Liverpool on Thursday. So what I like to do is big stunts that get people talking about the big issues.
“Sometimes those stunts go to plan, and sometimes they absolutely don’t,’ he added, before being presented with a giant fake poo on a plate.
“On this occasion, everything went exactly to plan. Of course I didn’t spill raw sewage into the Royal Albert Dock. I’m not spilling s**t in public everywhere, who do you think I am, GB News?
“No, it was fake sewage from a fake toilet, to promote a fake podcast. Turdcast was never real, although we did record a real one with the real Gary Lineker.”
Okay, so what was the point?
“I spilled fake sewage because I wanted to get people talking about the billions of litres of real sewage that are released every year by our water companies,” he continued.
“Last year, according to one analysis the water companies paid shareholders £1.4billion in dividends. That’s a lot of money that could have been used to improve the sewer network and reduce spills.
“We’re asking the water companies to stop paying dividends and instead invest the money in solving this problem.”
He is now is asking people to ‘write to your water company’ to sign up to Joe’s Poo Promise.
But wait – there’s more. Lycett will now feature in a new Channel 4 documentary which will will investigate water companies as ‘the UK faces a sewage crisis’.
The doc, titled Joe Lycett vs Poo, will be an hour long and will investigate ‘how our waterways have become so polluted and why water companies have been allowed to taint one of our most precious resources.’
You can watch the full video here:
Tom Beck, head of live events and commissioning editor for Channel 4, said: “Joe is our leading mischief maker; he uses humour, wit and absolute fearlessness to call out companies, celebrities and even our politicians.
“He’s taken on the oil giants and David Beckham; now he’s highlighting one of our biggest environmental issues by diving into the murky waters of the utility companies polluting our seas and rivers.
“It will be provocative, revealing, important and feature lots of poo jokes. Who else could promise all of that?”.
The documentary is set to air in early 2024.