Dapper Laughs Cancelled: The Evolution Of Daniel O'Reilly's Notorious Character In 11 Stages
Thought You Didn't Recognise Him On Newsnight? The 11 Stages Of Dapper Laughs' Evolution
Louise Ridley— The Huffington Post UK
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Daniel O’Reilly, the comedian behind Dapper Laughs, has announced that he has killed off the character after the explosive backlash against his rape-themed jokes and what thousands saw as a sexist approach to women.
As recently as August this year O'Reilly, 25, was heralded a one of the first UK Vine stars to break into to the mainstream and was being given his own ITV2 tongue-in-cheek dating show, 'On The Pull' in September.
ITV's producers celebrated him as a "brilliant new talent" with a "risqué" sense of humour who could be "the new Cilla Black".
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"Dapper Laughs is gone" revealed O'Reilly on BBC Newsnight
Charting the origins of Dapper has become all the more challenging after huge swathes of information about O'Reilly was deleted, in what appears to be a move by companies and websites to disassociate themselves from the scandal.
The Dapper Laughs website has been removed and replaced with a generic 'contact me' form, and On The Pull has been deleted from ITV's on-demand service.
Here, in 11 steps, is O'Reilly's journey from fresh-faced cruise ship performer to a hated, humbled man in a black polo-neck on BBC Newsnight, trying to explain what had happened.
The evolution of Dapper Laughs in 11 steps
Dreams of stardom(01 of06)
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Originally from Woking in Surrey, O'Reilly started working on cruise ships performing his own stand up comedy show called ‘the life of Reilly’.
His upbringing was geared towards stardom: he studied at Brooklands Performing Arts School in Middlesex from 2000 to 2002, appeared in a short film and also dabbled in modeling.
O'Reilly's now-erased biography on talent site Starnow said: “I’m a presenter/actor/comedian/model, most of my initial experience has been on cruise ships where I perfected the art of presenting cheesy game shows," according to Buzzfeed
“I have done professional modelling and acting in a movie, I enjoy stand up performing and writing. I’m an out going [sic] “cheeky cockney chappie” type, very comical and playful, professional and quick-witted,” it continued.
Instant celebrity(02 of06)
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Dapper's rise to fame on Vine was swift, with over half a million people liking his @dapperlaughs account. Red carpet and media appearances followed.
Management(03 of06)
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O'Reilly then was signed to management company 84 World, which also manages Westlife's Brian McFadden and Girls Aloud's Sarah Harding (pictured). 84 World has not commented on the news of Dapper's show and tours being cancelled. (credit:Jon Furniss /Invision/AP)
ITV2 signs Dapper(04 of06)
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But his mainstream big break came with the launch of an ITV2 show in September, based on his Vine videos. At the time, Dan Baldwin, the executive producer of Hungry Bear Media which produced the show, said, “I actually believe he is the new Cilla Black”. Dapper Laughs - On the Pull featured 30-minute episodes of antics from Dapper, teaching the "tricks of the trade" to a "lad who is terrible at pulling". (credit:Doug Peters)
The backlash(05 of06)
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As Dapper's reach spread, critics began to react to the character's sexist comments and apparent endorsement of rape. Fierce criticism was sparked by The Huffington Post Uk's own blog by filmmaker Lee Kern, which went viral.
Kern hit out at ITV2's staff and producers, saying: "You've made a show that contributes to a society that already doesn't treat women by default as human beings... you have reduced them to pussy."
More than 50,000 people signed an online petition calling for the show not to return, and 29 made formal complaints.
The fall(06 of06)
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ITV2 bowed to fevered pressure on Monday and announced it would not be commissioning a second series of On The Pull.
The Dapper Laughs UK tour, Moist, was then cancelled. O'Reilly has claimed this was his decision because he no longer wanted Dapper to represent him.