Joe Lycett has regaled peers in the House of Lords with the story of him pretending to be a banking boss with a tweet that read: “I’ve got a smelly bum bum.”
The comedian, who fronts Channel 4 consumer series Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back, was giving evidence to the House of Lords committee about taking on fraudsters on his show on Thursday.
Joe detailed how he had once impersonated the CEO of the Royal Bank Of Scotland, after a viewer of his show complained the bank had refused to refund £8,000 she had been scammed out of.
The comic set up social media profiles pretending to be Ross McEwan, which many people believed to be the real deal, until Joe tweeted about having “a smelly bum bum” from the account.
Speaking to peers virtually, Joe was asked if he believed banks were testing their own staff in similar ways, to which he replied: “I’m sure they do.
“I just don’t think, the way we approach it, that anyone else would do it. Why would somebody pretend to be the head of a bank for that long and then tweet: ‘I’ve got a smelly bum bum.’
“At that point the account started to get red flagged.”
Footage from the committee soon started doing the rounds on social media, with fans amused that he had uttered the words “smelly bum bum” to the House.
Joe also shared the footage, joking: “Yes this happened.”
During the committee, Joe also appeared to defend Channel 4 from the government’s plan to privatise the publicly-owned, commerically-funded broadcaster.
“Our show is not something a commercial broadcaster would have approached,” he said.
“The BBC said no to it. It is quite risky legally. It is only really Channel 4 that would have commissioned the show.”
In 2020, Joe made headlines with his show when he took on the name Hugo Boss, after reports the company was using trademark claims to target small businesses and charities who use the name “boss”.