Joe Lycett reveals the four fake stories he planted in UK media hoax

The comedian Joe Lycett has disclosed the fake stories he successfully planted in the British media over the past month.

In the first episode of his new Channel 4 show, Late Night Lycett, the comedian revealed that four stories fabricated by himself and his team had been covered by newspapers and television news.

The stories were: a five-a-side footballer from Birmingham having a bruise on his thigh that resembled the Duke of Sussex’s face, research showing that men from Birmingham have the longest penises in the UK, an eight-foot-tall statue of H from Steps being erected in his hometown of Cowbridge in Wales and a “Banksy” mural of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz in Birmingham.

Last week, Lycett, 35, claimed he was behind numerous fake news stories that have been reported across the mainstream media over the past month, confirming that multiple stories had been shared in national news including BBC News, The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Daily Star, ITV News, Sky News.

He said on his show on Friday night (12 April): “I wanted to take up space that [the media] would otherwise use to spread hate, misery and pictures of Amanda Holden.”

Of the four articles, The Independent covered the mystery around the Wizard of Oz Banksy-style mural and reported that Banksy’s spokesperson had confirmed it was not the work of the street artist.

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Some of the suspected hoaxes, like the rescued hedgehog that turned out to be a hat bobble and the North Korean row over Alan Titchmarsh’s trousers, turned out to be real.

Lycett said that a picture used by The Daily Mail in a story about a man with the Prince Harry-shaped bruise was a picture of himself on holiday but with a fake beard edited onto his face.

Lycett said the story about Ian “H” Watkins from Steps had been “covered everywhere... they even discussed it on BBC Breakfast”.

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Speaking to BBC Wales straight after the show, Watkins said: “I’m great friends with Joe and he had this idea that he wanted to create fun fake news to deflect away from all of the bad fake news – and it worked!

“And a lot of these stories have gone unnoticed – this one did for a long time.”

“I love that Joe has put this on a national platform, when there is so much hatred and we can shine a little light on some joy and something funny,” he said.

“It was the most ridiculous but people bought it, I had to text my mother and go mum just to let you know this is gonna happen, and she said ‘I will say nothing’.”

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Watkins said the hoax had deflected from a lot of negative news in the media, and “shone a spotlight on people who sit behind keyboards and they whinge and they whine and they don’t contribute”.

Lycett is known for his public stunts. Last year, the comedian had been teasing the public with a stunt to launch his fake podcast, Turdcast, in which a giant inflatable toilet he dubbed the Turdis accidentally leaked fake sewage into Liverpoool Docks. The spillage was later revealed to be marine mud, which had no environmental or biological impact on the area.

In 2022, he appeared to shred £10,000 into a wood-chipper over David Beckham being a pundit for the Qatar men’s football World Cup in 2022 – the money turned out to be fake.

In 2020, he changed his name to Hugo Boss in protest at the German fashion brand sending cease-and-desist letters to some small businesses and charities who used “boss” in their names.