Birmingham comic Joe Lycett takes swipe at Wolverhampton as he explains pub name origins
He asked not to share it with anyone from Wolverhampton - oops!
Birmingham comedian Joe Lycett made a hilarious jibe towards people from Wolverhampton as he explained the origin of pub names.
The 38-year-old TV funny man, who boasts more than 298,000 followers on TikTok, was filming a promotion for his new Channel 4 comedy show - The Lycett Arms - which is set to air on Friday at 10pm.
In the clip, which has gained more than 14,000 likes, he explained why so many pubs have similar names - but in doing so, joked that people from Wolverhampton “can’t read.”
He said: “You may have noticed that pubs in the UK often have quite similar names. They're all called like the something arms or someone's head or walkabout and a huge number of them, over 500 at the last count are called The Red Lion. It's Britain's most popular pub name.
“You might think Red Lion, it must be Ed Miliband. His politics are red and he omits the musk of a top carnivore. But the truth is even stranger than him. First of all, we need to know why there are pub names at all.
“Well, it goes back to 1393 and King Richard II, who made it compulsory for pubs to have a sign outside. Many of them were named after the king's loyal squire, Sir William de walkabout, who coincidentally did not exist.
“In fact, when these pubs were named back in 1393, barely anyone could read, much like Wolverhampton today. Sorry, Wolverhampton, not that sorry.”
In the caption, he quipped: “Please don't share this with anyone from Wolverhampton.” (Oops - I guess we just did!)
But Wolverhampton residents took it in their stride with some good old self-deprecating humour in the comments. One user said: “I’m from Wolverhampton and if I could understand the big words this man was saying I’d be furious. I also used speech to text for this.”
Another quipped: “Heard Wolverhampton mentioned but I’m so illiterate I don’t know why you mentioned us, I’m gonna assume it’s because we’re so great.”
Meanwhile, a third wrote: “Wolverhampton mentioned!!!…But at what cost.“
Watch the The Lycett Arms live on Channel 4 every Friday at 10pm.