The world’s most
offensive joke was told my comedian Lee Pitton in an audience-participation
segment of his stand-up show The Oxtail
Soup Monologues in Bradford in 1996. It is illegal to recount the joke, after an emergency UN resolution, but
it has since been responsible for an estimated 4 international and diplomatic incidents,
9 riots, 34 deaths and the collapse of 4 national economies. Pitton retired
after the joke was connected to a narrowly-averted mass-suicide attempt by the
‘Nashie’ cult movement of Oklahoma, America in 2003.
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| This photograph was taken in London in 2002, when a recording of Pitton's routine was played at a retirement party at the headquarters of Natwest Bank. The fight that resulted proceeded to spill out into the surrounding area until it had engulfed much of London's 'Square Mile' banking district, and lasted for 17 hours.Photograph by Kashklick. |
©2012 James Mathurin
