Lee Mack once took aim at Michael McIntyre, labelling him a ‘skipping ***t’ during a live performance in Canterbury. Fellow comedian Stewart Lee recalled the incident which took place at a gig in Canterbury a few years ago. But Mack is not the only comedian to have a pop at McIntyre.
Back in 2010, Stewart Lee spilled the tea on Mack’s earlier jab at McIntyre. The Birmingham-based comedian recalled an incident when Lee Mack left the audience in stitches as he took a swipe at McIntyre, referring to him as a ‘skipping ***t.’
But McIntyre didn’t let the jibes go unanswered. In a 2015 interview with the Sunday Times Culture magazine, he fired back at his fellow comics, dismissing their critiques as attempts to detract from his success. With an annual income reportedly soaring to £20 million, McIntyre asserted his position as the highest-grossing comedian globally.
McIntyre Hit Back At Mack And Others
“I don’t know what they’re trying to do,” McIntyre remarked, addressing the naysayers. “I’ve worked with a lot of these comics, they seem to have forgotten. I was on the circuit, I was doing all right. It’s not like I came from some talent show on the TV. I did it with them, and I got more laughs, so they don’t like it.”
Criticism had followed McIntyre’s meteoric rise from obscurity to stardom after his debut on the Royal Variety Performance in 2006. Bob Mortimer and Vic Reeves, pioneers of alternative comedy, expressed discontent in 2009, decrying the perceived blandness of popular comedy. Mortimer, in particular, quipped that McIntyre’s style could have been witnessed two decades earlier.
In 2011, during a Desert Island Discs appearance, McIntyre opened up about the impact of the relentless scorn. Stewart Lee’s biting description of him as “spoon-feeding his audience warm diarrhea” became a spectre haunting McIntyre’s career. The British Comedy Awards, meant to be a crowning achievement, left a bitter taste as jokes at his expense overshadowed the joy of victory.
Despite the controversies and clashes, McIntyre remains a comedic force to be reckoned with. As for Lee Mack, the comedian has shifted gears and embraced new challenges. From a stint as the Narrator in the stage adaptation of BBC Radio 4 comedy series, Bleak Expectations, to taking on the lead role in Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss’ The Unfriend from December 2023 until March 2024.