Frankie Boyle's regret over 'vile' joke about Katie Price that saw him 'cancelled'

upheld 500 complaints against comedian Frankie Boyle over a 2010 joke which was sanctioned at the time by but later deemed to have gone too far. The joke, which Express Online has chosen not to publish here, stood accused of "mocking the mental and physical disabilities of an eight-year-old" and ridiculed s alleged "exploitation of her children for publicity purposes".

The controversial gag reportedly almost ended up costing Frankie his career, and he admitted afterwards that he wished it had never aired. Glamour model turned reality TV personality and entrepreneur Katie had discovered before son Harvey's birth that there would be complications - and he was ultimately diagnosed with partial blindness, autism, and Prader-Willi syndrome, a rare genetic disorder affecting learning, growth, and behaviour. It also often causes insatiable appetite, leading to obesity and type 2 diabetes for many of those with the condition.

Channel 4 defended the joke at the time, claiming it was justified within its context, and expressed their desire for "a space on terrestrial TV [to] exist for comedy that takes risks and pushes boundaries".

However, when Katie Price saw it, she branded it "vile", arguing: "They are saying it is OK to ridicule people - even children - for disability in a way they would not dare over race or sexual orientation.

Dismissing C4's suggestion that it was just an "absurdist satire", she hit back: "The people who control the channel are endorsing this behaviour and it is disgusting."

Last week, the channel's then head of comedy, Shane Allen, expressed regret over it, while speaking at the BBC Comedy Festival in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

He admitted: "I signed off that joke, the Katie Price one, and it made the front page. I'd said, we should be able to do this, we're Channel 4, edgy, do it fast, make trouble - all this stuff."

Taking a deep breath, he then admitted: "Years later, Frankie said that it was a mistake, and it slightly f****d [his] career up."

At the time, C4 insisted that it was Katie, not her son, who had fuelled the satire on the Tramadol Nights show, but her legal team argued Frankie's comments had been "discriminatory, offensive, demeaning and humiliating".

Ofcom chose not to push for an on-air apology or to impose a fine, but did censure the channel, arguing it should not have "unlimited licence to broadcast comedy that targets humour at a child's expense".