'Painful' - RTE Late Late viewers shocked by 'car crash' Brendan O ...

RTE Late Late Show viewers were left cringing on Friday night during what one described as a "car crash" interview with comedian and actor Brendan O'Carroll.

The Mrs Brown's Boys star and creator was asked to respond to recent backlash about a racist joke during a rehearsal for his hit show in an awkward chat with Late Late host Patrick Kielty.

Brendan was first asked about his upcoming stage shows and the latest Christmas special of his hit BBC Mrs Brown's Boys series before the chat turned serious.

Kielty asked: "A few weeks ago there was reports in the papers that you did a racist joke in a runthrough rehearsal for the show, what happened there?"

O'Carroll leaned back on the sofa, put his hat over his face, and said, "oh, Jesus," before responding to the awkward question.

He explained that he had decided that in a Mrs Brown episode he would poke fun at people who "marginalise other people." He explained that the scene was meant to portray that Agnes Brown doesn't understand racism and what might be considered racist.

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He first explained that when the Mrs Brown character found out her son was gay, he showed how she "didn't get it, she didn't understand gay."

"Now she knows her son is gay and accepts it but still doesn't know what gay is," he added.

"I wanted to poke fun at intergenerational racism, how Mrs Brown doesn't get racism, she doesn't know what racism is."

He then explained that in the scene, Mrs Brown starts the rhyme, "eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a..." before Mrs Brown's daughter in the show stops her from completing the offensive line. 

Brendan said the readthrough continued but afterwards he found out that a "kid," a young runner working on the show at the BBC, had been offended by the racial slur hinted at in the gag.

"I immediately sent him an email apologising because I don't want to offend anybody, I'm not that guy. I believe that the workplace should be a happy place, not just for us, but for everyone," Brendan said.

Host Patrick Kielty then probed: "But can you see why it offended him?"

Brendan replied sharply, "Oh yeah, that's why I apologised, otherwise I wouldn't have apologised. If I thought he was spoofing, I would have gone, 'f**k him', but I completely get it."

He then explained that he knew the audience would finish the joke in their heads after the Cathy character stopped Mrs Brown mid-sentence. 

"I expected them to finish it in their heads and realise, 'oh, she doesn't get it.' Listen, it was a gag that backfired. It landed on its arse. I landed on my arse. You had Ukraine, Gaza, the American election, but I ended up on the front page of the English papers for a week, so I obviously deserved it," O'Carroll said.

During the interview, viewers were reacting online via X. One wrote: "We desperately need to move on from Mrs Brown Boys because that was a painful car crash to watch Brendan O’Carroll on the Late Late."

The interview continued and Brendan explained that he has good people around him who tell him what he should and shouldn't say when it comes to jokes. He then gave an example.

He said: "I remember one and this is probably going to be offensive too, so get ready to lose your job. In one readthrough one Christmas, Winnie and Agnes were chatting in the pub and Winnie said 'it's terrible about Mr Flynn down the road, Christmas week, he hung himself,' and I just went [as Agnes], 'oh my God, that's terrible, well she's very traditional, she won't cut him down until the 6th..'"

He said an executive on the show immediately said "no, there's nothing funny about suicide." Brendan said, "then on reflection, you go, 'what was I thinking?'"

Kielty then probed again, "So you're not sorry they were offended, you're sorry you got it wrong," to which O'Carroll replied, "No, I don't want to offend anybody. As I said, I want the workplace to be happy. I was disgusted with myself that I offended him.

"I got it wrong, move on," he added before asking Patrick Kielty, "did you never get it wrong?" Kielty laughed off the question and suggested the audience had seen him get multiple things wrong during the show on Friday.

Brendan interjected, "in reality, this was a storm in a teacup that should have been handled between myself, the BBC and the guy involved, but somebody leaked it to the press and it got blown out of all proportion. I've seen things like this blown out of proportion, I read about you a few weeks ago," he said to Patrick Kielty, adding, "that was ridiculous, stupid stuff, but comedy is comedy and if you don't go to the edge, there's nowhere for us to go."

He said it's getting "harder and harder to do comedy without offending somebody." He concluded by saying, "I can only try to be as funny as I can be and hope the audience agree, and if they don't, the door swings both ways."

Other viewers added their reactions to the interview on X. One person wrote: "What happened there? I know they thought Brendan O'Carroll is funny and he’ll be great to wrap up the show. That plan completely backfired."

Another added: "Oh good god Brendan O’Carroll…what were you thinking. So inappropriate. So insensitive. How did RTE not cut him off?"

Others agreed with O'Carroll that people are too quick to be offended and not accept someone's apology. One viewer said: "Brendan O’Carroll is right about being wrong: why does today’s moral police look down their nose when someone admits they were wrong or screwed up. It’s like breathing: we all do it. Move on."

Another criticised host Patrick Kielty for "battering" O'Carroll with questions on the matter. They wrote: "Patrick… you are the one who got it wrong with Brendan O Carroll tonight. He admitted his error and apologised for it, yet you continued to batter him about it. Very poor judgement and interview. Brendan was a gentleman to keep his cool."