David Walliams accused of 'casual racism' for Royal Variety gag

Ahhh, don’t you just love the cosy old Royal Variety Performance? The family-friendly comedy skits, the colourful song and dance routines, the dodgy racist jokes…

Yep, apparently so.

A handful of viewers have slammed Little Britain star and Royal Variety Performance presenter David Walliams of casual racism after a gag he made during this year’s festive TV spectacular fell a wee bit flat.

It all started innocently enough. A Jackanory-style sketch, complete worth cute child actors roped in to celebrate a decade of Britain’s Got Talent appearing on our screens.

“Although Simon had no talent of his own, he liked to judge others,” Walliams joked. “Because he couldn’t judge this show all by himself, he had to care what other people thought too. He tried a succession of judges.”

This was the cue for a bunch of smiling kids to strut across the stage dolled up as former Britain’s Got Talent judges, including Piers Morgan appearing to hack a phone, and Walliams himself dressed up as Emily ‘I’m A Laaaaady!’ Howard.

When it was time for a pint-sized version of Michael McIntyre to appear, things got a little weird. A loud gong was heard and then a young Asian boy beamed at the crowd.

No, us neither.

“Am I the only one who thought the ‘Asian Michael McIntyre’ gag during the pathetic BGT history was casually racist?” asked one Twitter user.

Another added: “Did they really just make a slightly offensive “slit eyed joke” about michael mcintyre? Wow!”

Anyway, if you’re wondering what the hell David Walliams was on about, apparently McIntyre has often joked that he looks a bit Chinese during some of his stand up shows.

Guess you had to be there.