Johnny Vegas Allegedly Sexually Assualts Woman In Comedy Show

Mary O'Hara of the Guardian has an appalling tale of comedy gone wrong. During a comedy show last week, British comedian Johnny Vegas "gratuitously groped a young woman on stage." According to O'Hara:

Vegas stepped on stage to cheers and immediately announced that he had no material, and that he was there mostly to get laid. There followed a short meandering ramble (mainly about lap dancers) before he turned his attention to the audience - and to one young woman in particular in the front row who, he announced, he wanted to be "inside"...

The woman he focused on was about 18 or 19 and was very obviously unnerved by his attention. I saw her expression clearly - I was in the front row too, just three seats along. Vegas insisted that she allow herself to be carried on to the stage by six members of the audience - he called them "pall bearers"...As she was carried on stage, Vegas repeatedly goaded one of the pallbearers to "finger" the girl.

Once she was on stage, Vegas told her to lie very still. She couldn't stop her nervous giggling; he threatened to kick her in the ribs. It didn't come across to me as a joke - and near to where I was sitting, no one was laughing. Eventually Vegas crouched down beside the nervous girl and started stroking her breasts while repeatedly saying, "don't fucking move". Then he ran his hand up her leg and began pulling her skirt up. Every time he looked up to address the audience, she would reach down and pull her skirt back down, but he kept pulling it back up. According to Williams, who had a different view of the stage from me, Vegas ended up "fingering her through her clothes for a second or two".

You can read more at the Guardian, or if you've had enough, you can tell us your thoughts. Is this sexual assault? Should the girl have done something differently? What would you have done in her place, or if you were in the audience?

Comments

[ChiGuy]

Disgusting.

Almost as disgusting: Where the hell were the people she came with?

[NoSillyName]

gross.

[alanps]

Actually I have heard of him and he is normally very very funny - but this is just plain wrong.

[revko]

I feel sensually assaulted by his photograph

[cinemaven]

Sounds like he was aiming for an Andy Kaufman-type bit and failed miserably.

There's a trend in standup right now that's veered away from biting, intelligent humor to humping the air. I've seen a few air-humpers who were actually funny but 99% of them are making up for a total lack of material or wit. There's an audience for air-humpers but it's a fickle audience and in order to keep them interested and engaged, you have to pull stunts week after week or it gets old very quickly.

I am a bit surprised that both the author and the audience did nothing while a nervous teen gets "fingered" in front of them. It wouldn't surprise me though to find out that most of the audience applauded wildly... I'd just expect that there would be a few people with the courage to stand up and call him on what he did.

[gcallaghan]

I never heard of this guy before this article and feel there's more to this story. Here's this ogre announcing he has no comedy material yet still finds a beautiful, young "victim" in the audience who allows herself to be felt up in public. Funny or not, that was his material.

[mediamarv]

Allowing for some cultural differences ( the loo??) this is clearly sexual assault. He's at his work place.
Her solicitor will be most excited about this case's prospects.