IRISH comedian Dara Ó Briain has revealed the hilarious time he was left “insulted” by an email inviting him onto popular panel show, Would I Lie To You?.
The 51-year-old spoke of his experience yesterday in the latest episode of Brydon &, a podcast hosted by fellow comic – and host of Would I Lie To You? – Rob Brydon.
Ó Briain from Bray, Ireland, had already appeared on the show three times previously when he received another invite to come on, but was left baffled by the way the show’s producers contacted him.
Video shows Brydon and Ó Briain sat opposite each other as the latter says: “Can I tell you my favourite showbiz insult?”
An intrigued Brydon replies: “Please.”
Ó Briain expands: “Yeah, it was on your television show, it’s not really particularly about showbiz, but I quite like to go on that.”
“I have done Would I Lie To You? quite a few times – but not for a little while,” he adds, launching a playful jibe at Brydon.
Brydon is quick to shift the blame though, saying: “I just work there, I get people saying this to me so often. We don’t decide who comes on, we don’t decide the frequency.”
Dara continues on, staring at Brydon as he adds: “But I haven’t been on now for a couple of years, and we received an email from the show.”
Brydon chimes in: “Why am I tense now?”
Dara continues: “It was chef’s kiss delightful because – and look I’m not ragging on some poor junior person who’s been sent to send a letter to the prospective guests right.
“But they sent a letter to my agency – who are like one of the largest comedy agencies – that opened with a paragraph about ‘We are contacting you from Would I Lie To You?’ and then explained what Would I Lie To You? was.”
“[This is] Despite the fact that this is a comedy agency and you are probably the biggest ranking panel show in the country and I felt that was slightly unnecessary but that’s not egregious,” he laughs.
Ó Briain continues: “And then it was like ‘We’d love Dara to come on’ and then said, ‘Previous guests include…’ and it had a long paragraph of previous guests which I read to the end.
“I noticed that it didn’t mention me, even though I have been a previous guest on the show three separate times.”
An uncomfortable Brydon stares at Ó Briain as the latter chuckles in his explanation: “I thought, ‘Okay well I have been on the show, so you don’t have to explain the show to me’.
“And also, if you’re going to list people, you’re literally saying ‘All of these people were more memorable than your three appearances on the show’.”
Brydon quickly defends himself, replying: “I don’t need to feel responsible, because I just work there.”
The clip from was uploaded to social media by Brydon yesterday with the caption: “Dara Ó Briain insulted by WILTY…”
The video has since received over 900 likes and dozens of comments from comedy fans left sceptical over Ó Briain’s complaint.
One user wrote: “Dara, you’re good, but you’re no Bob Mortimer, so wind your neck in.”
Another said: “Was anybody else expecting that ‘insult’ to be far worse than it actually was?”
A third commented: “He’s joking firstly. Secondly, you would sort of expect the show to remember who they’d booked before. He’s not talking about a public interaction.”
Another replied: “The only guest I can say that’s been on the show is Bob Mortimer.”
Would I Lie To You? has been running since 2007, and finished its 16th series in March this year.
Rob Brydon has hosted the show since 2009 after replacing original host Angus Deayton in series three, whilst Ó Briain has made four appearances so far.
