The Sun newspaper 'caught out' the comedian
Joe Lycett has been very vocal about Qatar and its treatment of LGBTQ+ people in recent months, particularly when it comes to David Beckham's role in the World Cup.
The comedian took Beckham to task over his megabucks role as an ambassador for Qatari football, and his failure to condemn the Middle Eastern country for its poor human and LGBTQ+ rights record.
However, a new development arose in recent days when tabloid reports revealed that Lycett himself had gigged in both Qatar and the United Arab Emirates in 2015.
What the newspapers may not have been aware of, however, was that Lycett himself had written about the gigs in his own autobiography - so they were not a secret.
He took to Twitter to blast The Sun newspaper, saying "Oops! I've been caught out by The Sun!
"I did two gigs in Doha in 2015 and kept it entirely secret by writing about it in my own book and mentioning it in multiple interviews including with the NY Times!
"If you're interested, I was paid a few hundred quid (not by Qatar but by UK comedy promoters) but it was 2015 and that went a lot further back then. I reckon that if a popular comedian from those days (eg Shane Ritchie) had shredded a few hundred quid to persuade me not to go, it would have made a difference. But who can say?
"I don't have the perfect hindsight and spotless morality of, to pick a completely random example, The Sun newspaper."
Of course, Piers Morgan had something to say, tweeting: "Hmm. Problem is you decided to appoint yourself the great outraged halo-clad moralist over Qatar re Beckham & LGBT rights but you were paid to appear there too. Blaming the media for exposing your hypocrisy is a bit pathetic."
Lycett had threatened to shred £10,000 of his own money if Beckham did not pull out of his deal with Qatar, although it was later revealed that the money was fake and had been donated to LGBTQ+ charities.
Beckham did eventually issue a statement which was read out by Lycett on his show last week.