Janey Godley: Comedian dropped from government Covid adverts over ‘unacceptable’ resurfaced tweets

Godley said she was ‘deeply sorry’ after offensive tweets resurfaced online

Comedian Janey Godley pictured in 2018 (Getty Images for BFI)

Comedian Janey Godley has been dropped from a Scottish government health campaign due to a series of offensive resurfaced tweets.

The Glasgow-based performer had been signed onto the campaign to encourage the wearing of face coverings and lateral flow testing during the ongoing pandemic.

Godley has apologised for the tweets, admitting that the offensive material contained “terrible, horrific undertones”.

The comedian rose to online prominence during the pandemic through a series of viral videos in which she parodied First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

She has also featured on programmes such as BBC Radio Scotland’s Breaking the News and Have I Got News For You on BBC One, and appeared as an actor in Traces.

The Scottish Sun and The Daily Beast published a number of offensive tweets made by Godley. Some dated back almost a decade; the most recent example was from 2017. The tweets included racist comments about 50 Cent, Kelly Rowland and Snoop Dogg.

After the tweets came to light, Godley issued an apology on Twitter, writing: “There are tweets from my past social media that are horridly offensive, I believe in progress not perfection and I am far from perfect.

“People have every right to go through my social media and see what values I hold and to find hurtful phrases and statements is shocking, I am deeply sorry to everyone I offended. Comedy is no excuse to use disgusting and hurtful words that affect people and I know many of you expected better of me. I apologise for every single word that upset people.”

Per the BBC, a spokesperson for the Scottish government said that trust in public health messages was “paramount”.

“A series of unacceptable tweets by Janey Godley have been brought to our attention and, while she has rightly apologised, trust in our public health messages at this time is paramount. We have therefore taken the decision to withdraw any further campaign material in which Ms Godley features.

“The material will be discontinued immediately on our own channels and withdrawn as soon as possible from external media.”

Godley had offered to donate the fee she received for the advert to the STV Children’s Appeal.