RTÉ has said The 2 Johnnies will remain off-air while it reviews the matter.
Johnny B of The 2 Johnnies has spoken about a controversial video shared by the pair on social media that was heavily criticised this week, stating: “We were not good enough in this instance”.
Highlighted by Social Democrats TD Holly Cairns, the video in question features several crude references to women and female genitalia, as the two hosts read aloud car stickers sent in from podcast listeners.
One example reads: “She’s not a princess, she’s a slut.”
Responding to social media backlash throughout Thursday, The 2 Johnnies issued a formal apology.
— The 2 Johnnies (@the2johnnies) February 24, 2022
The duo were absent from their RTÉ 2FM show on Thursday, with RTÉ telling JOE:
“The 2 Johnnies will remain off-air while we review the matter.
“RTÉ remains in dialogue with the 2 Johnnies.”
The controversy was discussed on RTÉ’s show Liveline on Friday, with a female listener calling in to condemn the clip.
“This video from The 2 Johnnies podcast, I think it’s just a symptom of how misogynistic our society is, how normalised the disrespect and abuse of women is,” she said.
Liveline host Katie Hannon said of the video:
“It was basically the two lads… looking at pictures… of these car stickers… You can buy these online.
“But they have supposedly funny, quite crude [comments].
“I think I read one out earlier which was ‘she’s no princess, she’s a slut’.
“The 2 Johnnies said that had been sent in by a girl and it was a girl’s car that that was on.
“But that’s, I would say, on the milder end of the level of crudeness there.
“There are several that were mentioned and that were read out in that video that I honestly would not say.
“I wouldn’t say them on an afternoon radio programme or indeed on any radio programme.
“RTÉ did not think this was funny either and… they did not present their programme yesterday,” she added.
Towards the end of the programme, Johnny B called into Liveline to address the controversy.
“So… we had a thread on our podcast about car stickers that were sent in. It started with some that were funny,” he explained.
“There was cars that had stickers like ‘this car is powered by Bord na Móna’ or ‘more horses than Willie Mullins’.
“Some of them got cruder and some of them went too far.
“When we read them out, our intention was to condemn them and to say that if you have this on your car, you really need to think twice, take it down.”
Johnny B then said the duo “did not go far enough” and were “not clear enough” in their condemnation.
“In the social media clip that went out, the context is taken out and it’s just car sticker and car sticker and car sticker,” he said.
Hannon then pointed out that the problem was that the pair appeared to be finding the stickers “very funny”.
“We didn’t edit that video ourselves. It was one of our team, which makes it our responsibility and we have to stand over it,” Johnny B responded.
“As soon as we saw it, we took it down.
“That’s why we’ve apologised for it because without the context, that video is offensive.
“On the podcast, we were condemning these stickers.”
He was then asked if this meant that if people saw the full podcast, the duo would have been viewed “very seriously” stating the stickers were “completely out of order”.
“We didn’t condemn them enough but we did say things like ‘these are scandalous, these are too far, who in their right mind thinks it’s a good idea to have this on their car?'” he replied.
“If people listen to our podcasts, they’ll know the things we talk about – consent and body image and sexuality.
“We’re always trying to do better and that’s why we’ve apologised.
“We were not good enough in this instance and we’re learning and we will do better”.
He added that the 2FM sticker at the end of the clip was put there by mistake and said the video had “nothing to do with 2FM”.
Main image via Photo/RollingNews.ie
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