Joe Lycett claims to have been planting 'silly stories' in the news

Joe Lycett has been asking fans to spot various fake news stories he claims to have planted ahead of the launch of a new series of Channel 4's Late Night Lycett.

The comedian has said he planted a number of "silly" made-up reports over the past month to see how many would be picked up by national news. He told his 1.4m followers: "FAKE NEWS! Can you spot the stories I’ve been seeding in the press? Multiple silly stories have been in the news over the last month, and they were all coordinated by me. Send them my way, with the hashtag #IsThisJoe?"

Lycett, 35, claimed he has successfully planted fake news in The Daily Mail, The Sun newspaper, BBC news, Sky News, Metro, The Independent and LADBible. He will confirm which stories are his on his Channel 4 show Late Night Lycett when it returns on Friday night.

But in the meantime he is asking fans to guess which news stories he says might be made up by him and his team, by sending them to him with the hashtag #IsThisJoe?

Here are some of #IsThisJoe? stories that the comedian has shared with his followers on Twitter.

Alan Titchmarsh's trousers

On his Twitter account, Lycett shared a news story which claimed Alan Titchmarsh's trousers had been censored by North Korean state television. The story was reported by Sky News, BBC News, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph, The Times, The Independent, The Daily Express and The Guardian, among many others.

The gardener and TV presenter even read out the story himself on his Classic FM radio show. Although Lycett hinted Titchmarsh may have been in on the joke, teasing: "What an unusual and funny news story! But this statement feels almost… scripted?"

Titchmarsh told listeners: "You might have seen I made the news last week, as was the centre of a controversy, not something I'm generally familiar with. I doubt you missed it since it made all the national news bulletins. It turns out that Kim Jong Un took exception to my gardening trousers.

"I thought they were rather nice, slim-fit, narrow leg and all. But when North Korean State TV broadcast one of my old gardening shows they blurred out my jeans. Censorship of blue jeans on the grounds that they were subversive and representative of imperialist capitalist culture! I don't know what they were on about!"

He then played the theme tune to Wallace and Gromit's The Wrong Trousers.

BBC journalist Alistair Coleman — who covers disinformation, cyber-security and North Korea for BBC Monitoring — has denied that this is a fake story, sharing original screengrabs from North Korean TV on Twitter, with a caption that says the story is 'genuine, and I've kept the receipts'.

Paul McCartney sculpture

Another strange news story Lycett shared with his social media followers was centered around Beatles legend Sir Paul McCartney banning a sculpture of himself being auctioned for charity because he thought it "too unflattering".

The artists shared the claim on Instagram along with a picture of the ceramic likeness. The story ran on various music magazine and radio websites including NME, Guitar.com, Far Out Magazine and American Songwriter. It was also picked up by BBC news quiz show Have I Got News For You.

Lycett shared a clip of himself watching the show with the caption: "I do love the stories on Have I Got News For You…"

Crude ketchup

But Lycett is even teasing fans with his fake news confessions. He also shared a story bearing the headline "I used Marks & Spencer vine tomatoes as anal beads and now I'm s***ting ketchup!". However this story was published in the Sunday Sport newspaper in 2016. Lycett joked: "Can confirm this is me #isthisjoe?"

Lycett said: "The world's been turned upside down by fake news, and I hate it!" He added: "For the last month, me and my team have been planting stupid, silly fake news stories, about things that never actually happened in the hope that they would take up space that more hateful or polarising fake news might otherwise have used."

Lycett's past political protests

The comedian is as famous for his political protests as he is for his comedy. In 2022 he called out David Beckham's support of the Qatar World Cup by pretending to shred £10,000 in protest - although he later revvealed he had donated the money to LGBTQ+ charities.

And in 2020 he changed his name to Hugo Boss in an act of protest against the fashion brand. Lycett shared the official deed poll changing his name to match that of the German fashion brand's treatment of small business who use the word 'boss' on social media.

In January 2022 he sparked panic among some government figures when he published a fake version of the Sue Gray report. He later revealed he lost his best friend to cancer during lockdown and was unable to be with them when they died because he was following COVID rules.

Recently he presented new Channel 4 documentary Joe Lycett Vs Sewage, highlighting the thousands of sewage spillages into UK rivers and the sea that happen every year.

Editor's note: Joe Lycett has spent the past week teasing whether suspicious stories in the media have been planted by him.

This article originally reported that Lycett had confirmed he had been behind them after he reposted them on X (formerly Twitter) with the #isthisjoe hashtag. We have since updated it.

Late Night Lycett returns to Channel 4 on Friday 12 April at 10pm.

Read more: Joe Lycett

• Joe Lycett investigates sewage network in new show (BBC News, 2 min read)

• Joe Lycett Had Something To Say About Suella Braverman Being Sacked (HuffPost UK, 2 min read)

• Joe Lycett raises £50,000 for homelessness charity with potpourri picture (Evening Standard, 3 min read)

Watch: Joe Lycett defends Qatar shows after his David Beckham criticism