Sara Pascoe has claimed that there are two well-known sexual predators in UK comedy.
The stand-up comic also said that several comedians have tried “setting up a union” to stop “predators” in the industry.
Pascoe, 42, made the claims in a new interview with The Independent which discussed her novel 'Weirdo', cancel culture and sexual predators in her industry.
Her comments come as Russell Brand has been accused of rape, assault and emotional abuse in a joint investigation by The Times, Sunday Times and Channel 4’s Dispatches.
Brand denies all the allegations which date between 2006 and 2013, when he was at the height of his fame working for the BBC, Channel 4 and starring in Hollywood films.
YouTube has stopped Russell Brand from making money on its platform because of the rape and sexual assault allegations made against him.
The Google-owned company said it has suspended the monetisation of the 48-year-old’s channel because he was “violating” its “creator responsibility policy”.
In a statement, it said: “If a creator’s off-platform behaviour harms our users, employees or ecosystem, we take action to protect the community.”
The news comes after the remaining shows of Brand’s Bipolarisation tour were postponed and the Metropolitan Police said they had received a report of an alleged sexual assault in the wake of media allegations about the comedian and actor.
Sara Pascoe claims several comedians wanted to set up a union to combat predators
In the interview with The Independent, which was published on Saturday, September 16, comic Sara Pascoe shared: “We kept thinking that’s the problem – if we had a good enough union, there’d be a place where you could go and say ‘there’s this person getting women drunk at festivals and taking advantage of them.”
The comedian also discussed the complexities of libel law and the difficulty in naming or accusing a person without proof, she added: "You can’t just tweet about it."
In the interview, Pascoe alluded to the existence of at least two alleged predators in the comedy industry, one of whom she said is “a man that’s assaulted men”.
Pascoe went on to say that “fame really complicates” the situation when it comes to making an accusation.
Referring to one of the comedians she previously alluded to, Pascoe said: “If you do the same job as someone, and they’re successful and you’re not – which is what’s happened with this particular predator – you have this horrible thing happen to you at the beginning of your career and you want to continue in that career.”
She continued: “Are you going to be believed? Are people going to take that person’s side? Are you going to be accused of trying to make yourself famous? Their literal choice is: am I known forever as the person that person assaulted? Do I want everyone in comedy to know this about me? All you can do is offer better support as an industry.”
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