Keith Walsh: The 2 Johnnies made a mistake so let's all try to learn from it

The 2 Johnnies have apologised for offensive content they posted on social media; let's all try to do better

Fri, 25 Feb, 2022 - 16:54

Keith Walsh

As I previously wrote on Twitter, this stance may not do me any favours. The fear of being cancelled always looms large; if you're seen to be on 'the wrong side', that could be the end of it.

This week, comedy duo the 2 Johnnies, who present the drivetime show on RTÉ 2FM, apologised for offensive content which they posted on their social media accounts.

After sending a tweet about this, I got a call from my wife, who was genuinely worried.

"What if everyone thinks that you’re saying that this kind of thing is okay and that you are also a misogynist?," she asked me.

Well, that’s definitely a concern. But I also feel like this particular situation needs further examination and I would like to see if I can get people to look at it again.

So what happened? 2FM’s new drivetime show, Drive It, with The 2 Johnnies, went on air for the first time on Monday. In the run-up to the two lads presenting their first-ever show on the national broadcaster, they used some old footage from their podcast to promote the big news to their own fans.

The video was terrible. They were reading out car stickers the podcast listeners had sent in, referring to women as sluts and talking about women squealing like tyres. I was appalled; I thought we’d moved on from all of this.

How could two grown men think that this kind of content is acceptable on any level? It reminded me of some of the stuff you might hear on the radio 15 years ago.

Had we learned nothing in this time?

I spoke to some friends. The reactions were clear: we need to say something about this. This is dreadful. It wasn’t funny, and we needed to get the message out quickly that this type of lad humour is not acceptable.

I spoke to my family, my wife, my daughter and my son. We were all appalled. But this was good: I was having a conversation with my son about what was acceptable.

I started to see some tweets from prominent politicians who were disgusted at this content. Rightly so. I then also started to read tweets about the context of the video piece. I looked into it further.

The lads were reading out ‘terrible’ car stickers from ‘boy/girl racers’.

Keith Walsh: If we’re to have a proper conversation about casual sexism and misogyny, then let's have the conversation. Let it be about cancelling people.

The context was that these were horrible things to see written on a sticker on a car. Yes, they were laughing as they read them out, but only in a "how could someone put these stickers on their car" kind of way. The word ‘slut’ was on a car sticker that a girl called Jane had put on her own car, referring to herself, which they clearly state. Mad stuff when you think about it.

Now, they really shouldn’t have been giving air time to this stuff, and I’m sure they will never do such a thing again. None of this is good. These stickers shouldn't exist, people shouldn’t put them on their car and if you’re handed the big job of presenting a radio show to a youth audience on RTÉ — you can’t be reading them out! Full stop.

But, if we’re to have a proper conversation about casual sexism and misogyny, then let's have the conversation. Let it be about cancelling people. Let’s hear The 2 Johnnies talk, let’s allow them to apologise and then do better and give them the opportunity to turn this around. I also feel that two lads like The 2 Johnnies could have a hugely positive impact on young men around the country, given their following.

What's your view on this issue?

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It could be a great opportunity — let’s see what they can learn from this and, subsequently, show others. Men need to do better! Let’s see if we can.