RTÉ have revealed that comedians, The Two Johnnies will be returning to the airwaves later this month. The lads had just taken over their brand new show, Drive It, on RTÉ 2FM last week when they came under fire for an ‘inappropriate’ social media post.
Now, the broadcaster have announced that after a review and a short time off the radio that they will be returning. Releasing a statement Dan Healy, head of RTÉ 2FM said; “We reviewed the content and found that our social media guidelines were breached. We took this very seriously. So seriously that The 2 Johnnies were taken off air.”
They also added that they have “engaged intensively with The 2 Johnnies in respect of the breaches of our social media guidelines, the standards expected with RTÉ content and the challenges of moving from an unregulated space into one where regulations apply.”
“We reviewed the content and found that our social media guidelines were breached. We took this very seriously. So seriously that The 2 Johnnies were taken off air. They have apologised, and we’ve been talking since about where we go from here. They are aware of the standards we expect and are absolutely committed to upholding them.”
“We are looking forward to working with The 2 Johnnies as we work together to bring a fresh approach to drivetime. That’s the job they were taken on to do and the show we want to offer the audience.”
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The post which started the scandal was not related to their radio show, but was from their podcast as the lads discussed car bumper stickers that their listeners sent in. These stickers contained slogans that read, “Tyres are like women, no good unless they are squealing” while another said, “She’s not a princess, she’s a sl*t”.
Followers were less than impressed with these quotes being discussed and the lads released an apology on social media afterwards addressing the clip.
They said; “We wanted to come on and talk to you about the last few days, about our podcast, and the reaction to it. We had a thread on our podcast about car stickers in Ireland, listeners sent us in car stickers and we read them out. Some of them were rude, some of them were too far.”
“We condemned them in our own language, saying ‘these are scandalous’, ‘these are too far’, ‘who thinks these are a good idea?’, but we did not go far enough and we were not clear enough in our condemnation, and for that, we are sorry.”
“If you have these on your car, talk to the women in your life about your car stickers, are they too far, if your mate has them, pull him for a chat.”
The lads are expected back on air from Monday 14th of March.
