Stephen Fry has quit twitter (again), and, potentially, for good this time. While hosting the BAFTAs, Fry made a joke about Jenny Beavan, who had just won an award for best costume design for her work in Mad Max: Fury Road. Referencing her appearance, he said “Only one of the great cinematic costume designers would come to an awards ceremony dressed as a bag lady.”
The backlash came quickly, but so did messages of support:
Poor Jenny Beavan. Best moment of her career and @stephenfry makes an arsehole comment about her appearance. Bad form @BAFTA
— Natalie Flynn (@Natwritesstuff) February 14, 2016
@stephenfry Didn’t you get the memo? No-one is allowed to do jokes anymore.
— Matt Lucas (@RealMattLucas) February 14, 2016
Fry went on the defensive and posted many, now unavailable comments, one of which was apparently “Will all you sanctimonious f-kers f-k the f-k off Jenny Beavan is a friend and joshing is legitimate. Christ I want to leave the planet”
He has since deactivated his twitter account, and posted an open letter to his own website explaining why he’s exited the twittersphere:
Oh goodness, what fun twitter was in the early days, a secret bathing-pool in a magical glade in an enchanted forest… But now the pool is stagnant. It is frothy with scum, clogged with weeds and littered with broken glass, sharp rocks and slimy rubbish. If you don’t watch yourself, with every move you’ll end up being gashed, broken, bruised or contused. Even if you negotiate the sharp rocks you’ll soon feel that too many people have peed in the pool for you to want to swim there any more. The fun is over.
Summing up his feelings, he wrote:
I don’t feel anything today other than massive relief, like a boulder rolling off my chest. I am free, free at last.
Which, really, is the sort of line that might accidentally get somebody into trouble on twitter.
For what it’s worth, Fry probably didn’t even have the most offensive moment of the evening:
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