I believe you should be free to do anything you like as long as it doesn't endanger the physical wellbeing of other people. He continued: 'I believe in equality of opportunity, in love as a superpower, in women. 'So, if a load of old s**t I came out with years ago offends you or upsets you, know that there's a very good chance it offends and upsets me too, which is why I stopped saying it.' Whilst I still have endless improvements to make, undoubtedly, I'm trying. it's more that I just want to say people change. Well, I did but they died in mysterious circumstances. This isn't one of those moments where my publicist has phoned me and said they've found my prints on the body (I don't even have a publicist. 'I'm not aware of anything specific coming my way, hand on heart. Response: Ahead of the report on his historic tweets, Hound shared a link to tweets originally posted in September 2020, in which he responded to criticism of his posts I, sincerely, try to understand and do better. He branded his past tweets 'stupid and hurtful', writing: 'If anything I've said or tweeted in the past was stupid or hurtful, it's because I can be stupid and hurtful. As anyone who knew me from birth to 19 and they'll tell you. Theatre's what I've been doing and that comes at enormous personal cost. Stopped doing panel shows, only went on quizzes when I could win money for charities etc. For the last few years, I have largely absented myself from the pop mainstream. 'Hell, I put out a Comedy Central Special that was almost entirely about oral sex and when I watch it back (I have done this only once in the last 6 years) there's stuff I wish I hadn't said, or said differently or just flat out don't like.' Update: The theatre company behind the production has since changed the image of Rufus to one of him without eyeliner and wearing feathers I see that, with white actors having so often used eyeshape as a racist dogwhistle, the image resonates with racism for many.' I swear - that's why it never crossed my mind. 'At no point did I think it was yellowface or anything near, as the character of Abanazar isn't Asian origin at all.
I just tried to make my eyes as menacing as possible. 'I dressed myself and was handed eyeliner to put on, as the final image needed to look forebodingly down. He went on: 'Let me please say to anyone who has seen the poster for the Panto I'm doing in Peterborough this Christmas… The slide into fascism, the planet burning, love not winning in the end. 'Problem is, there's a lot of heavy s**t. Some days you just feel sad, y'know? Like even though there are plenty of good things, the bad things just feel a bit too heavy. Responding in a string of Twitter messages, the Rufus said: 'Hello. Accusations: The 42-year-old comedian - who found himself at the centre of a race row last year after old tweets resurfaced - has been accused of wearing 'racist make-up'