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Alan Carr reveals he and Graham Norton were singled out by a focus group and called “grotesque”

By Fabio Crispim

Alan Carr, speaking to The Huffington Post for their Loud & Proud Series, reveals how he suffers from homophobic abuse for being ‘camp’.

Carr explained how he was tweeted a link from a focus group that targeted him and Graham Norton.

He said, “A focus group said me and Graham Norton were grotesque, over the top, effeminate, and that’s why people were being beaten up at school, that is the most hurtful thing.”

“I’m choking up thinking about it because I was that kid who [was] bullied at school… to say for a minute that I would bring that about someone else… I was so angry and it’s not fair.”

“The gay scene used to be ‘I am what I am’ and we have to be careful it’s not, ‘You’re not who I want you to be.'”

Carr’s comedy and chat show has made him one of the country’s top TV stars and explains how he gets “a lot of stick for being camp”.

“I’m in the light entertainment business, like Frankie Howerd and Kenneth Williams… If they turned up and did Countryfile like that, I’d think, well this is inappropriate. I do exactly what Keith Lemon does – much about, be silly, a bit rude, that’s what I’ve got to do.”

“I don’t always feel like being camp, but telly is unbelievably camp. X Factor, Strictly, Britain’s Got Talent are all unbelievably camp, someone orange coming down the stairs and saying, ‘Hi, it’s Saturday night. That’s camp.'”

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