Loose Women opened Friday’s episode with a debate on the ‘bully’ accusations surrounding I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!
And Kaye Adams joked she could be in trouble with ITV after questioning Ant & Dec’s ongoing Dennis Wise quips!
The chat began with a discussion on viewers expressing concern with how Iain Lee is being treated in camp and remarks made about him.
But panellist Kaye and guest Martin Kemp felt the same logic could be applied to Ant & Dec’s daily jokes about Dennis Wise being a “small man”.
There was concern that Dennis may never escape people shouting “he’s a very small man!” at him on the street, while smaller children could be uncomfortable if other kids chanted the phrase at school.
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Martin remarked on Ant & Dec’s ongoing skit about Dennis: “We were joking about what Dec was saying about Dennis being a very small man, but when that translates into school playgrounds, some kids are going to suffer. I didn’t quite enjoy that.”
Kaye then chipped in: “I thought it was interesting myself. There has been a lot of judgment of Dennis and his treatment of Iain. I mean, God, I could get in trouble here, [Ant & Dec] are ITV’s golden boys.
“I love them and think they’re very funny, but if you apply the same logic, then you have to be fair about it – and undoubtedly, it could be uncomfortable for some kids.”
She also said: “Dec has been hilarious throughout the whole thing saying Dennis is a very small man, which I found really amusing, but for all we know Dennis might be really self conscious about that.
“He might have to spend the rest of the year walking around doing his Christmas shopping getting ‘You’re a very small man’ [shouted at him].”
Some viewers, however, didn’t agree.
One tweeted: “How can Dec calling Dennis a very small man be the same as what Iain is going through with the others?! Dec says it because he’s small himself. It’s a joke.”
Another agreed: “The Premise of the joke is that Dec can’t see that he is shorter than Dennis wise. That’s what is funny! If Dec was 6ft2 and saying Dennis is small would be classed as bullying.”
And a third said: “That whole skit is taking the ]bleep] out of Dec…. he’s a very small man…. that is the joke! Get a grip…. everything is classed as “bullying” these days it’s pathetic.”
Dennis, meanwhile, said earlier on Good Morning Britain that he found Dec’s jokes about his height hilarious, and he’d been watching them all back since leaving camp on Thursday night.
Elsewhere, the latest action in camp certainly prompted a big debate on Loose Women; everyone seemed to have an opinion on Iain’s situation.
Martin said: “I personally don’t like this idea to get away with bullying we all use this word ‘banter’. I think the minute they brought other guys into the circle and all grouped up against Iain, I thought that was bullying.
“On their own, maybe it’s banter, but when they’re grouped up against him, that’s bullying.”
Kaye, however, felt differently: “The whole thing is they are hungry, starving, and would IAin do a trial or not, and he hasn’t had the best track record, and Dennis was making it plain he wasn’t maybe the best guy to do it.
“Maybe he wasn’t subtle about it and maybe a bit unkind but I don’t think it was bullying, personally.
“I think we need a discussion around what is bullying. I think when there is a real power dynamic and someone is systematically going out to undermine someone, that is what I would call bullying.
“In this situation, Iain is a big boy. Maybe he should have a conversation with them. And also we don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes and I don’t want to leap to say someone is a ‘bully’ as that’s a big accusation to make.”
Former I’m A Celeb star Linda Robson then waded in with her own experience of camp.
“It’s hard in there,” she said. “Tempers do get frayed. We had Helen Flanagan and she did seven trials and only passed one of them. We were all absolutely starving.
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“I do think Dennis was a bit mean to Iain. Iain’s a big man and the trial was hard. Dennis is a lot smaller and was able to complete it.”
And another fellow campmate, Jordan Banjo, added: “I feel like the term ‘bully’ is very strong and labelling someone that publicly on a huge platform isn’t fair.”
Loose Women airs weekdays at 12.30pm on ITV.