Joe Lycett
Joe Harry Lycett, also known by the self-given moniker "Mummy", and officially self-renamed briefly as Hugo Boss in 2020, is a British comedian, television presenter, and painter. He has appeared on many TV shows, including Live at the Apollo, Taskmaster, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, 8 Out of 10 Cats, QI, as the announcer on Saturday BBC One show Epic Win, the narrator for Ibiza Weekender and as the presenter on BBC Two's The Great British Sewing Bee, and Channel 4's Joe Lycett's Got Your Back and Travel Man. He is also recognised as one of Britain's most high-profile queer or pansexual men, and has advocated for the LGBTQ community on many occasions.
Early life and education
Joe Harry Lycett was born in 1988 at Hall Green, Birmingham, to David Lycett and Helen née Scholey, and grew up in Solihull. His paternal Lycett family hailed from Staffordshire, while his grandmother's Wilkinson family came from the East Midlands being distantly related to the Wilkinson baronets. In 2021, appearing on the genealogy documentary series Who Do You Think You Are?, he researched the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes of which his great-grandfather was a member. And he discovered his great-great-grandfather, Robert Wilkinson, worked as a chimney sweep as a child and later joined the Royal Marines, serving in China during the Second Opium War.After attending King Edward VI Five Ways Grammar School, Lycett studied drama and English at the University of Manchester, graduating BA.
Career
Stage
Lycett began performing stand-up in 2009 and won the Chortle Student Comedian of the Year the same year.Early in his career as a 22-year-old comedian, Lycett appeared on stage alongside Jim Davidson, who is known for his offensive jokes, which have been described as both racist and homophobic, and Lycett complained about Davidson's use of the racial slur "chink" in one of his jokes. The two became friends while touring together. " views on race are incredibly misguided but he is very educated about it. He has read the Quran, and at one point told me in detail about the origins of Rastafarianism", Lycett told the Birmingham Mail in 2011.
In 2015, while performing in York, Lycett was issued with a parking ticket for parking illegally in a taxi rank. The ensuing paper trail of correspondence, between him and City of York Council, was recounted as an anecdote on 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and later becoming the basis for one of his best-known stand-up routines.
In June 2022, a member of the audience at a Belfast show called the PSNI to complain about a joke that referenced a donkey. Lycett bemoaned being investigated by the police over a joke, but was happy to recount his enjoyment from repeating the joke, which he regarded as one of his best, in his messages to the police. The investigation was subsequently closed.
Television and video
Lycett has appeared on television in Live at the Apollo, 8 Out of 10 Cats, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown, Celebrity Juice, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, Spicks and Specks, Would I Lie to You?, Insert Name Here, Virtually Famous, and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, and was a regular panellist on the E4 show Dirty Digest. He has co-written narration on ITV2 shows The Magaluf Weekender and Ibiza Weekender. Lycett featured on Alan Davies: As Yet Untitled Christmas Special with Jason Manford, Rev Richard Coles, and Jo Joyner. Lycett starred as one of the contestants in the fourth series of Taskmaster with Mel Giedroyc, Hugh Dennis, Lolly Adefope and Noel Fielding and has made several guest appearances on Sunday Brunch in the absence of one of the regular hosts.On 12 February 2019, Joe Lycett took over as the new presenter on the fifth series of BBC Two's The Great British Sewing Bee.
Lycett started presenting his consumer show Joe Lycett's Got Your Back, which was branded a "sexy Watchdog" in 2019 with help from various guests and Mark Silcox. The show takes on big corporations, such as airlines and banks, to provide justice for consumers with a humorous spin. The series was renewed for a second series. Lycett describes the show as "a cross between Rogue Traders and RuPaul's Drag Race". He also presents Channel 4's Late Night Lycett.
Since taking over from Richard Ayoade in 2021, Lycett has presented Travel Man on Channel 4, as of 2024
In 2021, Lycett presented the television documentary Joe Lycett vs the Oil Giant.
On 4 September 2022, Lycett appeared as a panellist on the début issue of Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg. The show featured an interview with Liz Truss, who at the time was considered highly likely to win, which she later did, the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election and therefore become Prime Minister. The cost-of-living crisis, caused in part by high energy bills, was a current significant issue. Truss had given few interviews since the start of the election campaign to elect the Leader of the Conservative Party. On the show, Truss endeavoured to give assurances. When asked for comment by Kuenssberg, Lycett said with deadpan delivery that he was "very Right-wing" and that he loved the clarity and was reassured by Truss's statements about the proposed measures to address the crisis. Deploying apophasis, he suggested that he would not say that from dregs Truss was the "backwash of available MPs". This was met with incredulity from Kuenssberg and titters from other guests. In a similar vein, Lycett went on to state Truss was right to ignore economists' stark predictions. Several days later, MP Steve Brine asked BBC Director-General Tim Davie about "the Joe Lycett débacle" when Davie appeared before the parliamentary Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.
In March 2023 Lycett began hosting the comedy variety show Late Night Lycett that includes brief interviews with celebrity guests and comedy segments. One comedy segment includes a celebrity minding Lycett's local corner shop in Kings Heath because the owner is in the studio audience with Lycett crossing over live to the celebrity in the shop to chat to them about how things are going or asking the guests if there is anything they want from the shop. There was also a recurring segment that as part of Lycett's scheme to hire trainees with no previous experience, Linda Biscuits, portrayed by Chilli the labrador, is shown appearing with the production team. Linda is shown operating a camera whilst vision of cats playing in a field comes across the live feed for the show as well as being shown to have urinated on the set beside the stage where Lycett is speaking to guests.
In March 2025, he starred in the first series of LOL: Last One Laughing UK, hosted by Jimmy Carr and Roisin Conaty, alongside Richard Ayoade, Sara Pascoe, Lou Sanders, Rob Beckett, Judi Love, Bob Mortimer, Joe Wilkinson, Daisy May Cooper, and Harriet Kemsley.
Radio and podcasts
On radio Lycett has been a guest on Scott Mills, Greg James and Nick Grimshaw's programmes on BBC Radio 1 and on Richard Bacon's programme on BBC Radio 5 Live. In August 2011, he wrote and performed the short story "Spooky and the Van" which was broadcast in the Afternoon Reading slot on BBC Radio 4. In August 2013, he made his début on Just a Minute on BBC Radio 4. In September 2016, he took over from Miles Jupp as the host of It's Not What You Know, also on BBC Radio 4. Lycett was known as "the resident news hound" on Josh Widdicombe's XFM radio show, which was broadcast on Saturday mornings.In addition to his appearances on various radio stations, Lycett has featured as a guest on numerous podcasts, including My Dad Wrote a Porno, SoundCheck Podcast, ''The Comedian's Comedian with Stuart Goldsmith, and Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast.
From July 2018, there were two series of Joe Lycett's Obsessions on BBC Radio 4.
On 17 August 2019 and 26 October 2019, Lycett stood in for Rylan Clark-Neal on Rylan on Saturday on BBC Radio 2. In December 2019 he returned to Radio 2 covering Sara Cox's drive-time show over the Christmas and New Year period.
In late November 2023, Lycett launched a "fake" podcast, Turdcast, about "celebrities talking shit," and recorded an episode with Gary Lineker. He set up an inflatable toilet dubbed "the Turdis" at Liverpool's Royal Albert Dock for the launch, though this was cancelled seemingly "due to a technical issue," with the alleged waste from the toilet spilling into the Mersey. Lycett later released a statement revealing that "it was fake sewage, from a fake toilet, to promote a fake podcast". He criticised water companies in England for discarding "billions of litres of real sewage" into bodies of water, and announced an hour-long Channel 4 special, Joe Lycett vs Poo'', about the water companies.