People who see themselves as fully aware of modern gender issues have found themselves wondering if they could still enjoy Father Ted, Black Books or the IT Crowd now that their creator has thought it wise to compare doctors treating trans children to literal Nazis.
In Brighton, Holistic Yoga instructor Simon Williams was struggling with the possibility that the time he dressed up as Bernard Black for Halloween might now be seen as transphobic.
“It’s tricky. I love pretty much all of what Graham Linehan wrote, but now I want to delete that photo of me at a Stop Brexit march with a ‘Down with this sort of thing’ sign.
“Does he seriously think giving puberty blockers to children with gender dysphoria is the same as Mengele selecting twins in Auschwitz and murdering them in gruesome experiments?
“Maybe it was a joke like that episode when Father Ted was accused of being a racist? But a really long one where the punchline hasn’t been revealed yet.
“At least I hope that’s the case and not another ageing celebrity going down a fucked-up tunnel when he should have realised he doesn’t know shit about trans issues and not let Twitter ragers goad him into making things worse.
“First we lost Morrissey and now Graham. Who’s next? Are we going to find out David Attenborough hates Travellers? This could be the anger talking, but maybe, just maybe, asking artists to talk with authority about complex societal issues is a bad idea?”
Mr Williams then had to leave as Hugh Grant was holding a Q and A session at a nearby pub about rejoining the EU.