ITV2 signs up internet comedian Dapper Laughs
Dapper Laughs, a self-styled 'lad' comedian who posts comic content across his social media accounts, has been given a TV series.
The London-based comic - real name Daniel O'Reilly - has amassed over one million fans via his Vine, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram accounts. He regularly posts short videos, humorous pictures and comic status updates across these profiles.
As way of example, in his most recent post Dapper Laughs posed in front of a poster for The Inbetweeners 2 in such a way as to suggest he was performing a sexual act on the character Jay's groin, which actor James Buckley retweeted. His Vine videos - featured below - regularly focus on the topic of sex, and another common theme is pranking people in shops, bars and fast food restaurants.
ITV2 has ordered a six-part series starring the comedian called Dapper Laughs On The Pull. The show, described as a "comedy / reality format", will see the comedian giving dating advice to members of the public. The tagline for the programme is "Dating is out. Pulling is in."
The channel explains: "Internet sensation Dapper Laughs is to host a brand new series that collides brave comedy sketches with real life situations as Dapper immerses himself in the Great British pastime of pulling. The self-styled 'pulling magnet' will offer his dating prowess to members of the public as he helps others, and himself, get lucky.
"In this brand new ITV2 format Dapper's not afraid to get his hands dirty. On The Pull will see him out and about causing trouble and helping the Great British public perfect the art of pulling. Fans will be thrilled as Dapper unleashes a host of brand new fearless sketches, bringing his hilarious Vines to ITV2."
Dapper Laughs says: "I can't wait to bring my brand of comedy to the ITV2 viewers, who says you can't sleep your way to the top."
The programme has been devised by Dan Baldwin, Jolene Ellis and Chris Graves, the production team who created Celebrity Juice.
Graves says: "Dapper's a naughty little rascal with a bodacious approach to pulling! We've watched him explode online and are delighted to bring him to the ITV2 audience."
The producer gave additional insight to Broadcast magazine, explaining: "With every show we make we try to tick the box of it having the potential to be big. Keith Lemon started out with 400,000 viewers and thankfully the show got a couple of series to grow. Dapper feels very much in the Keith Lemon camp as he's very mainstream."
ITV's Kate Maddigan comments: "Dapper Laughs is brilliant new talent so I'm excited to bring him and his risqué brand of humour to ITV2. We plan to take what he's been doing so successfully on Vine and Facebook and supersize it, so I'm sure his original fans and many new ones will love to see his take on how to 'pull'!"
The half-hour episodes are expected to be shown on ITV2 in September.
The below video features many of the comedian's previous Vine videos:
Dapper Laughs recently released a music single called Take It To The Base. Here is the music video: