Leigh Francis, the comedian best known for his alter-ego Keith Lemon, suffered a nasty facial wound after an interaction with an overexcited fan went awry. The 53-year-old revealed that a woman accidentally scratched his face while he was DJing at the Sound Bites festival in Syon Park over the weekend.
Injury Details
Francis took to TikTok to show off the nasty cut, explaining how the scrape narrowly missed his eye. He told his followers: 'I went into the crowd and someone was overcome with joy, so that was a nice feeling. She went "I love you" and put her hands towards my face and her thumbnail, which was quite long, did that.' He then turned to the camera to display the grisly scratch, adding: 'Could've been worse, could've gone in my eye but yeah bit of a naughty one that, innit?'
Fan Reactions
His followers voiced their concern in the comments, with messages such as 'Omg Leigh that's awful' and 'that looks so bad'. In another video, Francis showed off the injury after having a shower while in character as his alter-ego, Avid Merion. The TV star joked that he looked like a 'sexy action man' but said that in future, he plans to stand further away from the crowd.
Reflections on Comedy
The DJ set comes after Francis spoke about the reasons he was happy to part with the ITV series 'Celebrity Juice' after 14 years. Hosted by his character Keith Lemon, the show became a no-holds-barred playground for celebrity guests. Francis decided to shelve the show in 2022 due to changes in humour among younger viewers, which made him feel that 'nothing was acceptable anymore'.
Speaking to The Sun, he confessed that 'nothing is acceptable anymore' and that, like fashion, comedy tastes change. He explained: 'Now, nothing is acceptable any more — we had "the rules were the rules" in past times, and they're different now, so of course there are things back then that you wouldn't do any more. You don't set out to offend anyone, you just set out to make people laugh, but for me, now when I come up with an idea, it has to be a straight one, with just a bit of silliness.'
He added that many comedians are now presenting straight shows and entertainment programmes that are funny but not as much as sketch shows. Francis admitted that it is a 'shame' for viewers who still want to watch old-school silly comedy that was popular in the noughties. He concluded: 'At the end of the day, you're always going to upset someone — but it's just comedy and, in these modern times, I feel that it's all being taken too seriously.'
