EXC: Lee Mack comes under fire after ‘thoughtless’ comedian ridicules speech impediment on BBC show

Lee Mack has come under fire from a stuttering charity after he ‘ridiculed’ and impersonated the speech impediment on the TV show Would I Lie to You?

The 54-year-old comedian’s actions were called “thoughtless” by STAMMA, the British Stuttering Association, after he mocked co-star Rob Brydon when he stumbled over the word “She” during Friday’s episode of the BBC show .

He proceeded to compare the host to Ronnie Barker’s character Arkwright from the 1970s and 1980s sitcom Open All Hours, who was described as stuttering for comedic effect.

‘What is she? What is she, Rob? Lee joked before adding, “The suspense is killing me.”

At this point, the audience had burst into laughter and continued to laugh as he repeated, ‘She’, seven times while narrowing his eyes.

“Are you auditioning for Open All Hours?” she continued as Rob tried to finish his own sentence.

Lee then repeated, “She,” four more times, much to the amusement of the crowd and her fellow panelists.

It is not clear if Rob also stutters.

After the broadcast, STAMMA issued the following statement to MailOnline: ‘It was disheartening to see Lee Mack and the Will I Lie to You team make fun of stuttering on the Friday night show.

‘About 8% of children and at least 1% of adults stutter. This is our voice, it is how we speak. The thoughtless ridicule we saw in WILTY offers us a stark choice between laughing or keeping quiet.

We know it wasn’t meant to hurt or offend, but for many who stutter, it does.

‘To all those adults and adolescents who stutter, and to all those parents who have children who stutter, know that there are many people who accept that stuttering is just the way some of us talk. Who give us space and time in conversation and value our fabulous, stuttering voices.’

Shocking: The 54-year-old comedian’s actions were called ‘thoughtless’ by STAMMA, the British Stuttering Association, after he mocked his co-star Rob Brydon on the BBC show

On Air: Rob had stumbled upon the word “She” during Friday’s delivery.

CEO Jane Powell added: “Stuttering is not a joke, and this is not in the ’70s.”

‘Thousands of people who love WILTY, and who stutter, will have watched the show on Friday and been embarrassed and embarrassed to see Lee Mack make fun of the way they speak. It’s a shame the BBC didn’t see this as worth editing.

MailOnline has contacted representatives for Lee and the BBC for comment.

Various theories have emerged as to the cause of stuttering, including that it is a genetic condition or caused by volatile family dynamics.

A 2017 study by researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles postulated that stuttering was related to limited blood flow to the speech-related region of the frontal lobe.

The more severe the stutter, the more limited the blood flow in this region.

In addition, greater cerebral blood flow abnormality in the posterior loop of language, an area associated with processing the words we hear, is associated with more severe stuttering.

More than 70 million people stutter worldwide, including about 3 million in the US alone, and the condition is four times more common in men than in women.

Offensive: He compared the host to Ronnie Barker’s character Arkwright from the 1970s/1980s sitcom Open All Hours, who was described as stuttering for comedic effect.

Known people who stutter include Emily Blunt, Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, and King George VI.

In 2021, Emily told The Mail on Sunday that she was drawn to acting after realizing that “one of the ways I could speak normally was if I had a goofy voice or an accent.”

During a CNN town hall in 2020, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden, who overcame a childhood stutter, called it “the only disability people still laugh about.”

At least before his inauguration as president, Biden mentored more than a dozen people with speech problems.

“What I say to these young people that I still work with is that it’s vitally important that they don’t judge themselves by the way they speak, that they don’t let it define them,” Biden said, adding that stuttering doesn’t it has nothing to do with your ‘intelligent quotient’ or your ‘intellectual makeup’.

Children who stutter score about the same as other children on tests that assess language, thinking skills, and temperament.

Successful: Known people with a stutter include Emily Blunt and Tiger Woods. More than 70 million people stutter worldwide, and the condition is four times more common among men than women.

Frustrating: During a CNN town hall in 2020, Joe Biden, who overcame a childhood stutter, called it “the only disability people still laugh about” (pictured Monday)