A British burger joint has been forced to apologise after they joked they had banned comedian James Corden for ‘not finding him funny.’
'Snowflake’ social media users weren't amused and accused the restaurant of bullying the star.
Award-winning restaurant The Beefy Boys jokingly posted a picture of James with a red circle and line through his face after a recent controversy saw him temporarily banned from a New York City eatery for allegedly being rude to staff.
The Beefy Boys, which has branches in Hereford and Shrewsbury, shared a post with the caption: "Following in the footsteps of New York restaurant Balthazar, we too have decided to ban James Corden.
"He hasn't done anything to upset us, we just don't find him very funny."
The post immediately went viral, with almost 40,000 likes, shares and comments - with many praising the joke.
But not everyone found it as amusing as some killjoy social media users accused the restaurant of bullying the comedian.
One wrote: "Wow!! This smacks of bullying. Haven't we learnt anything? I would say this kind of thing could hurt your business.
"I wouldn't want to support anyone who takes this kind of stance. Not nice people, not nice."
Another commented: "Poor James Corden - these vile creatures have got their teeth into you now for making a mistake.
"Who will be their next victim I wonder. Some people are so cruel and have nothing better to do than tear the flesh of your bones."
Staff were forced to post in the comments that it was a joke, writing: "It was a joke based off a recent news story to make some of our customers chuckle, of course he's not really banned. Sorry if it upset you no offence intended."
Anthony Murphy, director of the Beefy Boys still has no regrets regarding the joke posts and says, the company’s focus is on ‘'cooking burgers, not starting a culture war'.
"I think 99% of people got it. We cook burgers, it was just an off-hand comment. I'd rather be talking to you about the burgers we make than James Corden to be honest.” Anthony said.
"We saw this story and [made the post]as light-hearted fun, to make our customers laugh. We're fully aware that James Corden probably has zero interest in visiting a burger restaurant in Hereford or Shrewsbury.”
Some were able to see the light-hearted joke for what it was .
One wrote: "Can't believe anyone's being offended by this, clearly a light-hearted joke and it's working because I'm really craving a Macaroni boy and a boozy bisc OFF milkshake."
Another commented: "All these saying [it's] bullying.... Are people not allowed to have an opinion of someone anymore?
"There is no abuse, discrimination or offensive language do [so] what is the problem here. All these self entitled snowflakes. Get a grip!"
Soon after the New York eatery row, James admitted to being 'ungracious' during the incident that occurred earlier this month on a recent episode of The Late Late Show and has apologised.
