A joke by Hamish Blake at the expense of GPs has drawn the ire of the medical community and NSW MPs.
The esteemed comedian and presenter last week joked general medical practice was the highest-paying job he could do competently for a day.
"I do a lot of Googling medical issues and I have got now 20 years' experience of going to the GP," he said on his Hamish and Andy podcast.
The dual Gold Logie winner qualified the statement with the "greatest respect to (the) profession" and said he was not "s***ting on GPs here because they're very good and you do need to go to medical school".
The Lego Masters host said he would refer any serious cases such as breathing difficulties to emergency departments or other specialists.
But the joke fell flat in the medical community, general practitioner turned Greens MP Amanda Cohn said.
Amid a national shortage, she said it was not OK to "punch down on an exhausted, undervalued and essential workforce".
"The perception that GPs are somehow lesser doctors is widespread," she told NSW parliament on Wednesday.
"GPs know more about gynaecology than cardiologists, more about cardiology than orthopaedic surgeons, and more about orthopaedics than psychiatrists."
One rural GP contacted Dr Cohn to invite Blake to spend a day in her clinic to see first-hand the variety of complex and numerous presentations.
Other GPs had recalled instances of back pain turning out to be metastatic prostate cancer, reflux being a heart attack or a baby's fever being the early signs of meningitis, the Greens MP said.
Opposition MP Damien Tudehope later rose to recall his father delivering triplets as the GP overseeing a small rural hospital.
Upper house MPs later agreed to Dr Cohn's motion that dubbed Blake's comments "as ridiculous as thinking that being a frequent flyer equips you with the skills to fly an aircraft".
Blake, through Southern Cross Austereo, has been contacted for comment.
