Was This Joe? Research ahead of the return of Joe Lycett’s show reveals what the public thought was “Joe”

We’ve all had our suspicions as to what stories Joe Lycett has planted with the media - even here at NationalWorld, we speculated about two stories that we thought were just a little too “odd” to be true. 

It turns out that you, the news-reading public also, have your suspicions as to what was a real news story and what was planted by Joe Lycett and his team after the comedian took to social media last week to announce not only the return of his Friday evening show on Channel 4, but to tune in to find out what the stories were that he planted. 

Research undertaken by the team at SpinGenie studied the hashtag Lycett told X (formerly Twitter) users to use if they think it was a story he planted, “#isthisjoe,” and looked at the number of views those stories have had. 

Was it H from Steps getting a bronze statue in the area he grew up in that had people thinking it was Joe, or could potentially the tale of a hedgehog rescued, only to discover it was a bobble from a hat be another of Lycett’s “fake news”?

What did the public think were stories planted by Joe Lycett?

The post which has received the highest number of views talks about an article claiming that Paul McCartney prevented a charity auction from using some artwork featuring him as it was deemed "too unflattering". 

The post has amassed nearly a million views and it has been hinted that this story could be one that was planted by comedian Joe Lycett, who posted a video of himself watching the story being discussed on “Have I Got News for You.” McCartney himself has stated that he has never seen the artwork in question, leading to the possibility that the story could indeed be the work of Lycett.

At the same time, however, many people have thought that the entire “Willy’s Chocolate Experience” saga that unfolded in Glasgow was too good to be true and just the right side of surreal that it could have very well been a Joe Lycett stunt. 

So what was real and what was Joe? We’ll find out tonight as “Late Night Lycett” returns to Channel 4 at 10pm this evening (April 12 2024)

The ten news stories the public thought were planted by Joe Lycett (views in bracket)

1. Artwork banned by Paul McCartney heading to auction (916,000)
2. Willy's Chocolate Experience (472,000 )
3. Iceland faces backlash after Christian symbol on hot cross buns replaced with ticks (72,000)
4. National Trust defends scone recipe after 'secretly' making it vegan (63,000)
5. North Korea TV censors Alan Titchmarsh's trousers (52,000)
6. Jennifer Lopez to produce Bob the Builder movie (36,000)
7. Woman 'nurses stricken baby hedgehog' overnight only to 'discover' it was a fluffy hat bobble (32,000)
8. Gesture eggs: Cadbury outlet store criticised over Easter rebrand (26,000)
9. Mystery over park bench memorial plaque paying tribute to cheating husband (24,000)
10. Is 'H' from Steps really getting his own statue in Cowbridge? (23,000)