Graham Norton has stopped "roasting" celebrities because he doesn't think viewers enjoy "that sort of comedy".

Graham Norton

Graham Norton

The 58-year-old star has opened up on his decision to stop poking fun at people in the limelight, and he explained his writers won't let him make quips about people he's already met.

Speaking on Radio 4's 'Home Stretch', he said: "It is that thing where you can do jokes about anyone until you meet them and then, they are quite nice, fun, or a nice person.

"And then you go back and the writers are going, 'No, you met, now we cannot do jokes about them anymore.'

"And I think that sort of comedy at the moment is not popular. That idea of roast jokes.

"It is not now. And I don't think an audience has an appetite for those jokes anymore."

The 'Graham Norton Show' host previously opened up about his own on-screen persona and described it as a "turbo charged version" of the real him.

He explained: "That's an amped-up version of me, because I feel I ought to make an effort on telly. If I was like that all the time, it would be quite annoying.

"It's very hard to sustain if it's nothing like you. Years ago I remember Dolly Parton telling me that.

"She said, ‘Pick a persona that’s pretty close to you, otherwise life becomes difficult’. So mine is basically me, but turbo-charged."

And Graham opened up on the dangers of social media and insisted it has given people "a weird way to shout at the television" without the negativity being kept private.

He added: "I don't think we’re any crueller or nicer than we’ve ever been. I just think that social media has given us a weird way to shout at the television so that the person on the television hears you. And that can't be good for anyone.

"Ultimately Twitter in particular has to do something, because it's like a neighbourhood. If it's rough and dangerous, people move out and it becomes a no-go area."


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