Kent comic Lee Hurst has caused controversy once again, this time with a tweet about young Brits queuing for Covid jabs so they can go on holiday.

Two days after June 6, the 77th anniversary of the D-Day landings of the Second World War as part of Operation Overlord, he teased his 16,500 followers with: "1940: Young Brits refusing to give in to Nazis. 2021: Young Brits queuing up for jabs so they can go on holiday."

But the quip has not gone down well in the twittersphere and was soon "trending" over social media.

Gleāwhȳdig replied: "1990- Lee Hurst is not funny. 2021- Lee Hurst is still not funny."

Andy D added: "1985: Lee Hurst on TV. 2021: Lee Hurst crawling through cesspits for comedy material."

Walter the Ugandan Goat waded in with: "Lee, I respect every single solider who fought in ww2 but that comparison cannot be made. There is no world-wide conflict happening. This is their war now, fighting a disease that kills, they are doing that and have done for the past year and more."

Si N Neat Tomlinson commented: "An old has-been comedian trying to be relevant and funny and failing on both accounts. Happens."

Irtapil asked: "I don't even get it? What should they do in 2021? Fight each other to be vaccinated first? Bravely avoid a simple health chore?"

Today (Wednesday) the comic, who lives between Sittingbourne and Faversham, retaliated with a foul-mouthed reply. We have taken out the expletives.

Referring to his initial tweet he wrote: "This one has them all thinking they’re heroes because they are taking a vaccine they don’t need from a Tory Morlock of a PM they are tacitly supporting.

"They are the meltiest, thickest bunch of self-justifying, deluded, propaganda guzzlers to ever crawl on earth."

Somebody called The Human asked: "Why compare the young people of the 1940s to the young people now?Maybe, just maybe, if there was a war they would step up. Do we know what people your age in the 30s thought of the youth then until they were sent to fight and die?"

A chap called John added: "As your audience gets smaller and smaller you’re starting to say weirder and weirder stuff and I actually respect that, in a way."

Hurst is no stranger to controversy. The 6ft 2in comedian was suspended by Twitter in March after making an "offensive" remark about 18-year-old activist Greta Thunberg.

He also caused a media storm in October last year by tweeting that he had refused to wear a face mask while shopping at a Morrisons supermarket and upsetting Piers Morgan.

The London-born comedian's main claim to fame was being a panellist on the TV quiz show They Think It's All Over. He ran a series of stand-up comedy nights across Kent including venues in Faversham and Sittingbourne before the pandemic.

Back in 2017 he told Kent Online that his mother and sister both lived on the Isle of Sheppey.

"I don’t follow any ideology and I’m not left wing or right wing and I’m not in the centre. I just float between the two."

He recalled: "We used to have a chalet in Leysdown years ago. We used to go down there for holidays and in the mid-70s we purchased one.

"It was a big thing to go down there for the weekend from the East End. Then my parents saw these houses going up in Minster and my dad really wanted one.

"I moved near Sittingbourne about 18 months ago."

He added: "I don’t follow any ideology and I’m not left wing or right wing and I’m not in the centre. I just float between the two. But I sometimes see things and think 'that’s wrong, I don’t agree with that'."

In 2018 he also spoke movingly about his night of terror when police chased him from Sittingbourne to Sheppey after he had a row about his father's medical care at Sittingbourne Memorial Hospital.

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