Controversial duo Right Said Fred. (Ralph Orlowski/Getty Images)
English pop band Right Said Fred are being relentlessly dragged online after their official X/Twitter account posted a photograph of a phone box that had been repurposed as a defibrillator.
The tweet, which has since been deleted, showed a phone box that had been retrofitted with a life-saving defibrillator– vital devices that apply an electric charge to restore a heartbeat in the case of cardiac arrest.
The caption read: “Phone boxes refurbed into defibrillators, what a time to be alive.” Followed by an “eye roll” emoji.
Right Said Fred are made up of brothers Fred Fairbrass and Richard Fairbrass; the band formed in 1989. They’re arguably best known for their July 1991 hit “I’m Too Sexy”, which peaked at number two in the charts. Richard came out as bisexual in 1991.
In recent years, the duo have faced various controversies. In September 2020, they were widely criticised – and mocked – for attending an anti-mask protest with COVID conspiracy theorists in London. They were also seen on subsequent anti-lockdown protests.
Richard Fairbrass ended up being hospitalised with COVID in 2021, but was still opposed to a vaccine.
In January 2022, the controversial group had to apologise and state that they “got it wrong” after sharing a livestream hosted by a prominent neo-Nazi, Mark Collett – the leader of fascist group Patriotic Alternative. Also on the livestream was former leader of the Ku Klux Klan David Duke, and a white supremacist writer.
The link was soon deleted, and a representative released a statement saying: “The boys share information they feel isn’t covered by the mainstream media, this is a rare example where the band got it wrong.”
The incident led to the band being nicknamed “Reich Said Fred” and also “Far Right Said Fred”.
Their defibrillator-as-example-of-wokeness tweet, also since deleted, understandably caused quite a bit of hilarity online, with a lot of people taking to X to joke about the duo’s post.
One person tweeted: “I love the idea of your man from Right Said Fred keeling over in the street and as people try and help him he croaks ‘Get that woke s**t away from me.’”
Another simply wrote: “Fellas is it woke to not die from cardiac arrest.”
A third referenced their history of anti-vaccination activism: “I think Right Said Fred are implying these public defibrillators are being installed because of the COVID vaccine. They’ve been around for over a decade.”
Others suggested that Right Said Fred were just sore that they’d lost a potential venue: “Of course Right Said Fred are upset at phoneboxes being repurposed, where will they hold their gigs now?”
In a reply to one of the many, many comments under the now-deleted tweet, @TheFreds attempted to clarify their stance, saying: “Only an unhealthy society needs these. That’s my point.”
Someone then screenshotted that reply and shared it, writing: “They believe only an unhealthy society needs these??? Then if you use that logic, then we don’t need hospitals and stuff then?”
It could all be worse, though. At least they’ve not offended Beyoncé again.