The 1975's Matty Healy called out for "problematic" coronavirus joke

18 March 2020, 14:41

By Jazmin Duribe

"We don't want your EP and zine bundle right now Laura, we're going to die."

Matty Healy is receiving backlash for making a "problematic" joke about not wanting to support bands during the coronavirus pandemic. According to NHS coronavirus advice, we should be practicing social distancing (reducing the social contact we have with each other), which has meant artists like Billie Eilish have postponed their tours.

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On Tuesday (Mar 17), The 1975 frontman urged people in indie bands to stop asking him for support on Twitter. He tweeted: "Stop telling people to support you, we don't want your EP and zine bundle right now Laura, we're going to die."

Matty was criticised for the joke and his name was soon trending on Twitter. A lot of artists, especially the smaller independent ones, rely on merch and tour sales for their income, having to cancel their tours because of the coronavirus pandemic can be extremely devastating for some and a joke like Matty's can only come from a place of privilege.

People called Matty – who is reportedly worth $15 million and is the son of actors Denise Welch and Tim Healy – out on Twitter.

Later, Matty said he had deleted the tweet incase anyone had been offended by it. However, he refused to apologise. He tweeted: "I deleted my joke incase anybody anywhere got offended.

"He added: "I’m not sorry I’m just bored."

Matty went on to clarify what he actually meant by his initial joke.

He continued: "It was a joke about the current narrative on social media NOT a serious comment on the economic status of aspiring artists – to make that jump is dramatic and ridiculous in my opinion and I’m not going to keep apologising about everything cos twitter says so."

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