Dapper Laughs insists: 'Dapper Laughs is gone'

The performer behind the Dapper Laughs act says he has killed off the character after a series of events which saw his ITV2 series axed and a nationwide tour cancelled.

Dapper Laughs, whose real name is Daniel O'Reilly, garnered a huge social media audience - 1.7m Facebook likes, 595,000 Vine followers and 365,000 Twitter followers - thanks to his brand of lad-culture humour.

But earlier this month more than 50,000 people signed an online petition calling on ITV2 to not commission another series of his dating show Dapper Laughs: On The Pull.

The campaign criticised the performer's "misogynistic views" and "normalising" of sexism.

He was also filmed at a London gig telling an audience member she was "gagging for a rape".

The pressure led to ITV taking the decision not to renew his TV series and operator Academy Music Group scrapping the remaining dates of his nationwide tour.

Now he has told BBC's Newsnight that "Dapper Laughs is gone".

And he has admitted that the Dapper Laughs brand of humour was "a type of comedy that I should not have been doing".

With a radically different appearance to his Dapper Laughs look, he told Newsnight:

Asked what Dapper Laughs does now, the performer replied: "Dapper Laughs is gone."