Marty Sheargold has broken his silence on the scandal that saw him sacked from Triple M.
The comedian appeared on A Current Affair this week to reflect on the comments he made about the Matildas last February that ultimately saw him pulled from the air.
During a broadcast, the former radio host joked that he “would rather hammer a nail through the head of (his) penis” than watch the Matildas in the Asian Cup.
“Got any men’s sport?” he added.
The following day, he joked that endometriosis wasn’t real.
When asked on ACA whether he understands now why some people thought the joke wasn’t funny, the 54-year-old said: “Yeah, well, I accept that for some people, that’s what it was”.
“I accept that some people were genuinely offended by what I thought was a joke.”
“I get why people are offended,” he continued.
“You’ve got to be careful when you’re taking pot shots at women’s sport, particularly. Because I want young kids to dream and aspire to be part of those kinds of things.”
However, he then added that he wouldn’t “pay for a ticket and go and watch it myself, Steve”.
Later in the interview, the Fisk star said he was “playing a character” on the radio, and he didn’t necessarily believe the things he said.
“When I was in the radio, I was playing the character of Marty Sheargold,” he explained.
“People just think you are who you are when you turn up to work, and clearly, I’m, you know, not sitting at home telling my two daughters that endometriosis isn’t real.”
“I’m not a misogynist, and I’m not sexist, and I’m not whatever the other sort of, you know, commentary that was levelled at me.”
Despite losing a high-paying radio gig and having to return to stand-up, Marty says he doesn’t regret making his controversial comments.
“The comment itself? No,” he said. “The fallout from it? Yeah, but not for only me, but for the team that I was working in, for their reputations, you know, for the company,” he admitted.
“And for my kids. If I had any regrets, it would be the exit from the business, and also personally, the effect it had on the kids, for them to sort of have their dad be cancelled, as it were. That’s not a real badge of honour when you’re wandering around the playground, I wouldn’t have thought.”
In another bizarre moment in the interview, Marty revealed he was upset when Anthony Albanese slammed his comments because he thought they were friends.
“His office sent me a Christmas card, so I thought we were mates,” he said.
“Here you go, Albo. If you bring in hate speech legislation to change the tone of the conversation that’s taking part in Australia right now, then you need to go three doors up the hallway and stick your head into Pauline Hanson’s office and find out what’s going on in there. Clearly, you’re an intelligent bloke.”
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