Frankie Boyle’s most outrageous moments ahead of his Scotland tour this autumn

"Disgracefully foul", a "cowardly bully" and "puerile" are just three compliments Frankie Boyle's critics have thrown at him over the years, with MPs, disability charities and Katie Price among his most vocal detractors.

Frankie Boyle is currently embarking on a tour of Scotland

The Scottish comedian, famed for a pitch black, boundary-pushing brand of humour, has rarely been far from controversy since his first appearance on BBC panel show Mock the Week.

With the Glasgow-born comedian currently embarking on an extensive tour of Scotland, we've delved into some of the most controversial and outrageous moments from his career.

The Queen has been the subject of some of Boyle's cruder jokes (Getty Images)

The infamous Queen joke

The Royal Family have long been a favoured target of Boyle - and in 2008 the comic drew the ire of MP David Davis, among others, for a joke at the Queen's expense.

During an episode of Mock the Week the red-headed comic impersonated Elizabeth II, joking: "I've had a few medical problems this year. I am now so old, that my p***y is haunted."

The comment attracted widespread criticism, with Davis labelling Boyle "disgracefully foul" and encouraging viewers to pay for their BBC licence fees at the last minute as a form of protest.

Conservative MP David Davies took exception to a joke made by Frankie Boyle on panel show Mock the Week (Getty Images)

The BBC Trust eventually cleared Boyle of any misconduct but the committee admitted that the joke was both "sexist" and "ageist".

Rebecca Adlington spoon gag

Rebecca Adlington became the subject of another of Boyle's controversial jokes (Photo by John Phillips/Getty Images)

Boyle found himself in hot water again in 2008 when he was accused of bullying swimmer and Olympic gold medalist Rebecca Adlington.

Following the Beijing Olympics, Boyle quipped: "The thing that nobody really said about Rebecca Adlington is that she looks pretty weird. She looks like someone who's looking at themselves in the back of a spoon.

He continued: "And then, when she arrived back on the flight she met her boyfriend. Did you see her boyfriend? He was really attractive. He was like a male model. So from that I have deduced that Rebecca Adlington is very dirty – I mean if you just take into account how long she can hold her breath…"

Following the airing of the joke the BBC was inundated with complaints, while the BBC Trust ruled that Boyle's gag was "humiliating" and "offensive".

Comic Relief set binned

In 2013, the acerbic comic again landed himself in trouble with the BBC when he performed at the Russell Brand hosted Give It Up For Comic Relief.

The Duchess of Cambridge, Oscar Pistorius, Pope Benedict XVI and Jimmy Savile were all covered during a close-to-the-bone six-minute set that the broadcaster ultimately decided not to air.

The 47-year-old again targeted the Queen during the set, poking fun at her recent hospitalisation, stating: “I wish she’d died - because they wouldn’t have been able to tell anyone. They would have had to hollow out her body into a suit and fill it with helium.”

Tramadol Nights schizophrenia sketch

Boyle's Channel 4 sketch show Tramadol Nights arguably exhibited some of Boyle's most controversial material with one episode featuring use of racial slurs, though the broadcaster claimed that the comedian was satirising and ridiculing their use.

Boyle and Channel 4 also attracted criticism for a sketch which parodied an advert created by charity Rethink.

The original advert was titled Schizo and was created in the style of a trailer for a horror film, featuring a man explaining how he worked through his mental health problems.

Boyle, whose first job was in a mental health hospital, impersonated the unconventional advert, featuring a man talking about his mental health problems and how he worked through them before panning down to show a number of dead bodies covered in blood.

British famine tweet

You don't have to look back far to find controversy in Boyle's career.

The comedian found himself the subject of Twitter backlash when he jibed: "Brexit has many downsides but I think it will be nice for the Irish to watch a British famine".

One follower responded: "What would it say about us if we found that 'nice'?? I’d like to think most of us would be happy to share our 'spuds' with our British friends if such a horrible and thankfully unlikely, catastrophe ever were to occur."

Another stated: "Many British people's ancestors experienced that famine from the Irish side and had to leave Ireland and move to Britain. It was our famine too."

IRA joke

Earlier this year Boyle again drew scorn from the Conservative Party after he made a controversial joke about the IRA.

During an episode of Frankie Boyle's New World Order, he reflected on a summit of Conservative politicians in typical offensive form, asking: "Where the f**k are the IRA when you need them?"

Tory peer Lord Tebbit was among those who slated the comedian in the show's aftermath, telling the Belfast Telegraph: "The man should be banned from broadcasting on the BBC. What he said was highly offensive. IRA terrorist attacks are no laughing matter and the BBC shouldn't have him on television."

Frankie Boyle has tour dates in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dundee from 12 September to 2 October 2019. To find out more and book tickets, visit his website.