The Project Make Headlines Thanks To John Lydon

Hugely popular Channel Ten current affairs/light entertainment hybrid The Project had the distinct honour of interviewing John Lydon – aka Johnny Rotten – one of punk rock's most iconic figures last night. It was interesting to say the least.

After the interview a member of the panel called Lydon “a sexist, misogynist pig” and fans of the show were quick to express outrage at Lydon's behaviour on social media through the evening after it aired.

We're not sure why The Project had the former Sex Pistols frontman on the air, we doubt it was to spruik the Public Image Limited tour he's currently in the country for and suspect it was because he's a bit of a character and because Margaret Thatcher, who Lydon has been opposed to for decades, had just passed.

“Bad press is my own sport,” Lydon says roughly two minutes into the chat, giving the camera a cheeky raised eyebrow. It's from here that you can sense there's something brewing, and surely The Project did as well; I mean, this is Johnny Rotten they're talking to after all.

It finally comes after Carrie Bickmore drops in a question about the death of Margaret Thatcher, a topic Lydon has been unwilling to talk about in the press in the almost 24 hours since it happened.

“Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up,” Lydon retorts childishly, getting a good, hearty laugh from the panel. “Now listen, when a man is talking, do not interrupt.”

Australia gets their tweeting fingers ready.

“You sound like one of those dreadful loud birds I don't like,” Lydon adds, running further down the same track that has gotten such a hearty response.

“That's really offensive,” Bickmore says. And fair enough too.

“You be polite,” interjects Lydon oafishly. “So are you when you do that, you gotta learn what manners and respect is.”

Then the clincher, Lydon stares deep into the camera, poses like a WWF wrestler and brags:

“And I'm Johnny fuckin' Rotten and I'm telling you the truth.”

He's Johnny fuckin' Rotten. He's not a political pundit, he's not a social commentator – he's a rock star, he's a brand, he's someone who has quite literally made his living out of being a not-very-nice person.

Last night he was not very nice to the people on The Project and here we are talking about it.

“Big Bird is dead; so what?” And so ends Lydon's thoughts on Margaret Thatcher. Do you think he could have given us anything more illuminating than that, really?

Lydon goes a little off the rails from here, we're sure his earpiece was too loud and we all know that The Project hosts do love to speak VERY LOUDLY, but it begins to look petty. Perhaps he sensed he was being a bit harsh focusing his rudeness on Bickmore and decided to spread it out among the rest of the panellists.

Lydon then throws what appears to be a Nazi salute while referring to himself as a master of the universe, it's ugly, but – do we need to keep saying this? – it's Johnny Rotten.

But, rather than ride with the prickly subject, the panel sees his pettiness and raises him, Dave Hughes deciding to call the interview off abruptly.

Sadly, the truly offensive parts of the interview are yet to come.

After time has been called on the interview, Charlie Pickering gives a half-arsed plug to the forthcoming PiL dates

“Tickets are still on sale,” he mutters.

“Don't bother,” says a male voice off camera.

Don't bother? Because he upset your sensibilities? Fuck you, mate. Would you be more inclined to recommend people go and see PiL if Johnny Rotten was polite to you?

“I went along with it at first because 'bad press is his thing'. Well his thing ain't funny and it's damn rude,” Bickmore whinges, getting a massive cheer from the crowd (who goes to watch this shit live anyway?).

“There's a difference between being controversial and just being rude,” she says.

Well, Ms Bickmore, not always. Rudeness and controversy have gone hand in hand since the dawn of time and will continue to do so. The fact that the rudeness is directed at you might be hurtful, but that doesn't make it any worse than when he took aim at any number of journalists over the past three decades.

Read our interview with John Lydon here. He was really nice, for what it's worth.

UPDATE: John Lydon has issued the following statement: “I am the enemies of governments and institutions, certainly not women. I've been married to one for 30 years. We love each other.”