Football star Paul Merson appeared to hit out at Strictly Come Dancing bosses over his dances on the show as fans fume he is becoming the ‘joke’ contestant
Paul Merson made digs at Strictly Come Dancing as fans fumed he’s been made to do “joke” dances.
The football icon, 56, took aim at the BBC dance competition while addressing his experience on the show so far. He has been paired with professional dancer Karen Hauer, but have sadly remained near the bottom of the leaderboard. Last week, Paul was finally given a ballroom dance as they received their highest score yet.
They had previously performed to football anthem Vindaloo, danced around a fake barbecue to Pitball’s Fireball and rode on giant plastic horses. Despite sharing his wish to perform more ballroom-style dances, it was confirmed minutes later that he will be doing a Salsa to the disco track Car Wash this weekend.
During an appearance on Strictly spin-off show It Takes Two, Paul was asked by host Janette Manrara “what it meant to him” to get his highest score yet. Paul said: “It was amazing just to get a nice dance. Obviously a barbecue and Vindaloo and Football’s Coming Home and looking like someone who works on a ship… yeah, it was nice to dance. I thought Karen deserved that as well, to be fair to her.”
In a dig at his past routines, Paul added: “I felt more comfortable. It was just nice. When I first took up the chance to come on the show, this was what I thought it would be roughly. Do you know what I mean? It was nice to get one of those dances in. Before, I just thought of Fred Astaire and I couldn’t see him dancing to Vindaloo.”
Host Janette asked: “So you feel like you’ve got your proper whole Strictly experience under your belt now?” Making another dig, Paul quipped: “Now it’s back to reality again this week.” Karen seemed to echo Paul’s feelings, as she said: “It’s what Strictly’s about. When you have your top hat, you have your beautiful glamorous dresses. This is what people tune in at times to see.”
Janette revealed Paul and Karen will be performing a Samba to 1976 hit Car Wash by Rose Royce. Fans shared Paul’s frustration as they hit out at him performing “joke” dances. Posting on X, one fan said: “It makes me annoyed to see Paul & Karen talking about how much he loved being Fred Astaire during the quickstep and that’s what he always expected #strictly to be, not the silly stuff. And then this week they have a samba to Car Wash, back to being the joke again.”
Another added: “The whole vibe of this interview has been ‘ooh yeah it’s great doing proper ballroom’, I’m so cross they’re now making Paul do the samba.” Someone else commented: “He’s quite right….They need to stop all theses stupid dances they give to ex sports people. It’s embarrassing and never works properly. Paul’s dance was far better with the correct music and outfit.”
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