The Big Fat Quiz of the Year 2012 which starred Jimmy Carr, Richard Ayoade, Russell Howard, Jonathan Ross, Jack Whitehall, James Cordon and Gabby Logan was rebuked by the newspaper for its “countless vile sexual jokes”.  

Gavin and Stacey star James Cordon, 34, and his team mate, comedian Jack Whitehall, 24, came under particular fire from the newspaper for appearing to “drink a bottle of wine each on screen” and for trading “obscene jokes about Obama, the Queen and Susan Boyle”.

Ofcom, an independent communications regulator in the UK, had received just five complaints by the time the Mail went to print, but would not confirm how many complaints had been made in total so far.

A Channel 4 spokesman told The Mail: “Big Fat Quiz of the Year is a well-established comedic and satirical review of the year’s events with well-known guests and is broadcast after the watershed with appropriate warnings.”

Twitter users took to the internet in force to mock the paper’s hypocrisy for re-printing full versions of the “more vulgar” jokes which it had found offensive.

In 2010 the Mail brought a similar tirade of criticism upon itself after it slated ex-Radio 1 DJ Chris Moyles for making “fat jokes” about Gossip singer Beth Ditto.

However, readers were quick to point out that the Mail had previously published pictures of the singer themselves along with the headline: “Warning: This May Hurt Your Eyes”.