Gemma Collins’ time on ITV’s hit celebrity ice-skating contest has been well documented by both the tabloid press and by social media. Over the past few weeks we’ve heard tales of laziness, lack of commitment and diva-like strops from behind the scenes. This all came to a head last week when, following a somewhat safe performance of Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend, the GC called out judge Jason Gardiner for allegedly selling stories about her to the press, something that Jason himself has since denied.

This weekend however, Gemma managed to go one better and fell over spectacularly during her routine. Twitter immediately exploded in a way that only Twitter could – memes were made, gifs were created and lots of people rushed to rewind their recording devices in order to share the moment for all to see via some badly-filmed phone footage.

Of course someone falling over is going to raise a few laughs. If it didn’t, You’ve Been Framed wouldn’t still be a thing after all. But when you’re laughing at somebody suffering an unfortunate fall in such circumstances, chances are you’re laughing because of what they’ve just done and not because of who they are and what they look like. Remember Total Wipeout? Watching the contestants trying to cross the big red balls all in one go and ultimately failing was hilarious. We didn’t watch because we wanted people to succeed. We watched because we wanted to see people fall flat on their face.

So how is Gemma Collins’ fall on Dancing on Ice any different to that? Well in many ways it’s no different at all. Watching anybody fall flat on their face, especially someone who’s in the public eye is always going to raise a few guilty smiles.

But the reaction on Twitter was about as far away from a bit of gentle piss-taking as you could imagine. Checking into Twitter on Sunday-evening on felt like stumbling into a meet-up group for the crème de la crème of keyboard warriors. Every single one of them eager to stick the boot into the GC for anything other than her ability to ice-skate. Most went down the obvious route of targeting Gemma for her size. I saw one particular tweet that claimed the reason she had fallen over is because she was a “fat mess”. Another suggested that her fall had “caused an earthquake”, while a third proclaimed that “her fall had resulted in the ice cracking.”

These comments, and thousands more like it are wholly unfair and un-necessary. Gemma’s fall had absolutely nothing to do with her body weight and everything to do with a lack of ability and sheer bad luck. I wonder, would the Twitter trolls be so quick to target any of the other skaters in such a way if the same incident had happened to them? Would people be laughing or jeering at the likes of Jane Danson or Saara Alto in the same way if they fell, calling them out for their appearance and mocking them for their size? I doubt it.

Body-shaming is not funny, no matter who it is. Whether you’re mocking someone in the office for being as thin as a rake or you’re taking to social media to laugh at a celebrity for falling over during a TV show. Laugh at them for their lack of ability. Pull them up for their poor attitude and egotistical nature. But don’t laugh at them for their size or their appearance just to make you feel better about your own lack of decent credentials.