Frankie Boyle has hit back following reports he caused upset with a string of jokes about the coronavirus pandemic.

The Scottish comedian – known for his near-the-knuckle approach to comedy – has shared a string of Twitter posts in the last few days poking fun at the outbreak, many of which received a lukewarm response from his some of his followers.

Among the tweets in question was one joking about a “campaign to get Big Ben to bong when we reach a million dead”, and another in which he wrote about Boris Johnson’s recent hospitalisation.

“Of course I’m very glad that Boris Johnson didn’t die in hospital,” he said. “But I would like to see clawed hands rise from a vent in the ground and drag his living body into Hell.”

On Monday, The Independent ran a piece with the headline “Frankie Boyle condemned for ‘sick’ coronavirus death toll jokes”, which included responses branding his comments “sick” and “definitely not a subject to joke about”.

Although he didn’t refer to any media outlet in particular, Frankie then tweeted: “I feel sorry for journalists trawling through replies to find a few negative responses to a tweet to pad out an article.

“Perhaps Twitter should introduce some system that let us know whether a tweet was popular or not.”

Shortly before this, he had tweeted: “Having Twitter has probably done a lot to combat our sense of isolation, by reminding us that other people are a fucking nightmare.”

HuffPost UK has contacted Frankie Boyle’s agent for further comment.

Frankie’s comedy has landed him in hot water in the past, including jokes at the expense of Olympic swimmer Rebecca Adlington and people with Down’s syndrome.

His most famous controversy probably came in 2011, when Ofcom ruled he had breached their guidelines with a joke about Katie Price’s then-eight-year-old son Harvey.