BBC fires host over racist 'gag' comparing royal baby to a chimp

The BBC fired a broadcaster for tweeting out a "stupid unthinking gag" comparing the royal baby to a chimpanzee.

The now-deleted tweet by 5 live presenter Danny Baker shows an image of a couple holding hands with a chimpanzee wearing clothing, captioned, "Royal Baby leaves hospital," reported the BBC.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex welcomed a baby son, named Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor, this week, and the BBC swiftly sacked Baker over his racist jab at the infant, whose grandmother Doria Ragland is African-American.

"This was a serious error of judgement," the corporation said in a statement. "Danny's a brilliant broadcaster but will no longer be presenting a weekly show with us."

Baker faced immediate backlash on Twitter, and he deleted the post and issued something like an apology.

"Sorry my gag pic of the little fella in the posh outfit has whipped some up. Never occurred to me because, well, mind not diseased," Baker said. "Soon as those good enough to point out its possible connotations got in touch, down it came. And that's it."

He insisted he thought the image was so funny he would have used it to welcome any celebrity's baby.

"Would have used same stupid pic for any other Royal birth or Boris Johnson kid or even one of my own," Baker tweeted. "It's a funny image. (Though not of course in that context.) Enormous mistake, for sure. Grotesque."

The 61-year-old Baker has been fired three times by the BBC, and this was the second time he was dropped from 5 live.