Maybe Russell Brand would have have been better off ripping into those Monty Python blokes.
The British comedian resigned Wednesday from his long-running BBC radio show after earning oodles of negative press for a series of raunchy prank phone calls he made to one of the former stars of the U.K.'s beloved Fawlty Towers.
"As I only do the radio show to make people laugh I've decided that, given the subsequent coverage, I will stop doing the show," Brand said in a videotaped apology.
"I got a bit caught up in the moment and forgot that, at the core of the rude comments and silly songs, were the real feelings of a beloved and brilliant comic actor and a very sweet and big-hearted young woman."
In a prerecorded bit made on Oct. 16, Brand and Radio 2 colleague Jonathan Ross left four lewd messages on 78-year-old actor Andrew Sachs' voicemail.
Even British Prime Minister Gordon Brown criticized the duo for their "inappropriate and unacceptable behavior."
Earlier today, BBC Director-General Mark Thompson announced that both Brand and Ross had been suspended. "This gross lapse of taste by the performers and the production team has angered license payers," he said. "I am determined that we satisfy them, that any lessons will be learnt and appropriate action taken."
Brand has been hosting his show on Saturday nights since 2006. Ross is the host of BBC One's Friday Night With Jonathan Ross and helms a Saturday morning show on Radio 2. Both have been pulled from the BBC's immediate schedule.
Brand, who made a scene-stealing splash as Kristen Bell's rock-star boyfriend in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, fell decidedly flat this summer when he hosted the MTV Video Music Awards. Something about the Jonas Brothers…