Comedian Tom Gleeson says Darwin has stayed safe during the pandemic because it’s a ‘s**thole’ 

Tom Gleeson is known for making controversial comments. 

On Sunday, the comedian was in his usual form when appearing on The Sunday Project – calling Darwin and other cities, ‘s**tholes’. 

The 46-year-old, who is currently living in Darwin after fleeing Melbourne, revealed that he is embarking on a comedy tour in the Northern Territory, which has seen a low number of COVID-19 infections and faced less lockdown restrictions.

‘In the winter school holidays, I was in Sydney and visiting up there and then the lockdown kicked off in Victoria and so I just didn’t go back,’ he explained. 

Tom went on: ‘Now I’m in Darwin, I still get to tour, which is lucky, I’m here which is the safest place on Earth apparently. 

‘The Northern Territory did very well with COVID and so did Darwin and so did Adelaide and so did Canberra.  

‘So there is an upside to being a s**thole. It’s easy not to get a virus if no-one wants to visit,’ he concluded. 

Tom admitted that commenting negatively on the region he is about to tour may not go well for him once he’s on stage. 

‘I suspect this that evening’s show in Darwin is going to have some very sharp hecklers after they hear I called Darwin a s**hole on national TV,’ he said wryly. 

The Gold Logie-winning comedian added: ‘I expect them to be particularly combative!’ 

Last month, Tom poked fun at The Block after his ABC game show Hard Quiz beat the renovation program in the ratings.

Nine’s The Block pulled in just 744,000 viewers in the five-city metro market, while Hard Quiz was watched by 756,000.

The TV host shared a screenshot of the ratings from TV Tonight to Instagram and wrote: ‘Hard Quiz beat The Block!’