Manchester United legend Roy Keane is notoriously tough to impress – just watch the coverage of any Sky Sports Super Sunday and great goals, important saves and ingenius pieces of skill are met with, “Well, that’s his job”.
So when Manchester United supporter Justin Moorhouse received the ultimate praise from Keane at one of his stand-up shows, the elation was palpable.
Moorhouse, who famously played a Manchester City fan called Young Kenny in Peter Kay’s Phoenix Nights, has acutally followed the red half of Manchester his entire life. The 54-year-old was a young adult during the club’s era of domination in England, watching Keane and his team-mates win games week after week at Old Trafford.
Manchester United supporter gets a laugh from Roy Keane
When FourFourTwo asks which player from Manchester United’s past or present would make the best comedian, though, Moorhouse surprisingly suggests that Keane would give it a good go.
“Bryan Robson was quick-witted, and Roy Keane might be very good,” Moorhouse says. “I mean, would anyone try to heckle Roy Keane?
“Roy came to see me doing stand-up, actually. I didn’t even know he was there at first – it was a fundraiser at my daughter’s school and his daughter went there, too. He walked over afterwards and said I was very funny. I thought, ‘Cheers!’
“My daughter said that her pal told her, ‘My dad thought your dad was really funny, and he must have been funny as Dad doesn’t laugh at anything.'”
Moorhouse continues, explaining the reasoning behind his character in Phoenix Nights ending up as a Manchester City fan.
“People think I’m a City fan because I wore a City shirt on that,” Moorhouse adds. “Nobody ever thinks that David Tennant has got two hearts, or considers that I was just acting!
VIDEO: Why Angel Gomes Is The EXACT Player England Have Been Missing
‘Costume said to me, ‘You’re going to wear a football shirt; who do you support?’ I told them United, so they said they’d get me a United shirt. I said, ‘This character is a bit of a knobhead – I think he’s more of a City fan than a United fan.’ That was it: I wore the shirt and it’s been a thing ever since.
“I went to a Phoenix Nights fundraiser once and people had come dressed as the characters. I saw this bloke dressed like me, with the right City shirt on, the right trainers, the right tracksuit – everything. His wife was in a wheelchair, dressed as Brian Potter. I said, ‘This is incredible! Look at the detail: you even brought a wheelchair!’ He said, ‘No, no, she’s in a wheelchair all the time.’ Very awkward…”
