When is International Men's Day? | Richard Herring has the answer... and will be raising thousands telling people

When is International Men's Day?

Richard Herring has the answer... and will be raising thousands telling people

Tomorrow is International Women’s Day – which means Richard Herring will repeat his annual ritual of sending countless tweets in answer to men who feel threatened by the global day of action.

Every March 8, thousands of Twitter users, mostly outraged that just one gender is being celebrated on this day, ask the question: ‘When is International Men’s Day?’

They expect no answer, as if to prove how unfair it all is, but Herring replies to as many as possible, telling them politely that International Men’s Day is November 19, as it has been since 1999.

The comic now gets sponsored for his Sisyphean task via this GoFundMe page, and last year his 225,000 Twitter followers raised more than £150,000 for domestic abuse charity Refuge. Already this year's total has topped £4,000

Herring said: ‘Last year, I was overwhelmed by the response to this piece of "polite trolling" and the amount of money raised.

‘But having performed this service for the last few years, I’m assuming that everyone will know when International Men’s Day is by now (it’s November 19 by the way), so I’m hoping to have a relatively quiet day. Though I’ve been saying that for the last five years and it’s just got worse if anything.’

Sandra Horley, chief executive at Refuge, said:  ‘We are absolutely thrilled to have Richard’s ongoing commitment to raising awareness and money for Refuge on International Women’s Day.  The money raised last year helped us to continue to run our life-saving and life-changing services.’

Dragons' Den star Duncan Bannatyne was one of the first to ask the predictable question, prompting many to tell him it was November 19.

After one woman told him he could have just googled it, the entrepreneur responded testily: 'Oh you poor sad demented woman. I did not need to do a quick google search. I was having a joke. Your sense of humour bypass has been very successful I see.'

• International Men’s Day is November 19.

Published: 7 Mar 2019

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