The comedian admitted he used his humour as a defence mechanism in school, but that when they failed, he turned instead to the sweets in his hands.
He told The Sun: 'I tried to make people laugh so they wouldn't hit me. I hit someone with a packet of Polos once - he was the hardest bloke in the school. He wanted my sweets so I went, 'What am I going to do here?' - and I smacked him in the face with the Polos. I was a faster runner than him so I hid behind the dinner lady and he got so frustrated he started to cry. He was friends with me then.'