Simon Cowell walked off Thursday’s Britain’s Got Talent live show when ventriloquist Jimmy Tamley tried to make him dance live on air.
Jimmy’s semi-final performance again saw him use face masks to turn the judges in to human dummies.
He called Simon and David Walliams to stage and fitted them with comedy mouths, which he controlled using a remote.
‘Snuggly Simon’ became a puppet for David, who was instructed to “put your hand up his back”.
Things became awkward, however, when Jimmy claimed that “Snuggly Simon likes to do can-can dancing”.
He encouraged both judges to perform the dance, but as David went to link arms, Simon refused to take part.
Jimmy then tried to get him moving by reaching for his leg – and that was the last straw for the Syco boss.
The audience booed heavily as he walked off backstage, removing his mask along the way.
Jimmy brushed off the setback and carried on, saying: “We’re gonna finish off by getting in the box.”
In character as David, he added: “Will you do that with me Simon?”
At this point, Simon returned to the stage, and they both ducked in to a giant crate – with a label reading ‘ship to David’s bedroom’.
Jimmy ended by making the comedian say: “Simon, I think it’s time we came out the closet together!”
Back at the judges’ desk, Amanda Holden and Alesha Dixon were in stitches at what they’d seen.
“Why couldn’t you have just used Ant and Dec?!” exclaimed Alesha.
“You are very funny. It’s like when your boss is forced at the Christmas party to get up and do some dancing!” Amanda joked.
Simon, meanwhile, was absolutely mortified.
“When the credits roll later on, you’re gonna see the names of the people who produce this show,” he said.
“When you read about them being murdered in two days’ time, I’m gonna admit I’m the person [who did it].
“You know who you are. Nigel, Charlie, Sam… thanks for that, I really appreciate it!”
Reacting to the unexpected turn of events, Jimmy revealed: “I’ve never had anybody walk off before, that’s a new one.”
In the results show, Jimmy didn’t make it into the top two as instead magician Ben Hart and singer Mark McMullan went through to the final.
Britain’s Got Talent continues tomorrow night at 7.30pm on ITV with the last semi-final.
