A video showing TV star David Walliams laughing at a joke about him taking home drunk 15-year-olds has resurfaced in the wake of explosive sexual misconduct allegations against the British comedian.

The video — filmed more than two decades ago — has come back into the spotlight following a joint investigation by ITN and The Guardian into the bestselling children’s author’s behaviour.

WATCH THE FOOTAGE IN THE VIDEO PLAYER ABOVE

The 55-year-old was unmasked on Tuesday after he lost his bid to secure an injunction preventing the media outlets from publishing details about alleged historical sexual misconduct involving underage girls.

The investigation found several women had come forward with allegations of assault and harassment, including one alleged victim who claimed Walliams “groomed” her and allegedly kissed her in an alleyway in central London when she was 15 and he was 36.

The outlets also claimed Walliams abused his fame by letting young fans into his dressing room.

Just one day after he was revealed as the celebrity at the centre of the investigation, a clip from the 2004 British Comedy Awards has resurfaced showing TV chat show host Jonathan Ross opening the show with a vile joke about Walliams.

“The comedy awards is 15 years old - 15 years old! And like most 15-year-olds, it’s drunk, it’s unpredictable and it’s probably going home with David Walliams.”

The comment is met with a roar of laughter from the room full of celebrities – including Walliams – who responds with an ‘up yours’ gesture, causing more laughter from the crowd.

The joke, which features in the joint investigation, was not written by Ross, who told The Mirror on Tuesday that it had been submitted by script writers.

“I recognise how deeply shocking it is to revisit footage of a joke delivered by me at the Comedy Awards in 2004, in which I make light of the notion of Walliams going home with a 15 year old,” he told the outlet.

“This joke was submitted to me by the Comedy Awards script writing team and I believed that the punchline was a reference to the fact he had publicly dated younger women, exaggerated for comic effect.

“It is also a tasteless joke that I would not dream of making today about anyone, but that is beside the point.”

Walliams has denied all wrongdoing and allegations against him.

In a letter addressed to the journalists working on the investigation, Walliams, who has also been dropped by his publishers, HarperCollins, said: “I am not a sexual predator… I have not broken the law.”

“I am devastated that some of the women I met ten to twenty years ago have now expressed hurt or anger towards me.

“Looking back, I realise that at times I behaved thoughtlessly towards other people I had casual sexual relationships with . . . I realise I did not always take people’s feelings properly into account. That is something I regret.

“And whilst a power imbalance is inevitable when one party is famous, abusing that power is something else entirely and it is something that I never did.”