The new season of the Great British Bake Off has come under flour fire after host Noel Fielding posted a ‘tasteless’ photo of himself appearing to simulate sex with Paul Hollywood on Twitter.

Fielding, who is most famously known for surreal cult comedy The Mighty Boosh which he co-created and appeared in with alongside fellow comedian Julian Barratt from 2004-2007, took over presenting duties from fan favourites Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins when the Great British Bake Off moved channels from the BBC to Channel 4 last month.

This should put to rest any rumours that me and blue eyes @PaulHollywood don’t get on 🙂 ha ha ha x pic.twitter.com/BAfilTUnOf

— noel fielding (@noelfielding11) September 5, 2017

Fielding posted a picture of him bending over coyly while a grinning Paul Hollywood grasps his shoulders from behind, with the caption: “This should put to rest any rumours that me and blue eyes @PaulHollywood don’t get on 🙂 ha ha ha x.” to Twitter yesterday, ahead of this week’s episode.

Like many of Fieldings jokes, though, it didn’t really land and soon the comic found himself accused of making a joke of anal sex.

Hahaha yeah it’s funny because gays like bumming pic.twitter.com/PvyOmpGbb9

— Olly Barter (@OllyBarter) September 5, 2017

“I like you @noelfielding11, but you’ve got some growing up to do. I’d expect this of Paul (not that that’s ok) but not of you,” wrote one disappointed Fielding fan.

Other comments ranged from those criticising the show’s new line-up, to praising Fielding’s jumper (“I’m pretty sure @Zoella has this exact shirt!”) to obligatory jokes about ‘soggy bottoms’. The Tweet has currently 2,176 Retweets 11,638 Likes.

Doing it like that might lead to a soggy bottom!

— Robert Eburne (@RobertEburne) September 5, 2017

Despite Fielding’s valiant efforts at Twitter promotion, the viewing figures for the show are not as hardy as they were on the BBC.

The first series broadcast by Channel 4 last month opened with average viewing figures of 5.8 million (rising to 6.5 million to include those watching on Channel 4+1, according to Wikipedia) down from almost 16.03 million viewers who watched the show’s BBC finale in 2016.