Liam Payne And Louis Tomlinson ‘Fight’ Furore Is A Big Joke

Liam Payne is renowned as being the most outspoken member of One Direction. Payne has fallen foul of speaking his mind on a few occasions in the recent past, and sometimes the criticism that comes Liam’s way may be justified. On other occasions, criticism of Payne borders on ridiculous hysteria. As reported by the Inquisitr, the tabloids and the internet went crazy when it was widely reported that Liam had lost his temper with band-mate Louis Tomlinson.

The story broke after a fan posted a video, which apparently shows Liam and Louis getting a bit hot under the collar with each other during One Direction’s show in Manchester last weekend. Liam appears to shove Louis and also appears to be shouting at him. You can see the so-called spat in the video below.

https://youtu.be/3JvlRoGMN6k

Both Payne and Tomlinson brushed off the “fight,” stating that they were fooling around. As Yahoo! Celebrity reports, Liam and Louis, and indeed the rest of One Direction, are renowned for fooling around on stage. Water fights and general tomfoolery are an integral part of a One Direction show, and a spokesperson for Liam and Louis denied that there was anything other than horseplay involved.

When the story broke, Liam gave the impression that he was more than a little annoyed by the constant ill-informed gossip that surrounds everything that One Direction members do. Liam took to Twitter to tell his 21 million followers that he was messing around and “having a joke with a friend.”

http://t.co/kFvOwC1EOI …
OH MY GOD THATS SO OUTRAGEOUS HOW DARE I HAVE A JOKE WITH A FRIEND ON STAGE

— Liam (@LiamPayne) October 5, 2015

For his part, Louis also made light of the “incident” on twitter by calling out Liam who responded by challenging him to an arm wrestle.

@Louis_Tomlinson don't start me man ima bout to see you in like 4 minutes … Arm wrestle?yo face

— Liam (@LiamPayne) October 7, 2015

J-14 reports that Louis also later posted a shot of himself and Liam “squaring up” to each other on his Instagram feed. In the picture, the two stars are nose-to-nose and Louis captions the shot with a warning to Payne that he should “watch his back.”

https://instagram.com/p/8jnsY7r4Za/

It is hard to deny that a genuine onstage fight between Liam and Louis would be big news. Liam, Louis, and band mates Niall Horan and Harry Styles have clean cut image. An image that has been very carefully cultivated by Simon Cowell and Syco. Perhaps the most remarkable thing about One Direction since Cowell brought them together as a group during the 2010 season of X-Factor is that there has been an almost total lack of scandal.

Given that the members of One Direction live their lives under the microscope of publicity, it is astounding that there has been a total lack of scandal. Sure, Tomlinson and former band-mate Zayn Malik smoked a joint. Styles dates a lot of women. Payne has been accused of being homophobic because of poor choice of words when he introduced a song. Horan has criticized some fans for “stalking” the boys and refusing them even an illusion of privacy.

Liam and Louis have lived in each others pockets almost constantly for five years. They have played over 500 shows together, traveled the world together four times, and made hundreds of promotional appearances together. The fact is that Tomlinson, Payne, Styles, and Horan have spent more time with each other than with anyone else on earth. Payne and Tomlinson are as close to each other as they are to their families, perhaps closer. Liam and Louis are like siblings in many respects.

Here is the big news. Siblings fight, they have cross words and sometimes they annoy each other. Big deal. It would be big news if Louis and Liam didn’t snap at each other occasionally. They engage in a lot of horseplay and occasionally horseplay gets out of hand. That is why reports of a fight between Liam Payne and Louis Tomlinson is a big joke.

[Photo by Stuart C. Wilson/Getty Images]