text: A 'blokey' joke book on sale at River Island containing an offensive joke about domestic violence has caused a Twitter storm prompting the high street brand to withdraw it from shelves. The 'Very Blokey Joke Book' by Jake Harris, which  was displayed in the high street brand's menswear department and is also available on Amazon, contains a quip about a man watching his wife being beaten up by friends. The 'Really Blokey Jokes' book by Jake Harris on sale at River Island (left) contains an offensive joke about domestic violence (right) A picture of the offensive joke was first tweeted by media commentator Tim Doble via @BetterThanToday who was shocked when he noticed the joke in the book on the shop floot . 'A man is watching his wife get beaten up by five men when the police arrive,' reads the joke. '"Why didn't you help?"' asks one stunned cop. "Five seemed enough," the man replied,' reads the offensive punchline. Shocked Twitter users branded the joke 'horrific' and 'staggeringly offensive' and demanded action from the clothing brand. A picture of the offensive joke was first tweeted by media commentator Tim Doble via @BetterThanToday who was shocked when he noticed the joke in the publication. 'Despicable!' was users response to the post, while another simply posted 'Wow!' Another shocked user @Lingonerd wrote: 'I hope River Island have have something to say about this!' 'This is horrific' agreed @Rozakthegoon while @JonathanMeres said: 'That really is quite staggeringly offensive. Wonder what River Island intend doing about it?' Satirical feminist commentators @VagendaMagazine posted: 'In case spaffing diamante over all their clothes wasn't enough of a reason not to shop there.' 'No words! Will be taking my money elsewhere,' agreed @Kitty_Patterson amongst others. One Twitter user @JonathanMeres wrote: 'That really is quite staggeringly offensive. Wonder what River Island intend doing about it?' 'No words! Will be taking my money elsewhere,' agreed user @Kitty_Patterson . Satirical feminist commentators @VagendaMagazine posted: 'In case spaffing diamante over all their clothes wasn't enough of a reason not to shop there' 'This is horrific' agreed @Rozakthegoon,a sentiment echoed by many . Within two hours of the first tweet being sent the brand posted an apology and confirmed they would be withdrawing the book from shelves. A River Island spokesperson confirmed to the MailOnline: 'River Island shares the concern expressed about this particular product. 'We removed the book from our stores as soon as it was brought to our attention and we have also taken steps to strengthen our controls internally to ensure an inappropriate product such as this could not find its way into our stores again. 'In the meantime, however, we want to apologise to our customers for any offence caused.' But  this is not the first time the brand has been pulled up for misogynistic merchandise. It is not the first time the brand has been pulled up for misogynistic merchandise. Last May the clothing store stocked a card with a picture of a man with his fingers in his ears saying: 'Will you out a sock in it!' Last May the clothing store stocked a football-shaped gag illustrated with a picture of a man with his fingers in his ears saying: 'Will you out a sock in it!' The illustration also depicted a woman's mouth gagged with the football with speech bubbles saying: 'Get your clothes off the floor! Have you put the bins out? Switch the footy off!' The merchandise was received a barrage of criticism on twitter with one one blogger Joanne Harris branding it a 'revolting piece of sexism'. The company removed the item from its website and told the Daily Telegraph at the time: 'As soon as this product was brought to our attention we withdrew it from sale and removed it from our website.' River Island removed the book from their shelves and apologised to tweeters individually for the offence caused . Despite the flurry of tweets echoing Tim Doble's disgust at the brand's latest sexist merchandise, some users were less supportive of his remarks.'I remember when you could actually make a joke without everyone crying about it,' posted one user. 'Tragic if people take this to heart, it's a joke book,' wrote another. When one critic @JoeBoy_AFC was branded a misogynist for his support of the joke book, he ranted across three tweets: 'Who said I'm an outright misogynist? Because I'm not crying about a jokebook? Man up, life for woman is not that bad that it needs you to fight for them. Its not the 1800's. They give as good as they get, its people like you that make them feelike they are above men, YOU. Defending his stance Tim Doble replied: 'You must be deluded if you think men and women are treated equally in the present day. We've come a long way, not far enough.' Tim also added: 'Remember that last time a joke book was published for women glorifying domestic abuse of men? Me neither.' Publishers Summersdale said the book is now out of print but had no further comment.
target: The 'Very Blokey Joke Book' by Jake Harris contains highly offensive joke .
  The quip is about a man watching his wife being beaten up by friends .
  Shocked Twitter users branded it 'horrific' and 'staggeringly offensive'
  The clothing brand have said they will withdraw the book from stores .
  Last May the brand was also criticised for misogynistic merchandise .
  The merchandise featured a gag for women designed to look like a football illustrated with a man putting his fingers in his ears .