BARRY Hall became a giant punching bag for Australia this year when he made vulgar comments about the wife of a former AFL star during a live radio broadcast.

But he’s also been a victim in the whole affair, he told Channel 9 in an interview on 60 Minutes Sunday night.

Hall — nicknamed Big Bad Bustling Barry — was sacked by Triple M with immediate effect during a Friday night broadcast in late June after making the offensive comments about the pregnant wife of ex-St Kilda player Leigh Montagna, who was also calling the Western Bulldogs’ clash with Geelong.

The former Sydney Swans premiership captain was discussing a technique used by medical professionals, known as a “membrane sweep” — which Montagna’s wife Erin underwent to induce labour. Hall insinuated the doctor acted in a sexually inappropriate way.

He was widely condemned for his remarks, and while Hall admitted what he said was “inappropriate”, he also said his family — including wife Lauren Brant and son Miller — has been left stranded financially.

“It was a bit unrehearsed. It was an off the cuff comment that was inappropriate for air. It shouldn’t have been on radio, 100 per cent,” Hall tells Channel 9 in the 60 Minutes trailer.

“The thing is, as I’ve said, we’ve got no income now and there’s no real light at the end of the tunnel of when that will change or when that will be.

“It’s a big c***-up.”

Hall attacked the thousands on social media who he says “bullied” him and his family after the comments.

“Basically saying that I was a pig and she (wife Lauren) deserves me and all that stuff and my son’s ugly and talking about harmful things to them, and I’m not just talking about harmful words I’m talking about physical stuff,” he said.

“Well it’s just a pack mentality, really. They just lay the boots in .. it’s a form of bullying, really.

“They get on, and everyone’s gotta have their say … and I had thousands and thousands and thousands (messages) of just hate, absolute hate.”

Founder of media website Quillette Claire Lehmann took aim at the “politically correct” culture which regularly sees people subject to a tidal wave of abuse on social media.

“That experience of having 10000 people expressing their displeasure can be quite terrifying for the person involved. And I think it’s that scale that people are not quite aware of, like people online getting embroiled in these mobs need to think,” she said.

“What is the usefulness of me being the 10000th person to express my criticism?”

Broadcaster Meshel Laurie penned an open letter to Hall after the former Swan’s radio slip, imploring him to understand why what he thought was a joke was actually an offensive reference to sexual abuse.

“Here’s the trouble with making a rape joke on the radio during the footy the other night though, you were in people’s homes, in their cars, in their workplaces, in their safe places.” Laurie wrote on Facebook.

“Some of those people were rape survivors and you laughed at them about their rapes. Right there, where they least expected it, when they were relaxing with the footy, you laughed at their rapes.

“You didn’t do it because you’re a bad person mate, because you’re not. You did it because in your circles it’s obviously okay to tell jokes like that. Well the fact is, there have probably been rape survivors around you and your friends when you’ve told these jokes before, you just didn’t know it, and how could they tell you?”