It’s past a joke for pun-lovers. The normal record of the funniest gags on the Edinburgh fringe, introduced by the TV channel U&Dave, has been scrapped for 2025.
A press release from UKTV, which owns the channel previously referred to as Dave, stated: “U&Dave’s Joke of the Fringe was initially created to have fun and highlight grassroots comedy expertise. As our commissioning focus evolves, we’re taking the chance to replicate on how we proceed to help comedy in the easiest way doable.”
The award was launched in 2008 and has been held yearly since other than through the Covid-19 pandemic. Final 12 months, Mark Simmons gained for his nautical one-liner “I used to be going to sail across the globe on the planet’s smallest ship however I bottled it”. The shortlist of jokes was chosen by a panel of UK comedy critics and comedians, then submitted anonymously to 2,000 members of the general public who had been requested to choose their favourites. Upon successful final 12 months’s prize, Simmons stated: “I wanted some excellent news as I used to be simply fired from my job marking examination papers, can’t perceive it, I all the time gave 110%.”
Earlier victors embrace Masai Graham (thrice), Tim Vine (twice) and Olaf Falafel (a daily on the shortlist). Lorna Rose Treen, the second lady to win the award, triumphed in 2023 for the joke “I began relationship a zookeeper, but it surely turned out he was a cheetah.” Treen later stated that when she later carried out the joke in her present, an viewers member “shouted along … It was like I was a band!”
The annual pun-heavy record of jokes brings gripes in addition to groans, for not capturing the total spectrum of comedy on provide on the Edinburgh fringe. “It’s a welcome addition to the enjoyable of the pageant,” wrote the Guardian’s comedy critic Brian Logan in 2012. “However by suggesting that the immeasurable vary of Edinburgh comedy could be captured by these few phrases on a printed web page, it sells the wild world of comedy brief.” The pageant’s most prestigious prize is the Edinburgh comedy award (previously referred to as the Perrier), now in its forty third 12 months. Final summer season it was gained by Amy Gledhill.
UKTV’s assertion on the cancellation of the joke of the perimeter continued: “Whereas we’re resting the award this 12 months, we stay dedicated to championing nice comedy throughout U&Dave and past, and we’ll all the time search for methods to deliver laughter to audiences in thrilling methods.”
Inside hours of the announcement, the manufacturing firm Need to Know Comedy introduced that it was reviving its (Some Man Referred to as) Dave award, beforehand held through the pandemic. It known as for fringe acts to e-mail 5 one-liners from their present, with the winner receiving £250. The Edinburgh fringe officially begins on 1 August, with some comedians beginning previews later this month.
