Chortle has been visited 4.7million times in 2006, with readers downloading an incredible 61.5million pages.

Statistics gathered by our servers offer an insight into the biggest comedy news of the year, and reveal that the most-read story was about Linda Smith's untimely death in February, aged just 48.

And among the Google searches that brought most people to the site included Russell Brand, Noel Fielding and Catherine Tate. Although most readers were in Britain, with sizeable minorities in Ireland, the US and Australia, we attracted the attention of comedy fans as far afield as Japan, Mexico, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates, the log reveals

The year's top stories were:

1. Linda Smith dies
2. Gervais to quit podcasting
3. Seinfeld star's racist rant
4. Armando Iannucci's Time Trumpet
5. Pauly Shore punched
6. Jim Davidson heckled by a boy scout
7. France gets its own version of The Office
8. Brendon Burns leaves I'm A Celebrity...

And the most popular searches, month-by-month, were:

January: Russell Brand
February: Noel Fielding
March: Linda Smith.
April: Noel Fielding
May: Russell Brand
June: Russell Brand
July: Catherine Tate
August: Linda Smith
September: Trevor Lock
October: Frankie Boyle
November: Michael Richards
December: Pauly Shore punched