The week's comedy trivia

• Russell Howard says that ‘in moments of weakness, I discover the dark side of the internet’.

• Alan Carr used to go to school with GMTV presenter Michael Underwood, who has just left Dancing On Ice after breaking his ankle. The comic said: ‘Yes, the only two boys who chose to do Drama at A-level at Weston Favell Upper School, Northampton, now each have blossoming television careers. We did countless Christmas revues, we were Incas, we were Welsh farmers, we were Russian spies, we were even pigs, Napoleon and Squealer in Animal Farm: The Musical.’

• Good Life star Penelope Keith has been refused planning permission to convert a former petrol station in the Highland village of Avoch into a café.

• Marcus Brigstocke has spent £100,000 improving his four- bedroom semi in Wandsworth, South London, including an ‘agonising’ amount to make it more environmentally sound. He said: ‘The thing you really want when you're eco-ing your home is a wind turbine on the roof that says to everybody: "Look how virtuous we are!" It's the David Cameron approach. The reality is that you have to change your lightbulbs, and put little silver screens behind all the radiators to push the heat into the room – ie, nothing that anybody will notice.’

• The Office has become a specialist subject in Mastermind – in Welsh. Cardiff medical rep Rhisiart Williams chose the Ricky Gervais sitcom when he appeared on Mastermind Cymru. Click to play:
  

• Talking of The Office, the star of the US version, Steve Carell, is doing jury duty in the same Los Angeles courthouse Britney Spears is attending. But his case is a lot less high-profile: an industrial dispute in which both sides are Korean and don’t speak any English. Carell will be paid $15 a day for his time.

• David Walliams says he loved the gay sex scenes in the forthcoming drama about Franke Howerd, saying they are ‘real bath-time fun’.

• Jasper Carrott says that at 62 he can no longer keep up with new stand-ups. ‘What would I talk about? I don't really know what's in and what's out,’ he said. ‘I have realised that my time has come and gone. I'm not bitter, just a realist. I don't want to be going head-to-head with 20-year-olds. I don't want to follow three guys who've used every expletive in the book and whose act has been about orifices. When you're six years old, the word "poo" is the funniest word on God's earth, but this insults my intelligence.’ Here’s Jasper at his peak, talking about Monty Python:
  

• Courtney Love has been writing about the men she’s been romantically involved with – which might include Steve Coogan and Noel Fielding if you believe the tabloids. In a brief MySpace blog, she wrote, semi-coherently: ‘Well that was a lesson in self reliance... more later - pussies! testerical asses! not you THEM < thank god i have a few Guardian Angels and MYSELF.’

• Phill Jupitus picked up the Broadcast award for Never Mind The Buzzcocks this week – and used his speech to beg to take over from Dara O’Briain as host. ‘I have hosted loads of these and you get about £10,000,’ he said. ‘Dara is on about £12,500 but I need the money.’

SOURCES: The Independent, Northampton Chronicle, The Scotsman, The Independent, RickyGervais.com, TMZ.com, Daily Star, Daily Mail, MySpace, MediaGuardian

Published: 25 Jan 2008