Sick plagiarism?

WTF: Weekly Trivia File

  • ‘Did the gig at the winter gardens Margate… What the hell has happened to that town?It’s full of scary white people. I preferred it when the Somalians were there.’ Jim Davidson

  • When film-maker Justin Gayner watched the first episode of Cardinal Burns on E4 last week, he had a slight feeling of deja vu. For the duo had a sketch in which two hard-bitten cops repeatedly vomited on seeing a murder victim – which echoed a scene Gayner filmed for the now-defunct ComedyBox website four years ago, featuring Batman and Robin. He said: ‘If they did see our sketch and built on the idea, then that's very flattering indeed. If they didn't - which I suspect is what happened - then good on them for having the UK's second "law enforcers repeatedly vomit on dead person's neck" sketch.’ Here are the two scenes:

  • Still Game star Ford Kiernan is so desperate to sell his Glasgow home, which has been on the market for six months, that he’s slashed the price to under £1million – even though he paid almost £1.25million for it three years ago.

  • John Cleese has taken on another advert to help pay his alimony, becoming the voice of Canadian Club whisky in Australia – a job that requires him to slag off beer drinkers as ‘smelly, overweight vulgarians... sad, dysfunctional creatures’ who should be slaughtered.

  • After the London suburb of Streatham was ‘slated’ (ie the butt of a mild jibe) by Jo Brand, the local Guardian newspaper ran a competition asking its readers to liken the town to an item of confectionery. The winner was too dull to mention, but our favourite entry came from a Mr Douglas of Suffolk who suggested ‘a creme brulee – so much better after it’s torched’.

  • When American talk show host Anderson Cooper interviewed comedian Aziz Ansari this week, the discussion seemed slightly strange. And it soon became clear why – as the stand-up had sent a doppelganger in to cover for him.:

  • Katy Brand is writing her first book, Brenda Monk Is Funny, about the stand-up circuit. But she doesn't have a traditional publisher, and is instead turning to crowd-funded website Unbound, where she is asking would-be readers to pay for the project upfront, with donations of between £20 and £2,500.

  • South African comedian Mark Sampson is expected to be charged with animal cruelty after chopping the head off a neighbour’s cat with a spade. But he claims he put the cat down as an act of mercy after it was attacked by one of his dogs, on the advice of an animal welfare helpline.

  • Here’s an interesting thread on the Cookd and Bombd forum – finding landmarks from classic TV comedies on Google Earth/Maps.

  • Fledgeling stand-up Jordan R.A. Mills seems to have the modern stand-up scene sussed.... here’s his short film about an act called Jerry Generic:

  • Tweets of the week:
    Justin Moorhouse (@JustinMoorhouse): Due to an errant spell checker my @edfringe show An Alternative Comedian has been listed as An*l Tentative Comedian (not actually true)
    Tony Cowards (@TonyCowards): When I told my wife I'd lost the DVD of our wedding, she ripped me a new one.
    Jacques (@Jacques_aih): You know half of Gary Barlow's band? That.

    Published: 11 May 2012

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