Shafted! | WTF: Weekly Trivia File

Shafted!

WTF: Weekly Trivia File

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Sean Lock has a very good reason for not paying arenas: ‘They’re the places people get tortured in banana republics.’

When Samuel L Jackson asks you to do something, you do it. The Hollywood legend invited Stephen K Amos to perform at a fundraiser for his charity foundation on Sunday. And not only that, he had a special request: do the Shaft joke. Amos duly obliged – the gag being that when people shouted ‘Shaft!’ at him in the street, he assumed it was a mildly racist reference to the movie private investigator – until he looked down and found that his dick was hanging out. And the reason for Mr L Jackson’s request? Richard Roundtree, Shaft himself, was in the audience, as our picture shows...

When David Walliams met David Cameron as part of a UNICEF campaign this month, the PM told him not to flick his hair like his Little Britain character Sebastian, the flirtatious aide. ‘And, of course, I immediately did it,’ he said. ‘It’s almost like I’ve got Tourette’s. When I’m told not to do something, I have to do it.’

Bernie Sahlins, founder of Chicago’s Second City comedy troupe who died this week, had a long rivalry with improv guru Del Close. Close believed improv was a pure art form, while Sahlins insisted it was juts a technique to develop scripted work, Only on Close’s deathbed did Sahlins concede that improv was a valid art form – for that day only.

Australian comic John Robertson married Jo Marsh, the artistic director of the Perth International Comedy Festival, last weekend. And as the prepared for their bridal waltz, this happened:

Terry Wogan is set to make a cameo appearance in the third series of Moone Boy.

Nothing exceptional about this local newspaper headline: ‘Essex comedian Phill Jupitus tells James Rampton about his character based new show which comes to Colchester next month’ … except Chortle read in on HispanicBusiness.com, a California-based website that  ‘focuses on growth developments in the US  Hispanic market’. Who knew Essex comedy was so important there?

Cabaret artiste Miss Behave wants to have unusual guests for her Game Show at the Edinburgh festival – doesn’t everyone? – and has gone as far as thinking about getting a pigeon off the streets. ‘What is refreshing in Edinburgh?’ she asked blogger John Fleming rhetorically. ‘Someone who is not plugging their show.’

Russell Brand wrote a few notes on his hand for his work-in-progress shows at Soho Theatre this week. Hardly the stuff of a big news story, but that’s not going to stop Mail Online getting itself into convoluted knots trying to make it one. Fans of straw clutching can read it here.

Tweets of the week
Dave Gorman (@DaveGorman): Think I might start a rumour that Lorraine Kelly is "highly litigious". She's not. But what's she going to do about it?
Lil Lemon (@Electrolemon): can't seem 2 find an uncensored copy of 2001: a space odyssey. anybody know what's behind those big ol' black censor bars? i'm thinkin dicks
Neil ‘Enanem’ (@_Enanem_): The menu at Michael Stipe's restaurant's quite unusual. That's ghee in the korma, and that's Brie in the pot right, fusing with the pigeon.
Moose Allain (@ MooseAllain ): If time travel was possible I would go back and rewrite this tweet without the typo

Published: 21 Jun 2013

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