...And that was just the teacher!

WTF: Weekly Trivia File

• Should we judge a comedian by their audience? If so Adil Ray's in trouble. At his Citizen Khan show in London's IndigO2 this week he pulled several people on stage. One couldn't tell him the name of the famous British admiral who died in 1805 and is commemorated with a monument in Trafalgar Square. And when proffered the jokey clue that he 'could be related to Mandela', she replied: 'Trevor Nelson?' Oh, and she was a teacher. The bloke playing the game opposite her was no better… after lots of heavy hints about what he SHOULD say, he was asked what the best religion was. 'Pakistani,' he replied.

• The world's first Simpsons Store, selling more than 125 lines of merchandise, has opened in Beijing. It offers a 'unique consumer engagement with one of the world's most celebrated properties' according to someone paid a lot of money to talk bullshit.

• Ardal O'Hanlon said he received a death threat while he was in Father Ted. A letter was sent to his London home along the lines of: 'You've gone over to England and you've taken the Queen's shilling. You're a disgrace to the country and if I ever see, I'll kill you'. But the postmark showed the letter came from a village in the West of Ireland… and one of his friends figured out it could only have been one person, 'this old ranter and raver in the pub who gives out about people on the telly'. O'Hanlon told The Sun: 'Being a stalker in Ireland is a rubbish occupation.'

• Rule one of stand-up comedy… try to stay standing up. Well American superstar Kevin Hart seemed to have trouble with that when leaving the stage of his What Now? tour show in Honolulu. The 36-year-old took a tumble and landed flat on his back. Luckily he had his massive entourage to help him back up. Fans of irony might want to be reminded that a previous special was called Laugh At My Pain…

• Next year Mark Watson says he will only play tour gigs in places beginning with his initials, M or W.

•The episode of Modern Family which aired in the States this week had a storyline in which Phil Dunphy insisted he was a 'realtor' and not a 'real estate agent' … a plot that was paid for by the National Association of Realtors. In a new front in product placement, the group paid to help spread its current advertising message about the benefits of using its members. Further blurring the line between fact and fiction, actor Ty Burrell, who plays Dunphy, has been signed up to front more conventional ads that aired on the ABC network elsewhere that night – and in character as Dunphy. How much money changed hands for all this has not been disclosed.
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