Gold launches its annual jokes competition

TV channel Gold has launched its annual competition to find the best modern Christmas cracker jokes.

The funniest gag will receive £1,500 in holiday vouchers and be included in a series of bespoke crackers, along with the other top five jokes.

Gold says last year’s competition was the most popular yet, with the winning gag being: ‘Why does Ed Milliband like advent calendars? He gets to open the door to number 10’. Runner-up was ‘What will be missing from Take That’s Christmas stocking this year? An Orange.’

Britons will pull 300 million crackers this Christmas and Gold’s aims is to keep the comedy topical . So as in the past three years, the jokes should be based on the year’s events or pop culture phenomenon… which should offer plenty of topics to choose from.

Bruce Dessau, comedy critic at the Evening Standard, will choose a shortlist which will be put to a public vote. The top ten will be announced in December.  

He said: ‘This year has seen it all, and now it feels likes the time is right for everyone to bounce back by giving comedy a crack.

‘I doubt that inspiration will be in short supply with Brexit and British politics, as well as Donald Trump seeming to defy reality over the pond.’

HOW TO ENTER

The competition is open to all UK residents aged 18 and over, to enter:

• • Tweet a Christmas-themed joke via your personal Twitter account including the hashtag #GoldCrackers
• • Must be original content and suitable for a family audience
• •  The joke entry must not be more than 140 characters, including the hashtag #GoldCrackers 
• •  Multiple entries are allowed
• •  All entrants must follow @GoldTVChannel (so we can notify the winners) - but the @GoldTVChannel twitter handle does not need to be included in the joke entry

Full terms and conditions are here. The competition opens will close on Sunday October 30 at 11:59pm

The entrants who supply the top ten jokes will get their own set of bespoke Gold crackers featuring a selection of the winning jokes. The writer of the top joke will win £1,500 holiday vouchers and a box of bespoke Gold Christmas crackers with their winning joke included. The nine runners-up will each receive a festive Christmas hamper, and a box of bespoke Gold Christmas crackers, which include the top six winning jokes.

Published: 10 Oct 2016