Masai Graham has won this year’s Joke Of the Fringe competition with his pun: ‘I tried to steal spaghetti from the shop, but the female guard saw me and I couldn’t get pasta.’

It is the second time the Black Country stand-up has won the title, handed out by broadcaster Dave. He previously scooped it in 2016 with: ‘My dad suggested I register for a donor card, he’s a man after my own heart.’

This year’s joke – taken from his show Aaaaaaaaaargh! It's 101 Clean Jokes In 30 Minutes –  topped a poll of 2,000 people, who were asked to vote on a shortlist compiled by comedy critics

The top ten was:

1.       I tried to steal spaghetti from the shop, but the female guard saw me and I couldn’t get pasta. Masai Graham

2.       Did you know, if you get pregnant in the Amazon, it’s next day delivery. Mark Simmons

3.       My attempts to combine nitrous oxide and Oxo cubes made me a laughing stock Olaf Falafel

4.       By my age, my parents had a house and a family, and to be fair to me, so do I, but it is the same house and it is the same family. Hannah Fairweather

5.       I hate funerals – I’m not a mourning person Will Mars

6.       I spent the whole morning building a time machine, so that’s four hours of my life that I’m definitely getting back Olaf Falafel

7.       I sent a food parcel to my first wife. FedEx Richard Pulsford

8.       I used to live hand to mouth. Do you know what changed my life? Cutlery Tim Vine

9.       Don’t knock threesomes. Having a threesome is like hiring an intern to do all the jobs you hate Sophie Duker

10.    I can’t even be bothered to be apathetic these days Will Duggan

Graham said: ‘It's great to see the Edinburgh Fringe Festival back up and running again, it's my spiritual home. I was so delighted to find out I'd won the Dave’s Funniest Joke of the Fringe award for a second time - I thought, this is getting pasta joke.’

Now in its 13th year, previous winners of the coveted Joke of the Fringe Award include Ken Cheng, Olaf Falafel, Tim Vine, Rob Auton, Stewart Francis, Zoe Lyons and Nick Helm.

Cherie Cunningham, Dave’s channel director, said: ‘The quality of submissions has been incredibly strong. It’s a fantastic top 10 full of newcomers and comedy veterans, and it’s a delight to crown Masai Graham as winner once more.’

What a shame that the most people will hear about the huge artistic effort that is the Edinburgh Fringe – where hundreds of comedians strive to as creative as possible, maybe even expand the limits of their artform – will be a lame pun that would barely pass muster as a Daily Star headline.

Nothing wrong with wordplay, of course, it’s the bedrock of many a brilliant joke, but this is probably not the best in Masai Graham’s half-hour, certainly not the best in all the 1,200 shows at this incredible festival. Indeed, the gag can already be found on joke websites across the internet, usually about a fat woman at a restaurant.

Publicity-wise, Dave have struck gold with this annual award, with its newspaper-friendly list being published much wider than the far more worthy Edinburgh Comedy Award, which they also sponsor. But it means for millions of people, this 'dad joke' is the impression they will get of this artistic powerhouse.

There’s no answer to this dilemma. Dave get their column inches, newspapers get an easy, light-hearted space-filler and the winning comedian gets a helpful boost to their career. But it always seems so reductive of the brilliance on display across the Fringe, from stand-ups, sketch acts, character comics and clowns, whose work cannot be summarised in a pithy one-line pun.