Cheerleaders, boobs and baboons

The weekly trivia file

  • 'Comedy thrives on freshness... when you're new, people look for what's good. When you're established, they look for what's bad.’ Jasper Carrott

  • I’m sorry, we have to mention this from the start: Just how disturbing is Rob Deering’s Edinburgh Fringe poster, left? Also the prize for the best show title has to go to Tom Stade for ‘Oh Fuck, Do We Need A Title Too’, which narrowly beat the new musical production Kiddy Fiddler On The Roof into second place.

  • Alan Carr was shot in the leg while making a trailer for the Sunday Night Project. He was dressed as a flying cheerleader when flying shrapnel laddered his tights and drew real blood. Carr said he found it quite erotic when St John Ambulancemen had to tear his tights to deal with his wound. This is the art he suffered for:

  • Stand-up Andre Vincent - always willing to stir up a good row – was asked by a journalist this week: ‘How do you tell what makes a good joke?’ His reply? ‘If they laugh it's good, if Stephen K. Amos steals it, it's great…’

  • So new Big Brother housemate Mikey Hughes reckons he’s been a stand-up… though we can’t find any record of him performing anywhere. Has anyone seen his act? Do let us know…

  • The Observer has criticised Marcus Brigstocke of hypocrisy for enjoying the hospitality at a party Sky TV threw at the Hay literary festival, just a day after he accusing Sky owner Rupert Murdoch of ‘turning Britain into a nation of xenophobes’. The paper accused him of drinking (or 'guzzling', to use the correct tabloid term) free champagne - overlooking the tiny point that Brigstocke hasn't touched a drop of booze in 17 years - and he certainly didn't use that occasion to fall off the wagon.

  • Joined-up thinking. Richard Hammond’s new kids’ science show for the BBC is due to be called Lab Rats. Chris Addison’s new sitcom for the BBC is due to called, erm, Lab Rats.

  • Staff at London’s Rough Trade record shop were so excited to see Chris Rock pop in to buy some records that they asked him to sign the ceiling. He wrote ‘I love crack.’

  • Stand-up Russell Kane had a run-in with a baboon when on safari in Zambia last year with his fiancée. ‘A baboon got very amorous towards Sadie,’ he recalls. ‘He stormed the table and ran into a tree with our pot of jam. He opened the lid and then threw it at us. What an insult.’

  • Are you a Daily Express 'read'er who wants to make bigoted comments on internet bulletin boards, but just doesn’t have the time? Try this automatic doohickey, dubbed the TwatoTron. Press 'New' for randomly-generated bile.

  • Here’s a bizarre bit of 'joke'-telling from a Brighton teenager. Proof of why they shouldn’t give the internet to just anybody:

SOURCES: Daily Mail, Chortle, Paul O'Grady Show, Beijing City Weekend, C4, The Observer, BBC, Popbitch, Metro, Chortle, Chortle

Published: 6 Jun 2008

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