WTF: Weekly Trivia File

• ‘I still make my wife get a vajazzle for my birthday.’ Ed Byrne, who lives in Essex now.

• Keith Lemon is switching on the  Blackpool Illuminations tonight – but he isn’t popular with everybody.  ‘Most people I’ve talked to have never heard of him,’ snorted Tony Williams, the Tory group leader on Blackpool Council. ‘If this is the best the council can do what can we expect next year? Paul Daniels or maybe Orville?’

• Jack Whitehall asked producers of new comedy Fresh Meat to change a scene involving cocaine, for fear it would revive memories of his own drug scandal – when a picture of him snorting coke off his phone was published by the News Of The World. He said he asked producers of the new C4 show if they could use ketamine for the scene instead, but admitted: ‘As soon as we did the first read-through and it got a big laugh they said we had to keep it in. In the end I agreed it's funnier with coke. But it was weird to do.’

• Whitehall’s backside also came under scrutiny during filming... when the make-up team offered to wax it. ‘I had to pull down my pants and let them look at my bottom and decide whether or not it should be waxed,’ he said. ‘They decided they didn't need to because it was a long shot. But having your bum looked at to see if it's too hairy for the screen? Amazing.’

• Comic Charlie Chuck says that when he used to be used to be in a band, the legendary Scottish promoter Duncan McKinnon, would occasionally pay him partly in cash and partly in eggs, potatoes and cabbages.

• A thin line between comedy and fascism. Katt Williams’s anti-immigration rant gets a crowd pumped up against Mexicans... then when one Mexican in the audience objects, he’s intimidated and bullied. Williams later said: ‘I want to apologise if my comedy act was taken out of context.’ Not sure in what context this would be all right:
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• David Walliams admits he suffers from periods of ‘intense self-loathing’, cries when he drinks alcohol and worries incessantly about the future, saying: ‘I realise that people who were once... unthinkably famous, are just not on TV any more.’ Character comedian Milo McCabe came back from the Edinburgh Fringe with a black eye after trying to stop two Scottish girls fighting outside the Just The Tonic at the Caves venue – and getting punched in the face for his troubles.

• Gina Yashere has the immune disease lupus, and says she conquered the symptoms by eating raw fruit and veg. The comic, 37, was diagnosed with the condition – a result of the immune system attacking itself – in 2005 after complaining of aching joints and over-tiredness. She was initially given steroids and anti-inflammation drugs but said: ‘I hated the side effects, which meant I put on weight .’ Eventually, she changed her diet to just raw fruit and vegetables, and said: ‘With my symptoms getting easier, I cut down on my medication. Two years ago I stopped taking pills altogether. I am now 9st 7lb and my symptoms have virtually gone.’ However, there is no cure for the disease and expert David Isenberg warns: ‘Lupus is always active and there is no proof that diet is an effective treatment. What works for one sufferer might not for another. If a patient has found relief, we can only hope it lasts.’

• Caroline Aherne and Craig Cash have been spending hours watching Loose Women and The Jeremy Kyle Show to get inspiration for The Royle Family’s Christmas special.

• Tweets of the Week:
  Moose Allain: (@MooseAllain):"If you haven't got an appropriate quote, make one up and attribute it to an obscure philosopher" Dave Bartram, Showaddywaddy.
  Austin Herring: (@ProfHerring):Just published: a reprint of my classic book 'Here's Looking At Euclid: Geometry In The Films of Humphrey Bogart'.
  Benedict Farse: (@BenedictFarse ): What do you do if your Teletubby has an insect infestation? Call the police. I said PO LICE! Here all week/month/year/eon Christ on a cunt!

SOURCES: joindave.co.uk, Daily Star The Sun, The Sun, blog.thejohnfleming.com, YouTube, ES magazine, Chortle, Daily Mail, The Sun, Twitter.

Published: 2 Sep 2011