'Do you think Michael McIntyre has sold out?'

WTF: Weekly Trivia File

‘Stand-up comedy puts food on the table. Commercials put cars in the driveway.’ Omid Djalili

Harry Hill was nearly cast as playwright Philip Larkin in a West End show. Playwright Alan Ayckbourn said producers were keen to use the comic as his celebrity might boost the box office when they were thinking of transferring his biographical play Larkin with Women from Scarborough to the capital. ‘Producers came up from London to see it. One of them, who shall remain nameless, said to me afterwards, “Oh dear, we would need a bigger name to put it on in London.” So I asked him who that would be. And without a moment’s hesitation, he replied, “Harry Hill.” His thinking was, ‘He is a bald man with glasses, therefore he could play Philip Larkin.’ Now, I have a lot of time for Harry Hill, but not as Philip Larkin.’

Jimmy Carr mocked boy band One Direction at the GQ Man Of The Year awards this week, asking them: ‘Evening boys. Is there a kids' table for you tonight? Have they got the high chairs in for you? What's this? Buy one suit get four free? What's on the kids' menu? Fish fingers and chips?’

Meanwhile, Michael McIntyre got in trouble with wife Kitty, after abandoning her to chat up girlband The Saturdays. Mrs McIntyre reportedly stormed out, complaining she felt awkward and embarrassed at being left out of the conversation.

A move is afoot to rename a New York street after George Carlin. More than 3,000 people have signed an online petition to name the l 500 block of West 121st Street after the iconoclastic comedian who died three years ago. He lived and went to school on the block. The decision is now down to Community Board 9 – whose district manager Eutha Prince said she'd never heard of Carlin.

Alan Carr bounded out on stage this week and said ‘hello’ to the good people of Leeds. Only problem was the gig was in York. Oops.

Stephen Fry has been named Britain’s funniest comedian by viewers of BBC Entertainment, a channel that broadcasts in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Finland. Mind you, the vote was only between four candidates (John Cleese, Rowan Atkinson and Ricky Gervais being the others), and Fry got 30 per cent of the vote, just over what he might expect from a random distrubution. Still he gushed: ‘To all my Scandiwegian friends. I cannot tell you how touched I am to have been named a favourite comedian by the Nordic viewers of the BBC.It always pleased P. G. Wodehouse that he was so incredibly popular in Scandinavia, and I know just how he feels.’

Graeme Garden's father came up with a way of classifying hip fractures, which are still known as the Garden system.

Remember that apology Katt Williams issued last week following his xenophobic rant against Mexicans. Turns out that was just put out by us publicist and he knew nothing about it. ‘I meant what I said, and I said what I meant,’ he said... although he eventually backpeddled in the interview: ‘If there’s something anti-Mexican about what I said, then I apologise for the Anti-Mexican-ness of it. I was talking to one individual.’?

You know Steve Wright on the radio? He said to me, ‘Do you think Michael McIntyre has sold out?’ It’s like asking if Flora margarine has sold out.’ Mark Thomas.

Tweets of the week:
Andy Fletcher (@AndyFletcher3): I never wanted to believe that my dad stole from his job as a road worker but when I got home, all the signs were there.
Simon Blackwell (@simonblackwell ): The restaurant CGI Fridays doesn't actually exist.
Stephen Grant (@stephencgrant ): Help me out: "Lost at Russian roulette" 6 letters; blank, blank, blank, blank, blank, Oh.

SOURCES: Chortle, Radio Times, The Sun, Daily Star, YouTube, New York Post, Twitter, BBC Entertainment, Popbitch, CNN The Latest 7. Twitter

Published: 9 Sep 2011