Who's that girl?

WTF: Weekly Trivia File

  • Mystery comicLook at this stunning woman… but she’s not all she seems. She’s actually a pretty well-known male comic – and exactly who is revealed at the foot of this page...

  • Another twist in the tale of the recruitment consultant who challenged Tim Vine over the conjunctivitis joke, which was named the best of the year. Tommy Pye made a fuss in the national press about it being ‘his’ gag, having tweeted it back in December 2010, to his handful of friends. 'It’s possible for people to come up with the same joke without realising it,’ Pye reluctantly admitted this week, while still complaining: ‘But I put it on Twitter and I follow Tim Vine’s account because I’m a fan of his humour. What’s to say he never looked at my own when he got an update to show I’m following him?’ But now Chortle has discovered that the gag was actually published in The Biggest Ever Tim Vine Joke Book in September 2010 (page six, joke 21 for reference-lovers) – three months before My Pye posted his comment.

  • Oops. Australian TV channel 7mate aired an old episode of Family Guy called Brian’s Got A Brand New Bag this week... complete with a gag about Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown. Fans of respect should look away now:

  • Frank Skinner is undergoing therapy to cope with his phobia of water, ahead of his swim to raise money for Sport Relief next month. The comic told listeners to his Absolute Radio show that his shrink told him to repeatedly sing ‘I think I’m going to breathe in water’ to the tune of Jingle Bells to help conquer his fears. ‘Apparently that helps because it makes it ridiculous,’ he said. ‘The whole idea that I might breathe in water is so ludicrous because of the tune to it, that [the fear] goes away.’

  • Simpsons star Hank Azaria recalls his first date after his 2010 divorce from actress Helen Hunt didn’t go too well. ‘It was kind of a disaster,’ he said. ‘I was leaving a friend's house who had some construction work going on. It was dark out. I remember saying to myself, “Be careful, there are a lot of holes around here.” And I fell in a hole anyway - a six-foot hole - and I actually busted a couple of ribs. I was all dirty and bloody, and I showed up at this girl's door. You'd think I would have taken the hint that God was telling me I wasn't ready to date.’

  • Stephen Fry has been voted the celebrity that Disabled Persons Railcard holders would most like to travel with on a train journey.

  • After the Ripping Yarns hopathon, another comedy-themed record attempt: for the most number of people banging their head with a tin tray. It’s in honour of old variety turn Bob Blackman, who used to do that as his act – as the footage below shows. Comic Johnny Sorrow is organizing the stunt as he performs with The Bob Blackman Appreciation Society. Though whether the good people of Guinness agree this is record-worthy remains to be seen. Sorrow wants to stage the event to tie in with Blackman’s birthday… the only problem is that no one in the appreciation society has any idea when Bob Blackman’s birthday actually was. Can anyone help?

  • As England searches for a new football coach, blogger John Fleming’s mind goes back to November 2009, when Scotland were looking for their own manager. At the time, comic Janey Goldey phoned up the Scottish Football Association and applied for the job, on the grounds ‘I can order men about, I can actually play football and I am great at strategy’. ‘Do you have a valid coaching licence?” Scottish FA chief Gordon Smith asked her. ‘No, but I do know Hologram Tam and he is the world’s best forger and he can get me one.’ They never called her back.

  • Meanwhile, fellow Scottish comic Billy Kirkwood prepares to bring his show, Show Me Your Tattoo, to the Glasgow Comedy Festival. While performing it at the Edinburgh Fringe, he asked if anyone had a tattoo they wanted to share. One bloke, who was wearing an eye patch, ‘sheepishly’ lifted it, to reveal a tattoo of a monocle covering his left eye. ‘Apparently he was told by his employer it was inappropriate,’ Kirkwood recalls. ‘He was a traffic warden.’

  • Brutal:

  • Did you guess our stunner? It’s actually Rhod Gilbert, made up as ‘Rachel’ for his Work Experience TV show. Creepy, huh?

  • Tweets of the week:
    Paul Sinha (@paulsinha): Just returned from a successful trip to the British Gay Innuendo Championships , where I managed to beat off all opponents.
    Tony Cowards (@TonyCowards ): The first passport photo machine in the US was known as the "John Wilkes Booth" as it was good for headshots.
    Derek Morecambe (@ derekmorecambe ): What do you call a man with a spade in his head? An ambulance. This is no joking matter, he's got a fucking spade in his head


SOURCES: Chortle, Chingford Guardian/Chortle, TV Tonight, Absolute Radio, Elle, Chortle, Chortle, Janey Godley blog, Glasgow Herald, YouTube, Twitter

Published: 17 Feb 2012

Live comedy picks

We see you are using AdBlocker software. Chortle relies on advertisers to fund this website so it’s free for you, so we would ask that you disable it for this site. Our ads are non-intrusive and relevant. Help keep Chortle viable.