Sick plagiarism?

WTF: Weekly Trivia File

‘Did the gig at the winter gardens Margate… What the hell has happened to that town?It’s full of scary white people. I preferred it when the Somalians were there.’ Jim Davidson

When film-maker Justin Gayner watched the first episode of Cardinal Burns on E4 last week, he had a slight feeling of deja vu. For the duo had a sketch in which two hard-bitten cops repeatedly vomited on seeing a murder victim – which echoed a scene Gayner filmed for the now-defunct ComedyBox website four years ago, featuring Batman and Robin. He said: ‘If they did see our sketch and built on the idea, then that's very flattering indeed. If they didn't - which I suspect is what happened - then good on them for having the UK's second "law enforcers repeatedly vomit on dead person's neck" sketch.’ Here are the two scenes:

Still Game star Ford Kiernan is so desperate to sell his Glasgow home, which has been on the market for six months, that he’s slashed the price to under £1million – even though he paid almost £1.25million for it three years ago.

John Cleese has taken on another advert to help pay his alimony, becoming the voice of Canadian Club whisky in Australia – a job that requires him to slag off beer drinkers as ‘smelly, overweight vulgarians... sad, dysfunctional creatures’ who should be slaughtered.

After the London suburb of Streatham was ‘slated’ (ie the butt of a mild jibe) by Jo Brand, the local Guardian newspaper ran a competition asking its readers to liken the town to an item of confectionery. The winner was too dull to mention, but our favourite entry came from a Mr Douglas of Suffolk who suggested ‘a creme brulee – so much better after it’s torched’.

When American talk show host Anderson Cooper interviewed comedian Aziz Ansari this week, the discussion seemed slightly strange. And it soon became clear why – as the stand-up had sent a doppelganger in to cover for him.:

Katy Brand is writing her first book, Brenda Monk Is Funny, about the stand-up circuit. But she doesn't have a traditional publisher, and is instead turning to crowd-funded website Unbound, where she is asking would-be readers to pay for the project upfront, with donations of between £20 and £2,500.

South African comedian Mark Sampson is expected to be charged with animal cruelty after chopping the head off a neighbour’s cat with a spade. But he claims he put the cat down as an act of mercy after it was attacked by one of his dogs, on the advice of an animal welfare helpline.

Here’s an interesting thread on the Cookd and Bombd forum – finding landmarks from classic TV comedies on Google Earth/Maps.

Fledgeling stand-up Jordan R.A. Mills seems to have the modern stand-up scene sussed.... here’s his short film about an act called Jerry Generic: