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The 10 biggest comedy stories of 2010

What a year it’s been for comedy – and for Chortle. Over the last 12 months we’ve attracted a total of 1.56million unique users, viewing 10.48million pages. Here are the ten most-read stories of 2010.

February 20: Wood dies at 38
The musical comedian Jason Wood, left, who appeared on the first series of Strictly Come Dancing, died unexpectedly in his sleep at home

April 30: Boyle: BBC are cowards
Frankie said the corporation was ‘cravenly afraid of giving offence’ after censuring his joke about the Palestine situation: ‘People think that the Middle East is very complex but I have an analogy that sums it up quite well. If you imagine that Palestine is a big cake, well…that cake is being punched to pieces by a very angry Jew.’

July 20: Ye Gods! Lee attacks ‘inane’ comedy poll
Respected comic Stewart Lee has a bash at the Fosters Comedy Awards for starting a public vote to pick the best act from 30 years of Edinburgh comedy. His comments sparked a subversive campaign, which succeeded in having obscure 1984 Perrier nominees The Frank Chickens win the title.

November 20: Comic takes his life
More tragic news as 32-year-old Mackenzie Taylor took an overdose. He had a long history of depression, which he spoke of on stage.

August 23: Comics disrupt BBC News
A playful day in the TV studios as Tim Vine wins the ‘joke of the Fringe’ award. First he exposes the backdrop as a sham, then later Brendon Burns storms off in mock outrage at the way the artform is reduced to a quotable one-liner. The joke was: ‘I've just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I'll tell you what, never again’

November 28: Christians slam Minchin for aiding charity
Tim Minchin’s secular Christmas song White Win In The Sun is included on a compilation album to raise funds for the Australian Salvation Army – causing the religious to get into a tizzy.

June 15: The world’s biggest joke thief
Italian Daniele Luttazzi has lifted routines from the likes of George Carlin, Emo Philips, Eddie Izzard and Bill Hicks, translated them into Italian, and passed them off as his own.

July 9: Howard leaves Mock The Week
Russell misses four of the six episodes of the series to make his own BBC Three show, Russell Howard’s Good News

August 26: 'Unknown' lands her own C4 comedy series
…And it turned out to be the Morgana Show

November 11: Outrage at Twitter joke ruling
Paul Chambers lost his appeal against his conviction for ‘menace’ for sending a joke tweet about blowing up Robin Hood Airport, causing dismay among comics

Just outside the top ten were stories about Frank Sidebottom creator Chris Sievey’s diagnosis with cancer and subsequent death, the announcement of the Chortle Award nominees, and Frankie Boyle upsetting Jordan by joking about her disabled son.

And these are the year's top 20 comedians, in terms of page views: