It can only be the Weekly Trivia File

• Bill Bailey on why he quit Never Mind The Buzzcocks: ‘I couldn’t yet again sing the intro to Britney Spears’ Toxic to some indie shoe-gazing twerp pinhead.’

• Russell Howard has been censored by Disney, who lodged a legal objection to a routine about his testicles.

• At a gig in a cinema last week, stand-up Ray Peacock persuaded one of his (male) audience members to strip naked and run through the adjacent auditorium, giving the audience of Saw 5 a finale they certainly weren't expecting.

• Last week we reported how Russell Brand indulged in a bit of grave-robbing. Well, it seems Ken Dodd's at it, too. When the 80-year-old performed in Blackpool this week he said: 'Blackburn doesn't have a twin town, but they do have a suicide pact with Grimsby' – a shamelessly purloined variant of the late Linda Smith's best-known gag.

• Frankie Boyle is allergic to oranges and copper coins, both of which make his hands swell.

• Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown’s 35-year-old son Martin has been charged with conspiracy to supply class A drugs following a string of drugs busts in Teesside.

• Bad stand-up of the week... and even worse video work:
  

• Chris Rock turned down the chance to voice K.I.T.T in the new series of Knight Rider, saying 'I'd rather be driving the car than be the voice, to be honest.'

• For one of his stand-up tours, Harry Hill had a shirt made with even bigger collars than normal, just for a silly encore. ‘The idea was that I would come back on with just the top of my head showing,’ he explains. ‘But they couldn't support themselves and so they fell down the back. I ended up looking like a sailor and people expected a sea shanty.’

• John Cleese, 69, has been spotted sharing romantic dates with American comedin Barbie Orr, 27.

• Russell Brand had a tattoo removed at the Dr Tatoff clinic in LA yesterday.

• American cable TV show Inside The Actors Studio is usually a highbrow affair, when leading thespians discuss their work with great gravitas in front of an audience of earnest students. When Ricky Gervais went on, he talked about pissing in the sink and the size of his dick. Click here to watch it.

• OK, to explain the story about Russell Howard’s testicles: The contentious routine, which he had to drop from the DVD, was about going to the doctor’s and getting a testicular cancer examination, in which he described his penis disappearing into his stomach. ‘I said that my balls looked like they were dopey backing singers, and the front man had fled,’ he explains. ‘I did a little dance where I had the nuts going “wimba-whey, a-wimba-whey”. We weren’t allowed to keep that in! The company that put the DVD out had to write a letter to Disney saying, “Can we use your song?” and they asked, ‘In what context?” Well, in the context of Russell Howard’s balls. And they sent back a very firm no.’ Howard also had to drop a routine about the Bishop of Carlisle because it was libellous.

SOURCES: Chortle, Den Of Geek, Ray Peacock podcast, Blackburn Citizen, Sunday Herald Glasgow, Middlesbrough Gazette, YouTube, The Guardian, Showbiz Spy. The Sun, The Sun, Bravo TV

Published: 21 Nov 2008