Dan Antopolski scoops prize

Dan Antopolski has the funniest joke of the Edinburgh Fringe, according to an online poll.

His one-liner:  ‘Hedgehogs. Why can’t they just share the hedge?’ wins him a £1,000 prize, and a trophy from digital station Dave, which ran the hunt for the best joke.

The 36-year-old, who was nominated for the Perrier award in 2000, said: ‘Although I have won things before at the fringe, this definitely means the most to me and that it should unite my loves of hedgehogs, comedy and Dave makes this prize very special.’

The shortlist of 27 jokes was compiled by comedy critics, then put to a public vote – with more than 3,000 comedy fans choosing their funniest.  Antopolski pooled nearly 18 per cent of the overall votes.

Steve North, Channel head of Dave says: ‘This year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe features 34,265 performances of 2,098 shows in 265 venues with comedy making up 35 per cent of the programme. With the Dave Joke of the Fringe we’ve boiled it down to the best 27 jokes on offer and let the public crown Dan Antopolski as the winner.’

The Top 10 funniest jokes from the Fringe Festival are

1) Dan Antolpolski – “Hedgehogs - why can’t they just share the hedge?”

2) Paddy Lennox – “I was watching the London Marathon and saw one runner dressed as a chicken and another runner dressed as an egg. I thought: ‘This could be interesting.’”

3) Sarah Millican – “I had my boobs measured and bought a new bra. Now I call them Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes because they're up where they belong.”

4) Zoe Lyons – “I went on a girl’s night out recently. The invitation said ‘dress to kill.’ I went as Rose West.”

5) Jack Whitehall - “I'm sure wherever my dad is; he's looking down on us. He's not dead, just very condescending."

6) Adam Hills – “Going to Starbucks for coffee is like going to prison for sex. You know you’re going to get it, but it’s going to be rough.”

7) Marcus Brigstocke – “To the people who’ve got iPhones: you just bought one, you didn’t invent it!”

8) Rhod Gilbert – “A spa hotel? It’s like a normal hotel, only in reception there’s a picture of a pebble”.

9) Dan Antopolski – “I've been reading the news about there being a civil war in Madagascar. Well, I've seen it six times and there isn't.”

10) Simon Brodkin (as Lee Nelson) – “I started so many fights at my school - I had that attention-deficit disorder. So I didn’t finish a lot of them.”

Published: 24 Aug 2009