WTF: Weekly Trivia File

• ‘When you want to be taken seriously or show that you have substance to your comedy and that you’re creative, then doing voices is just a party trick, nothing more than that.’ Steve Coogan.

• But despite Coogan's warning, some impressions can be so good they can fool even those who really ought to know better. Fox News has been a major cheerleader for Sarah Palin, but when reporting on the darling of America’s right this week they illustrated the story not with a picture of the Alaskan governor... but of Tina Fey doing her Saturday Night Live impersonation of her. The mistake comes comes two years after the network issued a 'zero-tolerance policy for on-screen errors'. It’s towards the end of this report:
  

• Russell Brand got a gorillagram and ten boxes of bananas for his birthday this week.

• Exclusive news: Rich Hall is taking over the weather on Channel 4 News tonight. No word on what he’s doing (some smart money is on him singing it), but its all to promote the Comedy Gala on later in the evening.

• When David Walliams did his first gig as a double act with Little Britain co-star Matt Lucas, just four people turned up. They delayed the start after getting a phone call saying another three people were on their way – but wanted to watch the end of EastEnders first.

• Watch Billy Connolly use every putdown in the book - back in the days when they were original - to combat a particularly stubborn, and drunk, club heckler.:
  

• If Jason Byrne has any hopes of movie stardom, they might have to wait a bit. He has a small part as a hotel receptionist in the new film Killing Bono… but in itsfirst weekend of UK release, it had an average of just five people per screening.

• Fifty fans of Johnny Vegas sitcom Ideal all donned masks of the Cartoon Head character to parade around Media City in Salford on Wednesday in a Flashmob that producers organised to mark the 50th episode of the BBC Three show, which is set in the area.

  

• Hidden among the 900+ comedy shows in the new Edinburgh Fringe programme is a full-length stand-up show from 2006 Big Brother winner Pete Bennett, performing an hour about living with Tourette's. Another of the more intriguing shows is The Wrestling – a one-off late-night show in which actual wrestlers face off with comedians. It's the brainchild of Max Olesker, of comedy duo Max and Ivan, who was Britain's youngest pro wrestler when he was 15 – and Brendon Burns is making his only Fringe appearance to commentate on proceedings, along with Andrew Maxwell.

• Tweets of the week:
  Paul Sinha (@paulsinha ): Not a good month. I have neither received Olympics tickets nor fucked Ryan Giggs. Feeling left out.
  Bill Dare (@BillDares):Prince Philip, ninety today, is worried about losing it. They'll know when his mind is effected when he stops talking gibberish.
  Jacques Aih (@jacques_aih): The moon looked unhappy last night. Probably just a phase it's going through.

SOURCES: Daily Express, CrooksAndLiars.com, Daily Mirror , Chortle, Oxford Student, Youtube, Popbitch, Chortle, Chortle. Twitter

Published: 10 Jun 2011