Paul Daniels has the worst

Nick Helm has the funniest joke at the Fringe – and Paul Daniels the worst – according to an online poll.

Helm, who has been shortlisted for the main Foster’s Edinburgh Comedy Award, won the accolade for his gag: ‘I needed a password with eight characters – so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.’

Of 30 jokes long-listed for Dave’s Funniest Joke of The Fringe Award, that one received more than a quarter of the 3,000 votes cast.

Helm said: ‘I knew my joke was the funniest joke of all the other jokes in 2011. Thank you to Dave and all the people that voted for proving me right.’

Paul Daniels’ joke, that was voted the worst was: ‘I said to a fella, “Is there a B&Q in Henley” He said “No, there’s an H, an E, an N an L and a Y…’

The Top 10 funniest jokes were: 

1. Nick Helm: ‘I needed a password with eight characters – so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.’
2.   Tim Vine: ‘Crime in multi-storey car parks. That is wrong on so many different levels.’
3. Hannibal Buress: ‘People say, “I'm taking it one day at a time.” You know what? So is everybody. That's how time works.
4. Tim Key: ‘Drive Thru McDonalds was more expensive than I thought... once you've hired the car...’
5. Matt Kirshen: ‘I was playing chess with my friend and he said, "Let's make this interesting". So we stopped playing chess.’
6.   Sarah Millican: ‘My mother told me, you don’t have to put anything in your mouth you don’t want to. Then she made me eat broccoli, which felt like double standards.’
7. Alan Sharp: ‘I was in a band which we called The Prevention, because we hoped people would say we were better than The Cure.’
8. Mark Watson: ‘Someone asked me recently – what would I rather give up, food or sex. Neither! I’m not falling for that one again, wife.’
9. Andrew Lawrence: ‘I admire these phone hackers. I think they have a lot of patience. I can’t even be bothered to check my OWN voicemails.’
10.   DeAnne Smith: ‘My friend died doing what he loved... Heroin.’

Dave’s general manager Steve North said: ‘Nick Helm is a brilliant and thoroughly deserving winner of this year’s Dave’s Joke of the Fringe.’

Published: 24 Aug 2011